Strabo Photo Tour Collection

Scotland: 2011 itinerary & dates being developed, contact us for details

We are very pleased to announce this new itinerary to Scotland featuring the Orkney and the Shetland Islands. Each day will be at a relaxed pace, allowing enough time to photograph the diverse landscape as well as taking in the local history, people, and culture.

On Orkney we will explore amazing megalithic sites, including Maes Howe, a 5000-year-old chambered tomb, the finest in Western Europe. It was built before 2,700 BC to align with the winter solstice. Vikings plundered the tomb around 1150, and their graffiti is itself a treasure of ancient linguistic inscriptions. Even better known, is the astonishing prehistoric village, Skara Brae, inhabited from about 3,100 BC, until buried by shifting sands. A storm uncovered the remains in 1850.

It never gets fully dark on Orkney in high summer, which means we will have hours of amazing twilight to photograph the amazing Ring of Brodgar, a massive stone circle that was built over 5000 years ago. We will also visit the Viking Cathedral in the village of Kirkwall, and the picturesque town of Stromness, which is wonderful for photographing at night. One day on Orkney will be dedicated to a visit to Hoy, another of the Orkney Islands, where we will hike across the northern end of the island to see the Old Man of Hoy, a 450 foot high sea stack.

The Shetland Islands is a group of over a hundred cliff-edged islands forming the most northerly domain of Scotland. Shetlanders are a friendly people with a distinctive dialect derived from their long connection with Norway. Nowhere in Shetland is further than 3 miles from the sea; hence, fishing and salmon farming play an important role in the economy. Fine beaches and pretty inlets provide the visitor with lengths of striking coastline. Jarlshof Prehistoric and Norse Settlement, in the extreme south, is an archaeological site spanning 3,000 years from Neolithic to Viking times. Lerwick, Shetland’s chief town, is attractive, with flag-stoned wynds (narrow lanes), grey stone buildings and old ‘lodberries’ (houses with a private pier). We are sure to visit the Clickimin Broch (prehistoric fort), and possibly the austere Mousa Broch on Mousa Island.

Itinerary

May 23: U.S.

You depart today from the U.S. on an overnight flight to Edinburgh International Airport. If you wish to depart earlier in order to spend time in Edinburgh on your own (pre or post trip), please contact our office for recommendations. The tentative schedule is to fly tomorrow, May 24 at 2 PM, from Edinburgh to Orkney with the local guide and photo instructor; therefore, your flight from the U.S. will need to land in EDI with sufficient time for connection on a different airline. Please contact us prior to booking airfare in order to verify the schedule.

May 24: Edinburgh – Kirkwall/Orkney

Sam Gardener, our guide and driver, will meet us at the Edinburgh Airport (arrival time to be announced) where we will depart for Orkney. Sam will collect the vehicle, and the group will move on to Woodwick House, a comfortable historic country house set in extensive wooded grounds running down to the shore overlooking many of Orkney’s Northern Isles. Overnight Woodwick House (D).

May 25 - May 29: Orkney

We will have five full days to immerse ourselves into the history and beauty of Orkney. It is said that the difference between Orkney and Shetland is that Shetlanders are fishermen with farms, while Orcadians are farmers with boats. The flat and undulating islands with rich soil make the grass lush green and nurture summer crops of grain. The seventy islands contain the densest concentration of archaeological sites in Britain, testifying to their long history of settlement. It is also abundant in diverse bird life.

Kirkwall is a charming town with flag-stoned streets and a small, busy harbor; it is mainland Orkney’s administrative center. St. Magnus Cathedral is an 860-year-old architectural masterpiece made of yellow and red stone. Opposite the cathedral is the ruin of Earl’s Palace, a once splendid example of Renaissance architecture.

Orkney also has an important recent history with the almost enclosed waters of Scapa Flow, which played an important part in both world wars. To the south of Kirkwall, the road runs over the Churchill Barriers, great causeways built by Italian prisoners of war to protect the British fleet stationed in the bay. They also built the Italian chapel which is close by.

Most of our time will be spent on Orkney Mainland, exploring its many megalithic sites, rolling landscapes, and jutted coastline. We will visit a number of these sites including: the Skara Brae stone village; the fascinating tomb at Maes Howe - older than the Pyramids with Viking graffiti you will not find in Egypt; the Broch of Gurness; the standing stones of Stenness; the stone village of Barnhouse; and, of course, the Ring of Brodgar, an impressive stone circle (36 standing stones) on the shore of Loch Stenness.

One day may be dedicated to hiking and photographing on the island of Hoy. Yet another option is to spend a few hours following the artist's studio trail, visiting local photographers and other artists. One night, we will go to a ceilidh, performed just for our group to hear traditional Scottish music at Kirbuster, a 16th century farm that is now preserved as a museum.

In the Isles, the past is all around. Ancient cairns and stone settings, the later brochs (defensive round towers), then the Picts with their mysterious carved symbol stones have all left their faint traces on the landscape. Although the old clan ways have vanished, the Shetland Islands are still a special place and a place apart, enjoyed not only for their unspoiled environment, but also for their particular sense of the intertwining of past and present. Overnights Woodwick House (B, D each day).

May 30: Orkney – Ferry to Shetland

After enjoying our last day on Orkney, we will depart this evening on an overnight ferry (included) to the port town of Lerwick, Shetland’s capital. Overnight sleeper ferry (B)

May 31 - June 4: Shetland

Shetland Islands
We will be arriving on the ferry from Orkney early morning at Lerwick, Shetland’s capital, where the harbors seem to always be busy with both commercial shipping and pleasure boats. It is a pretty and friendly little town centrally situated on Mainland, giving easy access to just about anywhere on Shetland. We will photograph here, both in the daytime and in the late evening. The old streets and sea front, as well as Clickimin Broch give a variety of opportunities.

Shetland is a wonderfully attractive group of islands lying one hundred miles north of mainland Scotland. At 60° north, it is at a similar latitude to Anchorage; however, being warmed by the Gulf Stream, Shetland has a relatively mild climate, and in summer it boasts of more sunshine than anywhere else in the British Isles! It is less than one hundred miles from top to bottom, but has about a thousand miles of coastline; there are numerous beautiful deserted sandy beaches, contrasting with some of the most majestic and dramatic sea cliffs in Great Britain. In the south there are fertile farmlands, and as you travel north, these are gradually replaced by a wilder and rockier landscape.

The North Sea oil boom in the 1980’s, and the growth of modern salmon farming have helped make Shetland a surprisingly rich land with an impressive infrastructure of roads, ferries, and other facilities. There are relatively few visitors, but those that do come are rewarded in many ways!

There are many and varied photographic possibilities, consisting of the land, the coast, the sea, the archaeology, small towns, wildlife, and especially the birds, which will provide extraordinary opportunities. The air is clear and unpolluted; at the end of May we will have daylight until midnight, and the weather, although it can change quickly, will be at its best.

Shetland’s first settlers were as long ago as 5000 BC. There is good evidence from almost every age since then, and we will be able to visit and photograph many sites. As an example at the most southerly tip of Shetland is Sumburgh. Here there are two of the best archaeological sites of the Isles, Jarlshof, and Old Scatness Broch. Both were occupied for many thousands of years, and lay preserved under sand dunes until rediscovered and excavated.

A little north of Sumburgh, one of the possible highlights of the tour will be an evening boat trip to Mousa, a small island off the east coast of Mainland, where we will visit Mousa Broch to listen and watch storm petrels, thousands of tiny little night flying birds nesting and brooding between the stones. Mousa Broch is itself one of the best preserved brochs known.

We will have many opportunities to see and photograph puffins and other birds. There are over a million breeding sea birds on Shetland, thanks to the warmed and thus enriched Atlantic and North Sea waters. Two of the best sites are at the north and south extremities of Shetland. At Sumburgh Head we will see puffins while walking the cliffs around the lighthouse. On Hermaness RSPB reserve on the island of Unst, we will see puffins and gannets in vast numbers from the top of the dramatic cliffs, and be able to look toward Muckle Flugga, Britain’s northernmost point of land. Overnights Sumburgh Hotel (or similar) (B).

June 5: Shetland - Edinburgh - Home

We depart on an early morning flight to Edinburgh, arrival time to be announced, in order to make connecting flights home in the late afternoon from EDI. Contact our office for information on extending your stay in Edinburgh. (B)

Land Cost Note: International and Scotland internal airfare not included in land cost. Edinburgh-Orkney, Shetland-Edinburgh airfare will be booked by Strabo Tours to assure all passengers are on the same flight. It will be charged to participant credit card, at time of issuance. We encourage participants to sign up early to take advantage of lower fares. Estimates range from $225 to $500. You may wish to extend your stay in Edinburgh pre-post tour in order to recover from jet lag, assure timing for internal flights, and to enjoy the sites. Please contact our office for recommendations. Strabo Tours is not responsible for missed connections.

Accommodations

Lodging will be a mixture of family, twin and single rooms, some with private bathrooms, and all with in-room sinks (single rooms and rooms with private bath may be available on a first-come, first-serve basis). Our base on Orkney is Woodwick House, a Victorian manor house with lovely gardens, a waterfall, a seventeenth century dovecote, and its own private bay. In Shetland, the accommodations were chosen for your comfort, friendly service, as well as being in beautiful surroundings where you will be able to indulge your photography at any time you choose, including throughout the ‘simmer dim’, the Shetland term for the light nights of summer. We will be travelling around the 3 or 4 main islands in a comfortable minibus, and for the short crossings between various islands we will use a number of ferries, all of which are excellent well-equipped modern vessels.

Guides

Please contact us for more details.

Food & Drink

Breakfasts will be taken at the lodges, while lunches will usually be picnics in the field or pub lunches, with dinners at local restaurants or at the lodge on Orkney. The food is both delicious and wholesome. Transportation will be in a comfortable mini-bus with ample room for your luggage and gear.

Notes

Photo Tour Leader
The trip is suited for people of all photographic levels, and there will be plenty of time to work individually with participants to address specific photographic concerns. Lance welcomes both film and digital photographers. Lances own specialty is black and white night photography, and he will provide instruction on night and low light photography techniques. On several occasions, we will venture out to photograph the villages, landscape, and Neolithic sites at night. This is primarily a photo tour, concentrating on shooting rather than critique.

A dedicated teacher, Lance Keimig, has been teaching photography since 1997, teaching at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and new England School of Photography in Boston, and through his own workshops in California, Massachusetts, and internationally. In 2003, Keimig founded the Mono Lake Photo Workshops in California, to promote interest in the fragile ecosystem of the Eastern Sierras through photography. Lance is also a co-founder of The Nocturnes Night Photography workshops, a San Francisco based organization that has promoted Night Photography through workshops, exhibitions, and its acclaimed web site. He has led five photo tours to Ireland, and this will be his third photo tour to Scotland, a place with which he fell in love on his first visit in 1995. His photographs are held in numerous collections including The Art Complex Museum, The Boston Athenaeum, State Street Bank, Fidelity, Hitachi, Rayovac, and three Com Corporations. Examples of his work can be seen on his website: http:/www.thenightskye.com.

Fitness Level
The trip can be strenuous, anyone who is reasonably fit and in good physical condition should be able to participate. Rest stops and photo stops are planned throughout each day. This trip will involve several long walks with some climbing, and over rough terrain; the only requirement is a good pair of hiking boots. You should also be aware that medical services or facilities might not be readily available during all or part of your trip. Alternatives are available for those who prefer not to hike.

Pricing Info

Tour land cost: $3,645 US Dollars based upon minimum of 5 paying participants. All our program prices are based on double occupancy unless noted in exceptions.

Single room supplement: $595; single rooms are subject to availability and are not guaranteed. We try to accommodate travelers who request single accommodations, as well as travelers who are looking for a roommate. If a single room is requested, or if we are unable to find a suitable roommate, you will be required to pay the supplement.

Note: The land costs on international tours is based upon current exchange rates. Although the rate has been relatively stable, should it change, there may need to be an adjustment in the land cost.

General Tour Info (includes, excludes and other details)