Leon Turnbull Photography

My vacation is complete! I had a fabulous 10 days in Scotland and Ireland. I saw 17 waterfalls in Scotland and 9 waterfalls in Ireland, most all of them with good lighting conditions. Many photos and video to be processed, but here is the first waterfall I saw in Scotland, and probably the best one of the whole trip. Steall Falls, 393 ft. high. Pure awesomeness!

The day of my trip was a bit hectic to say the least. I found out at the last minute that British Airways will not send my baggage through to my destination (from London to Edinburgh), so I could only take carry on baggage, otherwise I would miss my connecting flight. This is so stupid. I HATE British Airways! I will have more to say about this later, however, I had to buy new bags that would fit their stupid restrictions for carry on, so I spent all morning doing this and packing my bags. Thus, with smaller bags, I was not able to take everything on the trip that I wanted to, but finally I was ready to drive to San Jose airport. The flight to London was very long, about 12 hours, but otherwise uneventful. I slept 4-5 hours on the plane, so that was pretty good. I got on the next flight to Edinburgh Scotland, arriving at the hotel late. I ate dinner at the hotel and then went to bed. I had to get up very early the next day.

It is a very long drive from Edinburgh to the Isle of Skye, where I would be staying the next couple days. My first stop along the way would be Steall Falls, and I was determined to get to this waterfall with good lighting conditions. The first day of the trip would be sunny, so I had to make sure I arrived in time to the trailhead. I left the hotel at 4AM.

Driving in Scotland is an adventure to say the least. Of course, you have to drive on the left side of the road. I did not find this to be difficult at all (I thought it would be but it was not – you get used to driving on the left very quickly). The things I did not ever get used to were: THE ROUNDABOUTS. There are a million roundabouts I had to drive through. Most were ok, but some of them, especially the ones in the city, were horrendously confusing. Thank the Lord I had GPS, but even so, I missed a few turns. You really need to know what you are doing on some of these roundabouts. The second thing was: THE NARROW ROADS. In the country, the roads are NARROW! Trucks would drive down the center of the road and do not slow down when they are coming straight at you. Ugh! At times, in the country, the roads are just SINGLE LANE roads with occasional pullouts to allow a car coming towards you to get by. Ugh! If you are making a road, why would you ever make it to be just a single lane!

The countryside in Scotland (and Ireland) is beautiful, but it is not unique. It reminded me very much of California. Not the High Sierra obviously (though they did have some good sized mountains), but I found it to be very similar to Napa Valley, the California coast, or the Sierra foothills. Indeed, most of the time I did not even feel like I was in a foreign country. I felt like I was home in California. I think my wife disagrees with me, but she did not see all the things I saw in Scotland. The first couple days of my trip I was alone, I would be meeting up with my wife and kids a bit later.

I arrived at the Steall Falls trailhead on time. It was very early in the day, but there were still many cars already at the  trailhead and it was busy. Argh. I expected that for this time of day, I would be alone on the trail. I was a bit upset about this. I took photos of the Lower Falls first, then started hiking quickly to the big waterfall. I soon arrived at the river crossing with views of the big waterfall across the river.

The river crossing at Steall Falls is famous, and most definitely very unique! There are three cables going across the river, two on top for your hands, and one on the bottom for your feet (like a triangle). You are quite high above the river, with a big drop if you fall off. It is crazy! I knew I needed to try this, but I was running out of time. The sun was coming up soon. I needed to get my photos done first, so I rock hopped the river in my boots. I got wet feet in the process (not smart), but I rushed up to the falls to take my photos. Once there, I took my time enjoying the waterfall and taking many photos from many different angles. Steall Falls is absolutely marvelous and huge. I think it was the most spectacular falls I saw on this trip. This waterfall really stole the show in Scotland. It was a good start!

On the way back, I tried the cable crossing and took video of myself crossing it. It was windy and blowing me all over as I crossed. It was just a bit freaky!  Then I had to go back to get my camera! However, I decided that crossing that cable once was quite enough for me, so I put on my water shoes and waded back across the river. That was quite a bit easier for sure.

My second hike of the day was Incree Falls. It was a nice one, but the sun was out when I got there. This was the only waterfall I saw of the entire trip that was in bad lighting. All the rest were good lighting. God really blessed us with pretty much perfect weather for the entire trip. We could not have gotten better weather if we tried. The only bad day was the day we flew back home (and I’ll have more on that later, as well).

After Incree Falls, I drove up to my lodge in Uig on the Isle of Skye where I would be staying the next two nights. After checking in and eating dinner, I went on a few evening hikes. Day 1 Part 2 coming soon…