Tag Archives: maidens
Turnberry Sunset
A couple of weeks ago during one of our trips to Ken Dee marshes we decided on the way home to stop off at Turnberry lighthouse. This lighthouse was designed by Thomas Stevenson and was completed in 1873 on the site of the remains of Turnberry castle.
We reached the edge of Turnberry golf course about an hour before sunset. We parked the car and had a 10 minute walk to the lighthouse. The cloud had moved in as the afternoon wore on, so the chance of a good sunset was dwindling rapidly. This was my first time at this location so even though the light was poor, I wanted to try and make the most of it. I went down into the bay beside the castle and managed to get shots with some good colour in the sky from a slight break in the clouds above the lighthouse.
Further exploration of this bay led me to this wonderful row of granite rock. This made an excellent foreground for a good mono conversion using the dull grey sky to it’s maximum effect. The lighthouse had also just turned on it’s light, this was ideal and it was only a matter of waiting till the light was in view before taking the shot.
I moved back up to the lighthouse and went onto the ruins of the castle. I was hoping for any break in the clouds to show something of the sunset. Luckily for a minute or two the clouds parted to get a glimpse of the pink sky. It was just a matter of getting into position before the pink clouds disappeared to get the shot.
All in all; it was quite a good first visit, even though the sunset we expected never materialised. I will definitely be making a return here in the future when I have more time to explore the area fully.
Culzean Castle
Today’s Archive shot is of Culzean Castle in Ayrshire.
Culzean castle was the constructed as an L Plan Castle by order of David Kennedy, 10th Earl of Cassilis. He instructed the architect Robert Adam to rebuild a previous, but more basic, stately house into a fine castle to be the seat of his earldom. The castle was built in stages between 1777 and 1792. It incorporates a large drum tower with a circular saloon inside (which overlooks the sea), a grand oval staircase and a suite of well-appointed apartments.
In 1945, the Kennedy family gave the castle and its grounds to the National Trust for Scotland (thus avoiding inheritance tax). In doing so, they stipulated that the apartment at the top of the castle be given to General Dwight Eisenhower in recognition of his role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War. The General first visited Culzean Castle in 1946 and stayed there four times, including once while President of the United States. An Eisenhower exhibition occupies one of the rooms, with mementoes of his lifetime.
