Northern Scotland: Duncansby Head
In mid July, I drove 12 hours up to the very top of northern Scotland to spend a week kayaking out there with Will Copestake and Andy Gill from Kayak Summer Isles, along with a group of three other women. Suffice to say, we had an absolutely fantastic time. Setting up camp in Bettyhill, near Thurso, we picked day paddles to suit the weather and conditions each day. This was my first time visiting northern Scotland and I absolutely loved it.
Over the course of the week we paddled on and around Loch Hope (because it was a very windy day and the coast was a little too wild!), Neave Island, Eilean nan Ron, the Rabbit Islands, Strathy Head, Duncansby Head and Dunnet Head. Each of these trips had their own charms and beauty, but my favourite of all of them was the Duncansby Head trip; the sea cliffs between Skirza and John O’Groats are absolutely magnificent, with many geos, caves and stacks to enjoy.
I put together the video above of that particular day. Logistics meant I was unable to fly my drone, which was disappointing but there were simply no places to easily land and launch it, plus I’ve had problems flying my drone around cliffs and stacks before as the rocks tend to interfere with the signal between the controller and the drone. Sadly our one guide Andy crashed his own drone in one of the geos.
The consistent swell also made it difficult to film much in the way of B-roll, as it was tricky to stop paddling and film any even remotely stable footage with my usual B-roll camera (my iPhone 16 Pro with a massive ND filter stuck on it). As such, I actually debated whether or not to even make the video, as it’s simply not up to my usual standards. Unfortunately filming kayak trips always come with logistical challenges, coupled with aesthetic shortcomings that bother me (the lack of motion blur from the GoPros being a significant one). But I want to do more kayak videos so I need to persevere and find solutions to these instead of giving up.
