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The plan had been to stay at the Armadilla Eco-pods at Ardtalnaig, but they were fully booked. However, The helpful lady on the phone suggested I tried Haugh Cottage at Acharn. This was out good fortune as is was such a charming place to stay, with a wonderful hostess and perfect location for a walk up to the Falls of Aacharn.
my original plan had been to bag Creagan na Beinn, camp near to Dunan bothy before returning back over the Shee of Ardtalnaig. However, my son Thomas does not like camping and also an easy day between two harder full hill days seemed to be a more attractive proposition to him. Not only did I want to get him away from lying on his bed, watching videos, but I wanted to share some time on the hills with him before he is grown up and doing his own things!
This turned out to be the perfect plan as it rained all day. After a full breakfast at Escape Route Cafe in Pitlochry, a tour of the Aberfeldy Distillery and another cafe, we arrived at Acharn around four in the afternoon. The rain was beginning to abate a little, so once we had moved our stuff into our room, we headed up the good track towards the falls.
Eventually one heads left through a dark man-made "cave", which is more of a tunnel really. On returning through it, Tomas jumped out at me in the dark
. I had forgot to pack my tripod so I had to rest my camera (while still holding it!) on the top of a wooden fence to take these photographs.
The first is using a one second exposure. The water looks great but slight movement of the leaves means that the foliage is not very sharp. The second photograph was taken on auto settings, though the ISO was set to a maximum 200. Increasing the possible ISO and letting the camera decide may have produced better results. In this instance, I prefer the second shot.
After continuing up to a small stone built bridge, we crossed the burn and descended the other side.
I rested my camera on a rock and used the shutter delay setting for another 1s shot. The rock was not quite flat, so I have rotated the image slightly and I am pleased with the end result.
I handed the camera to Thomas to take some of me, but on AUTO, the ISO settings were still wrong and the results lacked definition - my fault, not his.
There is a viewing platform that can be approached from either side, but we followed the advice from the Walkhighlands site and approached it from the eastern bank.
The photographs below were again taken with a 1s shutter speed, low aperture and a low ISO to obtain that wispy, creamy look of flowing water. The camera was hand held, but rested on the wooden railings of the platform for stability.
I should invest in an ND filter to explore the photographing of flowing water further. I an certainly glad that I bought a weather-sealed camera!
Thomas pushed on ahead after this point, while I lingered. Thomas is growing fast and he is having to adjust to his greater size and gangly limbs. Perhaps that is why he had fallen down the stairs at Pitlochry Hostel that morning
. So I felt a little uneasy when he was not in sight. However, I found him waiting for me back at the B&B, back on his phone.
I am glad that this wonderful little walk was included in our itinerary. It was certainly the best option for such a wet day.
Thank you, Thomas!
