Scotland

Travel Into the Heart of The Scottish Highlands, Isle of Skye, and Outer Hebrides With National Geographic Photographer Jim Richardson

The Highlands and Isles of northern Scotland are a land draped in mist, heather, and tartan. Castles loom over stormy lochs, deer wander amongst the rolling hills, and every footpath, trail, and glen possesses an untold story of history, warfare, and whisky. Under the guidance of Jim Richardson, Summit is excited to offer a new workshop to explore the history, nature, and culture of northern Scotland.

Beginning in Inverness, we will travel along the River Spey deep into the highlands of Cairngorms National Park to photograph a traditional highland games and explore the stunning hills covered in bright purple heather. We will stay in a historic inn and will have the chance to photograph a private estate and learn about deer, grouse, and raptor conservation efforts in the region.

From the highlands we will travel west to the Isle of Skye, home to the Old Man of Storr, Quirang, Neist Point, and standing stones. We will stay in a seaside historic hotel in the small village of Portree and days will be spent exploring the otherworldly landscape of Skye, visiting distilleries, fishing villages, and lightouses along the rugged Atlantic coast. After amazing days spent in the countryside, evenings will be spent listening to music (with a dram of whisky of course) at one of the many seaside pubs in the area.

To register, please contact matt@summitworkshops.com

What To Know

Topics We Will Cover

Conservation Photography
Travel Photography
Storytelling
Landscape Photography

2023 WORKSHOP INSTRUCTORS

Jim Richardson - Summit Photography Workshops
Workshop Faculty

Jim Richardson

Program Manager, Photojournalist, Archaeologist

Matt Stirn

Workshop Faculty

Jim Richardson

Jim has work appearing regularly in National Geographic magazine and National Geographic Traveler in addition to Geographic books. Jim is on assignment for Nat Geo projects almost full time and for good reason. Richardson, a onetime newspaper photographer in Kansas and Colorado, brings amazing story-telling techniques along with detailed research to his pictures. Thirty years ago, he began photographing the area around his hometown in north central Kansas.

Program Manager, Photojournalist, Archaeologist

Matt Stirn

Matt is a photographer, writer, and archaeologist based between Boston and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He holds a graduate degree in Environmental Archaeology and focuses on stories related to culture, history, and conservation. Matt is a Contributing Editor for Archaeology Magazine, a National Fellow at The Explorer’s Club and has written and photographed over three dozen feature stories for publications including Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, The New York Times, BBC Global News, and GEO. Matt’s work at Summit is diverse and ranges from assisting at our core workshops to planning and running many of our international and destination workshops.

Workshop Information & Itinerary

Trip Highlights

Costs Included In Tuition

Not Included

To register, please contact matt@summitworkshops.com

Workshop Itinerary

Arrive into Inverness at any time
We will depart in the morning for the Scottish Highlands and drive through stunning scenery to our small village in Cairngorms National Park.
We will wake up early and make a short drive to the Lonach Gathering, a traditional gathering where hundreds of highlanders in traditional dress march from village to village to eventually meet for a highland games. This will be a fantastic day learning about highlander culture and witnessing many of the wild and unique events at the games.
In the morning we will wake up early to photograph sunrise over the Cairngorms. The day will be spent exploring the national park and spending time at a private reserve learning about conservation in the highlands.
This morning we will bid farewell to the highlands and make our way west and over the sea to the Isle of Skye. The drive will take much of the day but we will have plenty of opportunities to photograph stunning scenery throughout the journey.
Our base for the next several days will be in the majestic fishing village of Portree, where wooden fishing boats are moored at the steps of our hotel. We will spend our days exploring the highlights of Skye including the Old Man of Storr, Neist Point Lighthouse, and Quiraing. Because of the long summer nights at our northern latitude, we will be able to have nice dinners at the local pub before heading back out to photograph sunset each night.

Leaving Skye, we will take a car ferry to the Outer Hebrides, the Isles of Lewis and Harris. Our private hotel, the Baile Na Cille is located on white sand shores of the North Atlantic and will offer a spectacular base to explore the surrounding isles.

We will spend our days exploring the neighboring Isles of Lewis and Harris. If the weather cooperates, we will spend one day on a private boat to explore the spectacular Isle of Saint Kilda, home to tens of thousands of seabirds and puffins.
It will finally be time to return to Inverness, but the adventure isn’t quite over. A ferry across the North Sea will take us to the port town of Ullapool where we will meander our way along lochs and rolling hills to Inverness. After a final dinner and pint at the pub, we will bid farewell to an amazing journey.
Depart anytime.

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