Locations:- Broughty Ferry castle and Beach and Doune castle
Time off work and the weather quite nice. About time!!!!! To make the most of it I dragged mother out for a couple of day trips. First we went to Dundee to get an intolenance test done, only to find the shop gone, the next shop closed, the 3rd unfindable and the forth didn’t do it. Decided to accept that it just wasn’t meant to be and as the sun was out I decided to go to the near by Broughty Ferry castle so it wasn’t a wasted trip.
Although Broughty Ferry (or the Ferry as locals call it) is right beside Dundee and technically part of Dundee from 1913, which the people of the Ferry were not happy about, it retains it’s own idenity. Part of that is the rather odd looking castle which was a romantic ruin until the late 19th century when it was restored due to worries about war in Europe, and then again in the 20th century with the world wars. The castle itself dates back to 1495, but most of what you see today is military renewal. There is a story that the cannons at the front gate lay undiscovered until the 1980s when a photographer balanced his camera on the end of one of the supposed bollards only to realise it was so much more!!!
The strange looking Broughty Castle
Photo wise it is a hard castle to shoot as it looks so odd and doesn’t really fit together. The back, overlooking the Tay estuary, is very much modern history gun implacements and world war feel, but the castle itself looks like an ancient building with a slightly less anceint one stuck on the side. Bit like the Ferry sitting uneasily in Dundee. The wide lens was definately my friend, and helped encompass the feel of this odd castle sticking out into the estuary. But sometimes even the best lens can’t make the odd beautiful. However the beach, which the castle gives a great view of, was just asking to be shot. The sun was spilling onto the soft golden sand and the many jellyfish. The part of the beach nearest the castle is an animal exclusion zone, so is clean and child friendly. Walking along you reach the erosion barriers (or groynes) which used to stand proud and keep the sand in their strips from escaping to the sea. They are in ruins now and are being replaced by boulders at the back instead. However the ageing wood makes good foreground interest for photos. All in all a god day out and although the castle isn’t the prettiest it is definatley worth a visit.
The next day my eldest sister was up from Swindon so we decided to take her to a slightly sillier place. As a family we have always loved Monty Python and their quirky sense of humour so we went on a little holy grail trail and visited Doune castle near Stirling, the castle used in the Holy Grail where the french knights taunted the English knights. Now this castle is inpressive to look at and very much photogenic, which is probably why someone was getting married there and taking a very long time to get their photos taken. They were well into photos when we arrived and blocking access into the castle and 2 hours later the whole bridal party and more were still there with fake smiles and overly sweet pink dresses. Now I have done wedding photography before and never taken that long, especially with the entire wedding party and not just bride and groom. We got access to the castle in bits as the wedding moved around, which was a bit annoying and we “farted in their general direction”.
The amusing audio tour was done by Terry Gillian and had many Python jokes instilled in it. However with evryone walking around with earphones on, didn’t make it a social visit as noone was really talking to each other, just chuckling to themselves. My ear phones kept getting tangled up with my camera strap and backpack and hood and I gave up on them in the end. Finally I made it to the top of the castle where the Knights stood and taunted the English and mother hit her head in Python style to pose for a photo to send to my other sister, who replied that “her father smelt of elderberries”!
The Great hall with its’ moody light
Photo wise the castle has a lot of potential, but the main problem is that the inside is really dark so the ISO had to be put up for internal shots, but the windows did provide lovely mood lighting in bits. Outside the low sun was the enemy and kept strecking shots with sundots, regardless of new polarising filter and couldn’t put on the lens hood as it shows up in the photo as the wide lens is so wide. I struggled through though and think I got some good shots, without a shrubbery in sight, and only an occassional muffled “Nee”!!!!
