Photographing Mountain Hares in the Cairngorms
My first opportunity to photograph Mountain Hares in the Scottish Highlands, spending a windswept January day with them in their white winter coats.
In January 2024, after spending a week photographing the landscapes around Lochinver in the northwest Highlands, I headed south towards the Cairngorms. Rather than going straight home, I’d planned one final stop — a day photographing Mountain Hares.
Mountain Hares had been on my photography bucket list for a long time. I’d photographed Brown Hares many times closer to home, but I’d never had the opportunity to photograph their smaller Highland relatives, particularly in the beautiful white coats they develop during the winter months.
I’d arranged to spend the day with wildlife photographer and guide Pete Walkden, who knew the area and, more importantly, where we had a good chance of finding the hares.
I’d naturally been hoping for snow. A white Mountain Hare surrounded by a snow-covered Highland landscape was very much the photograph I had imagined before the trip. As is so often the case with wildlife photography, the conditions had other ideas.
There was no snow.
Instead, the Cairngorms gave us a mixture of sunshine, cloud and plenty of wind. While it wasn’t the winter scene I’d originally envisaged, the changing light across the hills provided plenty of different photographic opportunities.
We spent the day walking the hills and were fortunate to find several Mountain Hares.
One of the things that immediately struck me was how different the experience was from photographing Brown Hares. At home, Brown Hares will often disappear across a field long before you have any chance of getting close to them. The Mountain Hares we encountered were much more tolerant of a careful approach.
That didn’t mean simply walking straight towards them. Taking our time and watching their behaviour allowed us to gradually get into position without forcing the animals to move. Once settled, it was possible to spend time photographing them quietly rather than constantly chasing another opportunity.
Their white winter coats were wonderful to photograph. Without snow on the ground they stood out dramatically against the muted browns and greens of the hillside — almost the opposite of the camouflage their winter plumage is intended to provide.
At times the wind made conditions challenging, but it also felt entirely appropriate for the location. Sitting on a Cairngorm hillside in January, photographing a Mountain Hare hunkered down against the weather, was exactly the sort of wildlife encounter I’d hoped for.
Although I didn’t come away with the classic white-hare-in-deep-snow photograph I’d imagined, it really didn’t matter. I’d finally had the opportunity to spend time with a species I’d wanted to photograph for years and came away with a much better appreciation of both the animal and the environment it lives in.
After a week focused predominantly on landscapes in Lochinver, finishing the journey with a day dedicated entirely to wildlife was a fitting end to the trip — and my first encounter with Mountain Hares certainly wouldn’t be my last.
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