Portlethen
Portlethen (Port Leathain) is a small village lying 7 miles south of Aberdeen in Eastern Scotland. I’ve actually only been here once, having found it during an internet search back in 2014. I was heading up to Aberdeen to carry out some servicing work at a hospital there. As I was going up on a Sunday, ready for work Monday morning, I decided to try and do some golden hour photography while I had the chance. So a quick bit of google research the night before and I found this interesting little location.
Old Portlethen Village
I drove for over 8 hours on a lovely sunny and unusually warm day in March and arrived about a couple of hours before sunset. I threw my bags in the hotel in Aberdeen and rushed straight down.
Portlethen beach and harbour sits beside old Portlethen village. The beach is little pebble beach with a slipway for boats. But beside this is a small rocky area, perfect for some coastal photography.
After some directions from the local village pub, I was soon parked by the sea at Old Portlethen village and headed out onto the rocks. Thankfully I’d arrived in plenty of time to make a scout of the area and decide on where to setup.
Luckily I found a few good spots and worked away:
After sunset
Once the sun had gone down below the horizon, I decided not to wait around for dusk as I was tired from driving all the way up from the south. So I packed everything up and started headed back to the car. But, luckily I took one more look out to sea as I was walking away. The full moon was just peeking over the horizon! I hurriedly looked around for a composition, put my tripod up and grabbed by camera from my backpack and managed to catch these last few shots of the evening, the first being my absolute favourite. Normally I wouldn’t leave until after dusk, and it just goes to show why…….
Photos for sale
You can buy these and other photos from Scotland here on my website
Here is the place on the map:
Getting to the UK
The UK is widely served by pretty much every airline around the world. If you are coming from within Europe then the following airlines are worth looking at.
Wizz Air: Personally I have always found them to be the best and offer the lowest fares.
Skyscanner: A great place to search and compare flights
Ebookers: Ebookers have been around for longer than most and have always offered a great choice of flights.
Getting around
CAR
The best way to get around the UK is by car. Either take your own car or you can rent one easily from any airport or major town and city. Here are three great places to look:
BUS
The national Express coach service connects most major cities and towns and is a great way to get around.
Stagecoach is the local bus service that operates across the UK. Use this for more local connections, and also express services between towns and cities. This is a great way to also meet some locals.
TRAIN
The national train service also serves a lot of the larger towns and cities. Great for getting from one side of the country to the other.
Trainline: A great website to search and book your train tickets online.
Accommodation
Holidu: This is a great website to search for a variety of places to stay.
Hostelworld: If you are looking for budget accommodation then Hostelworld is a great place to search for a variety of backpacker hostels, B&Bs and hotels.
