Our Highland Life Photography
One Way!
In January 2017, what began as a spontaneous winter break to Ullapool quickly turned into a life-changing journey. After four years living on a narrowboat in Surrey, we arrived in the north-west Highlands for a last-minute week-long holiday – but something about the place made it impossible to leave.
In January 2017, what began as a spontaneous winter break to Ullapool quickly turned into a life-changing journey. After four years living on a narrowboat in Surrey, we arrived in the north-west Highlands for a last-minute week-long holiday – but something about the place made it impossible to leave.
By the end of that first week, we’d extended our stay by another fortnight. The landscape was utterly captivating – snow-dusted mountains, vast lochs that changed colour with the light, and skies that seemed to stretch into forever. It wasn’t long before the thought of returning south faded altogether. Ullapool had quietly but firmly taken hold of our hearts.
The draw of this place goes beyond its natural beauty – though that alone is enough to inspire anyone with a love of photography, painting, or simply being present in the outdoors. The light in the Highlands shifts constantly, casting new moods over the hills and water with every passing hour. Wildlife is never far away either – red deer, buzzards, and even the occasional sea eagle all add to the sense that you are living in a wilder, more elemental world.
But it’s not just the landscape that called us to stay. There’s a unique tranquillity here, a slower rhythm of life that allows you to breathe more deeply, think more clearly, and feel more connected to the world around you. And then there’s the music – traditional sessions spilling out of pubs, festivals drawing people together, and spontaneous tunes played among friends. Music, here, feels like part of the land itself.
Perhaps most importantly, though, was the warmth of the community. Despite the winter chill, the welcome we received firstly in Ullapool and then in wider area was genuine and heartfelt. There’s a friendliness in the Highlands that can’t be overstated – a sense of people looking out for one another and making space for newcomers to become neighbours.
We spent four unforgettable months at Leckmelm Farm in a couple of their holiday cottages, the first 3 Lochside and then up on the farm with lovely neighbours that became friends. It was the perfect place to begin this new chapter while we searched for something more permanent. In May 2017, we finally found it – a cottage on a farm in Strathgarve, surrounded by the wild beauty we had fallen in love with back in January.
That last-minute holiday turned out to be the beginning of a whole new life. And we’ve never looked back.