Kilchurn Castle

Kilchurn Castle, the picturesque ruin on the shore of Loch Awe, was once the seat of Clan Campbell and usually appears wrapped in a misty, mystical light against a mountain backdrop.

When I arrived, a thin mist hung over Loch Awe, revealing the ruin one moment and swallowing it the next. That interplay of visibility and disappearance is exactly what makes Kilchurn Castle one of the most rewarding subjects I have photographed in Scotland - grey walls, still water in front, mountains behind, hardly an outline that does not soften a little in the damp air.

The castle was once the seat of Clan Campbell, and today it stands as a ruin reachable only by a short walk along the shore. That very isolation, no car park right in front, no crowds, gives the place something many of Scotland’s more famous castles have lost.

Kilchurn Castle is one of those places you almost hope to catch in the mist, because that is when the ruin becomes what it has come to represent - a classic subject of Scottish landscape photography, quiet and a little mysterious.