Dunnottar Castle, Scotland, Overlooking the Setting of ARTIFACT

My debut mystery novel, Artifact, goes on sale this week. There are links to buy the book in the side-bar of the blog, but since this is a mysterious photography blog, I'm going to keep things related to photography! (You can read more about Artifact here.)

The setting for the book was inspired by my travels to the Highlands of Scotland, especially the Dunnottar Castle ruins. The site of the ancient fortress is a chunk of land on cliffs that stretch out into the North Sea, only accessible by walking down a steep path and up another one. It's no wonder the site was used as a fortress beginning in the Dark Ages and played a role in Scotland's history throughout the centuries.

In ARTIFACT, historian Jaya Jones travels from San Francisco to London to a Pictish archaeological dig in the Highlands of Scotland, piecing together the secrets of a lost Indian treasure that are hidden in a Scottish legend from the days of the British Raj.

 —Gigi

Edinburgh Through a Fisheye Lens

Today was one of those days where I felt really happy with my decision to organize my photos in this public way through the Gargoyle Girl photo blog. Without publicly declaring that I'd go through more than fifteen years worth of old photos, most of which are negatives, I never would have stuck with the project.

I said at the beginning of February that I'd post cool photos of Edinburgh this month, since I'm working on a novella set in the city. Once I said it out loud (well, I wrote it online, but you know what I mean), I had no choice but to stick to going through my digitized Edinburgh photos from over the years. As I did so, I had the strongest feeling there was a set of photos I'd forgotten. After a few minutes of digging, I found a CD full of scanned negatives from a trip from six years ago, right before I switched to taking most of my photos digitally. One of the rolls of film was shot with a fun fisheye lens. Here are a few of those photos.

Edinburgh Castle in the distance from Princes Street.

The Bedlam Theatre, where I acted in a play during college. I love the architecture of this building.

An iconic British phone booth.

—Gigi

The Moss-Covered Dunnottar Castle Ruins

I was recently designing a book cover for a book of poetry, and I thought of a photograph that would work wonderfully for it. It was the top image below, a doorway at the Dunnottar Castle ruins in Scotland. When I pulled out my Dunnottar Castle photos to find the image, I realized there was what looked like a face carved in stone above the doorway. I guess I gravitate towards gargoyles and grotesques even when I don't mean to!

I haven't looked at these images for a while, so I'm glad I pulled out these old photos of Dunnottar. This dramatic Scottish landscape is why I set part my first mystery novel in this region of Scotland. I'll talk more about Dunnottar later in the year, but for now, here are some more photos of the moss-covered ruins.

—Gigi

The Loch Ness Monster

Loch Ness, a giant lake in the Highlands of Scotland, is the largest freshwater lake in Britain. The loch is almost a thousand feet deep in places, making it the perfect place for a monster to hide. Taking a boat out on Loch Ness, you can see the strong currents and mysterious ripples in the water. It's easy to imagine the legend of the monster is true.

Sure, the most famous photo of the monster has been debunked. But it's still fun to imagine the possibilities in that deep, dark loch...

The ruins of Urquhart Castle at the shore of Loch Ness.

A postcard of "Nessie" the Loch Ness Monster.

The village of Drumnadrochit has a Loch Ness Monster exhibit, including a fake monster that moves along the surface of this mini lake. I first visited the loch and exhibit as a kid, but it's great fun regardless of your age.

--Gigi

Castles in the Snow

The snow that was rumored to be coming to San Francisco this past weekend never arrived.

Frost did blanket our neighborhood across the bay, killing a squash plant we planted in the garden too early. The rest of the garden is hanging in there so far.

Since I'm an optimist, I'm using the bummer of a dead plant to contemplate happier snowy times. I didn't grow up with snow, so I get excited each time I have the opportunity to visit it. That's one of the reasons I like to vacation in cold places during the winter.

Dunnottar Castle sits on on an eastern cliff overlooking the sea along the lower Highlands of Scotland. Because of its location on a cliff high above the ocean, the castle was once a well-protected fortress that could only be accessed via a steep walking path. Today the same path leads visitors to the historic site. Only now, the castle lies in ruins.

Visiting the Dunnottar Castle ruins after a snowstorm was one of the most inspiring trips to a monument I've experienced. It's a good thing it required so much hiking to get there; otherwise I probably would have frozen. Since I survived without any effects that a cup of tea couldn't cure, the castle's cliffs became one of the settings in the mystery novel I began to write shortly after that winter visit. 

The grounds are full of mystery even when it isn't snowing. Between the fierce sea, the jagged cliffs, and the stone structures that await you at the summit, it's enough to inspire the imagination at any time.

It's especially fun to visit the ruins when the site isn't crowded, but that also means putting up with the off-season weather. During the trip where I took the non-snowy photos above, the wind nearly blew me over on several occasions as I hiked the coastal path along the cliffs.

I learned an important lesson that day -- fingerless gloves are a great friend to the photographer.

--Gigi

Shadows in Scotland

In the 1700s, the city of Edinburgh, Scotland was an overcrowded town on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution. To create more space, they decided to build down.

The Vaults were originally meant to hold the extra merchandise of businesses, but soon people were living in the dark, airless spaces. Lack of light, ventilation, and sanitation quickly took its toll. Within a few decades, the vaults became uninhabitable. The city filled in the underground caverns, and tried to erase their existence -- along with everything that had happened there.

Legend has it that the famous body snatchers of Edinburgh used the underground vaults. It's no wonder that when the vaults were rediscovered in the 1980s, a series of ghost stories followed.

A few years ago I attended Ghost Fest in Edinburgh, during which a series of tours lead groups through the vaults at night. Some of them used costumed assistants to jump out and scare people, but others relied on the chilled air and squeaking hinges that exist on their own.

Guess which one was more frightening?

As a mystery writer and a fan of mysteries of all kind, I do love hints of the macabre. It's the hints that are the most fun.

Below are two photos of Edinburgh that use light to show the mystery of the city.

 Edinburgh Castle through the trees, taken with a Holga plastic camera.

 An Edinburgh Close, a small alley leading downward. I wonder where it leads...

--Gigi