ISLAY’S BLEND OF IMPROVED grassland, wild moor and a coastline gnawed raw by the Atlantic make it an intriguing proposition for the photographer. The cultural landscape enhances, rather than diminishes, the island’s natural wealth, attracting huge numbers of wintering barnacle and white fronted geese and providing a home for many brown hares. The chough, that iconic crow of the Celtic fringes, is favoured by the presence of cattle on coastal pastures and even corncrakes have returned to slink between the irises that crowd damp field edges and disturb light summer nights. While the corncrakes will have returned to Africa, chough are resident and we may have a chance to photograph them in a stormy sky.

It is on the coast, however, that we find real wilderness unmediated by people. The island’s geological and glacial history have given risento the whole gamut of coastal geomorphology from cliffs and arches;

to stacks and geos; to sandy beaches and mudflats. We’ll be hoping for strong easterly winds. Under these conditions, waves that have a reach the width of the north Atlantic build and come racing into the western bays with spray flying out behind them– and not into your lens. Rich in texture, form and colour and constantly worried by the Atlantic, the dynamic coastline of Islay is spellbinding.

Well are looking forward to working with our good friend, WIlli Rolfes, who brings a wealth of experience and good humour to this Retreat.

ENJOY THE ENGLISH BROCHURE HERE

ENJOY THE GERMAN BROCHURE HERE