We came across Dunnottar Castle, on Scotland’s east coast, on a low wind, perfect sunshine day. From the moment I saw the castle, which juts out into the sea, I knew it would be an excellent subject for a bit of aerial footage. (You get some idea of it in the top-left of the picture.) Also, a route over empty fields and the sea would be easy to navigate.
However, on the way in you are presented with this:
This appealed to me: instead of presenting the unenforceable as some kind of law, there was sensible request with an implied opportunity later in the day. I felt I could live with that.
As it happens, we did not pass this area on our way back to the AirBnB, so I did not get the opportunity to fly this. That said, the world isn’t short of drone footage of this castle…
Treat it the same as national trust. Take off away from their land and legally they don’t have a leg to stand on.
That being said if it’s a busy location I never fly at these sort of places when they are open. Besides flying when they shut provides two extra bonuses.
A) no people in your shot.
B) Better light if you do it during sunrise or sunset.
Means nothing to say no drone flight while it’s open as you’re not going to be using their land to take off and land while it’s not and that’s ultimately all they have control over.
Assemblies of people rule still applies while they’re open though but I doubt you’re going to be getting into that territory on a typical day.
Depends… With a mini drone (A1) maybe not.
But A2 (50m horizontal from people) or without the A2Coc A3 with 150m you’re likely to if there’s anyone inside at all.
It looks like I was there just about the same date, it’s a favourite destination for me. With regards to the notification I think it’s perfectly reasonable. It’s a very popular spot and when I was there they were doing a wedding, so there are usually lots of people.
I would love to fly here but have not yet had the nerve to do it. Not because of the sign, but other, more concerning reasons.
It can get VERY windy here, there are vortexes between some of the rocky crags if you fly too low.
It’s a nesting place for many many birds, some of which are known to be agressive to drones.
The distance is quite deceptive, as you have mentioned here. If you go all the way out and then go behind the castle / rocks, you stand a good chance of having signal problems.
If your drone goes down you are very unlikely to get it back.
For me, the wind is the main problem, overreach and fly out to the furthest point and not have kept an eye on your battery and you could be in real trouble.
Having said all that, I’m not the bravest flyer, certainly not when compared to some of the folks I have seen on this forum. You may have a higher tolerance for these things,
BUT! If you go there and you fly please be respectful to the site and the people who manage it. I do not want to go on my next visit only to find that the council, or Historic Scotland have been triggered into posting a new sign that says no drone flying is allowed under ANY circumstances.
@B0M0A0K Agreed on the “reasonable” comment, hence the title of the Topic.
Whilst the screengrabs I posted were from Litchi (and from GoogleEarth), I would not have been using Litchi at that stage. I simply don’t trust Litchi flight plans if devised on a mobile device:
the interface is so poor that a height set at “above ground level” can change simply by moving the waypoint
there is no preview via Google Earth to check the angles
I love using Litchi for my drones, but only if planned and tested on my desktop computer.
With regard to the wind, I would have taken a general assessment of the conditions using my first battery. Fly up, look out for warnings; fly out to sea next, looking for anomalies. I probably would not have been too concerned by the vortices from the rocky crags - the 50m height in the example would have put me significantly above the rocks.
I am not a “brave” flyer either, but an hour or so later I flew successfully at Stonehaven Harbour, about 1Km away:
Hi Bomoack , I was also there the day of the wedding by the castle, some one did fly around the castle in my mind in winded conditions , did not see the drone fly back out ?
I’m sure, from what I saw of the wedding, they had probably stumped up for a “drone wedding video”. I wasn’t flying as I was taking some visitors for an East Coast tour. However, I wonder how the pilot squared that with the “No drone flying while the Castle is open” directive. I have no doubt that exceptions are made when the Castle can share in some of the profit (or you know the right people).
Hi it is a great place to take a drone with a good coastline to the question yes I did do quite a bit of filming but I am having problems I can’t edit yet as my iPad has gone wrong so will try to put on asap.
