Return to the Castle

My friend Andrew gave me a lift for the last leg of my journey from Norfolk (where I spent Christmas with friends) to Balintore Castle. We were both treated to a wonderful atmospheric effect, where the late afternoon sun illuminated the dense fog around us in an orange glow.

Things then got even better.

On the climb up to Balintore, we emerged from the mist into the sunshine, only to observe that there had been a temperature inversion and a sea of mist lay across the bottom of Glen Quharity, where the castle is located.

temperature inversion in Glen Quharity on 5th January 2024

This phenomenon is very rare, and I have observed it only a handful of times since I bought the castle in 2007.  Sometimes, the whole of the glen is covered and the mist comes up to the very edge of the ha-ha, so the effect is one of a sea. However, on this occasion the blanket had settled over just the west end of the glen, and it quickly dispersed after I had taken the photograph.