UKC

I think is is geographically interesting. Not super quality or well-framed due to eyesight, but good enough

Bannockburn?

not Bannockburn, but the answer is quite surprising and topographically interesting.  I've not given any clues, as I know real hill id. experts on here, who might find it too easy otherwise

Let's start with the name of the biggest hill?

In the big one Ben Lui?

40km NE of Lui

Is it a very long shot taken from somewhere near Perth towards the Mounth? Driesh and Mayar maybe?

Nah... don't think that would work.

big clue! it is from 90km away

aspect clue: 0854 12th April

very well-known and popular hill

Ben Lawers and an Stuc from Edinburgh area. Pentlands?

Think you're right Robert.

yes you're super close. the surprising bit is the exact point in Edinburgh authority area. not the pentlands

Arthur's Seat?

it is ben Lawers and an stuc Edinburgh residents were in the Pentlands a lot during both the lockdown gazing at the hills, as there was a lot of good weather, if not always good viz, I geeked out trying to get best pictures I could, realising that each mountain has a particular line of sight for the most prominence  and not always the highest ones. The higher hills in the Ochils are in the way from the Pentlands

This one is from a similar distance on an extraordinarily clear day during the first  lockdown.

from the Cairngorms?

yes! line of sight down  down Glen Devon over 470m hill, as opposed to over 670m hill from Scald Law 580m for those not from embracing

Good pics. Here's Jonathan de Ferranti's Viewfinder Panorama from Arthur's Seat. The second panel includes Lawers etc - Ben Lawers itself is 58 miles away:

http://viewfinderpanoramas.org/panoramas/CEN/ARTHUR.GIF

Incidentally, talking of long/unusual views, the Cheviot is pretty distinctive from time to time from the higher Ochil tops - it's 80 miles from Ben Cleuch. I reckon I see it from up there maybe half a dozen times a year. My pal Gordon Ingall, who racks up 500 Wainwrights a year, says he has a definite clear view of North Wales roughly that number of times a year too - it's a longer view, around 100 miles. One day I would very much like to see the view of Wetherlam from Tinto (or vice versa). That always feels an unlikely line-up - but seemingly you can see Pillar and Scafell Pike from Tinto, too.

Of not from!

doh! 2 January 2021 best viz ever from Pentlands Cruachan 132km 

Just to add a Welsh slant to the thread,😉 this photo by Scott Waby was doing the rounds last Christmas. It's Yr Wyddfa from Pen Dinas, just south of Aberystwyth - a distance of 75kms.

I’ve a lockdown one of cruachan as well from Allermuir. Was actually visible even without the camera. Apparently you can also see it from fairmilehead.

Speaking of which, https://www.reddit.com/r/flatearth/comments/13xk7f1/andrew_bailey_photoany_...

Braeriach and Cairn Toul are also visible from the relatively low (c. 200m) Braid Hills in Edinburgh. Hard to spot with the naked eye, best when the high tops have snow cover. 

My photo was taken from West Lomond. I was just struck by how extraordinarily clear it was that day and the amount of detail in the photo.

thanks that's exactly what you want  plastered in snow on the clear day

brings it out against the lower bare hills

Christ you're right, I was pretty sceptical, but sure enough the line of sight is really good, west of Bishop Hill and Carn an Righ and Glas Tulaichen, which are all problem hills from some viewpoints

unfortunately on the  two amazing days 2 and 6 January 2021, from Scald Law my naked eye was drawn to the NW, hadn't yet occurred to me to look for the less obvious Gorms

Thanks for the tip, that will save me a lot of effort if I ever try again

Had a very clear eyeball view of Hirta of St Kilda from Baosbheinn in September at 180km.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53198577442_c08a3a1dd9_o_d.jpg

https://kinleyhazel.wordpress.com/2023/09/16/baosbheinn-summit-camp-and-a-s...

Now, how far can one see at 23.00hrs in January? Ben More of Mull (84km) is the shadowy presence on the far left of this shot from An Caisteal.

WOW!! Apologies to the Scotts here, but I think that's even more impressive. Until I examined the map I hadn't realised that it would line up like that, thinking that Moelwynion or Hebog or something would be in the way, but it's a perfectly laid out vista! The clarity is astonishing... Do you have trouble getting people to believe it's not photoshopped 🤣, because that's one heck of a cracking picture there!

Oooh, it's not my photograph.😮 As I said in the post, the owner of that cracking shot is Scott Waby of Aberystwyth.

Due to light conditions, the image is a little pixelated, but I love it.

Nevertheless, were you resisting slipping down the slope when in your bag? :-}

That is really extraordinary!

Was a while ago (Saturday 9/01/82), long before digi. I would have stamped out a levelish pitch for the Vango, not that I slept much.

Memorably, there was a total lunar eclipse that night.

Cheers, we'd seen Boreray of St Kilda a couple of times from Beinn Alligin, but my inner nerd wanted to see Hirta from Baosbheinn. Reckoned close to equinox would be ideal with sunset backlighting the islands.

Slightly longer (189km) line of sight for the tops of both islands from Ruadh-stac Mor of Beinn Eighe.

I think I've seen Ailsa Craig from Arthur's Seat, silhouetted one winter afternoon. It was a single pointed hill way off west. If it was, I've no idea how far away.

You'd need to be about 1000m above the summit of Arthur's Seat for that sight line.

There are great web tools for looking at this:

https://www.peakfinder.com/?lat=55.94419&lng=-3.16119&ele=251&a...

https://www.udeuschle.de/panoramas/makepanoramas_en.htm

...or the phone app Peakfinder.

Have a look.  https://www.peakfinder.com/?lat=55.94420&lng=-3.16194&ele=251&a...

Ha, beaten to it.😛

As kinley says, you've got no hope of seeing Ailsa Craig from Arthur's Seat. The most SWerly pointy hill you'll see is Ben Lomond; if seen in isolation (without the Arrochar things - or thinking that the Arrochar things were Arran) then that might have been it. I wondered if the ridiculously pointy view of the eastern Vorlich might have been it - eg as seen from the Braco-Comrie road - but the west end of the Ochils blocks it off completely, and only the top 100m or so of Stuc a' Chroin is visible from Arthur's Seat. So - rather oddly - Ailsa Craig is visible from Ben Vorlich (I've seen it more than once from there), but Arthur's Seat isn't.

Nothing in that diagram resembles what I recall seeing out to the west: a solid, isolated pyramid. If it wasn't an odd cloud it could have been refracted from below the horizon?

Ailsa Craig from Narnain, c68 miles.

I'm clutching at straws here (as I don't think refraction would work on that scale), but could it have been something that was actually much closer than it appeared, due to unusual light/cloud conditions? Was it a completely clear day, or was there in-between cloud? Cockleroy is quite pointy but I can't imagine it was that either by shape or, more obviously, distance. A very regular-looking cloud does seem most likely.

Lovely Ailsa Craig/Narnain photo, streapadair. Incidentally, I've met someone called Ailsa Craig.

That is just like what I recall seeing, a black isolated cone. But it was twenty years ago and I might have just been hallucinating.

All I can recall is that it was winter, quite cold and late in the day? It was such a distinctive shape/sight that all I could think of out west that fit the description was Ailsa Craig. I don't know what/where Cockleroy is so couldn't comment.

It's south of Linlithgow, near Beecraigs, so much too close to be sensibly an option - plus it's not very pointy from that direction. (Worth a mini wander, though - it's a good way of getting a legstretch if driving between Edinburgh and Stirling, as is the Hill of the Binns.)

It's a puzzle, anyhow. The only thing that would seem to fit the description shapewise is North Berwick Law, but that's pretty much 180 degrees in the wrong direction!

That's a really lovely picture.

I think the Falkirk Triangle is west from Edinburgh so could have been a mother ship?

Ha, that could well have been it. We're close to the northern edge of the triangle and on walks up the road after dark there are a surprising number of mysterious lights in the sky across in the Bonnybridge/Denny direction!

Some good air clarity today. Snow covered Highland hills showing well from Lothians

Yes - probably not a 100-mile day but certainly pretty clear. Lovely day to be out although chilly if you were heading into the breeze. I did a six-hour Ochils thing (partly that long because I kept bumping into people I knew) and the Cheviot was in view at 80 miles. Used up all the daylight and for the first time had the feeling that the evenings are just starting to nudge outwards; we're now 12 days into the fractionally longer evenings and with clear skies today it felt noticeable, albeit not by very much.

Would guess you could have seen Cairn Toul in a photo from Braid Hill on Boxing Day, not there to test  it though.

Have posted another view in gallery from only 100m in Holyrood Park that was even more surprising to me, everything left of the Ochils from Lomond to Stob Binnein through the Edinburgh skyline. I liked it so much I got a little obsessed with other angles during lockdown , still not got a good snowy one, though Boxing Day dawn would have been perfect