Take Only Pictures - West Coast and Outer Hebrides 2026

Before we had our family, we used to make a couple of trips up to Scotland each year, to Glen Coe, Kintail, the Cairngorms, Torridon, Wester Ross and Sutherland. But, we hadn't returned to Assynt and Coigach for many years, so combined a few days here with a week visiting family on the Outer Hebrides, stopping off for a couple of nights in the Cairngorms and Findhorn on the way up.

The early morning in the Cairngorms provided some of the most spectacular conditions I'd ever witnessed. When I woke at 5 a.m., the temperature was just above freezing and a thick mist had descended on the loch, obscuring any background- there was no way to know where the water ended and the sky began. As the sun rose above the mountains, it case all shades of pink and purple light across the water. And then the goldeneye arrived - you hear them first as the male flies over, his wings sounding our a distinct whistling display call. At first a pair settled on the water, less that 50 meters out, the male throwing back his head in a mating display to the female. They were soon joined by a second male, which kickstarted a bit of a ding-dong, as the original male tried to see off the intruder. He eventually succeeded and they flew off to a quieter part of the loch. The conditions on the second morning were much the same, but without the pink/purple hues. However, when the goldeneye suddenly took to the air, the morning's bonus put in an appearance - large dog otter saw across the bay less than 20 meters away!

We spent the next night in Findhorn. We'd never been before, but would return - it's a lovely small, quiet town, and does great sunsets!

Then it was off west, to one of the west coast villages north of Ullapool. The last time we were here was in the mid-1990s, when it was just a quiet settlement and a beautiful beach - somewhere to stop off on the way north. Since the NC500, it has become a mandatory stopping off point for 1000's of camper vans and motorhomes (that we were one of them isn't lost on me!). But, we managed to find a great park-up away from the main campsite and spent a couple of lovely days birding along the coastline and photographing red-throated divers.

From Clachtoll we traveled south towards Ullapool and spend two more nights looking out over the Summer Isles and across the Minch to Lewis. A couple of sunsets later and we were in Ullapool to take the ferry across to Stornaway. Having spent a previous trip to the Outer Hebrides mainly on Harris, we concentrated our time this week on Lewis (but couldn't resist the urge to drive south for the day to the sands of Hushinish and Luskentyre).

Stopover in the Cairngorms - early morning mist, goldeneye and an otter!