At the Edge of the Scottish Highlands

There’s a photo of me that pretty much sums up the entire trip to the Isle of Skye in Scotland: I’m standing in my long johns, barefoot on the tiny wooden porch of our pod, camera pressed to my eye, completely absorbed in watching a white horse walk through some trees with an amazing glowing sky. 

In May, at the northern tip of the Highlands, the sun seemed to forget how to set. The light lingered forever and it was misty, so it’s this brilliant orange glow that just goes on and on. 

It’s not my most glamorous look, but it might be one of my favorite memories. Thanks Dave for snapping me in my long johns!

Our Highland Home Base

We stayed in a pod for four nights on a sheep farm. We were in a quiet pocket of the Highlands where a green land-carpet rolled and folded for as far as the eye could see. White houses with black trim dotted the hills—each one standing in its own wide field, spaced far apart and whose neighbors visit on four wheelers.

To the south were two flat-top, behemoth mountains, unbelievable in their massiveness. To the north, the ocean shimmered in the distance. And in every direction: sheep. Mothers with their new lambs ..frolicking (that’s the only word to describe it!). I walked the dirt road in the evenings and would stand with camera to eye, waiting for the lambs inevitable leaps into the air. You could tell which ones were being squirrelly, so I’d train my lens on one of them and wait. There were so many rabbits, we couldn’t believe it. Like the lambs, they seemed to be perpetually playing. I captured a video of baby rabbits jumping through the tall grass, one after the other. I couldn’t believe the amount of cute!

Our pod was tiny, warm, and comfortable. It sat at the edge of a grassy slope, which meant every time we looked out the front door—or stepped out onto the porch—we saw something moving. I knew when we booked that it would be remote and small and I wasn’t sure if we would be comfortable there. It was the most pleasant surprise to discover how perfect this location was for Dave and I. Here’s a link to the Garraidh Gorhm Pod on booking.com in case you like solitude, nature, and cozy huts too.

Besides our daily forays to the ‘main’ attractions (Quaraing, Old Man of Storr, Neist Lighthouse), there wasn’t much to do here but watch. And that became the doing.

I noticed more. The way a lamb nudged (more like extreme jutting) its mom before it fed. The shifting color of the hills and skies. How one cloud could change everything. I felt immersed in a rare place and it changed how I looked at everything. It reminded me to wait a little longer. To anticipate moments.

Some of my favorite images from the trip aren’t dramatic vistas—they’re these pastoral scenes. Nothing posed. Nothing planned. Just the kind of beauty that comes from paying attention.

Back Home, Still Looking

That trip reminded me what a gift it is to really see. Not just the big, obvious moments, but the smaller, storyteller moments too.