Personal Website of Philip Goddard — www.philipgoddard.com

Let your desktop wallpaper inspire you!


Philip Goddard on Ben Nevis summit

Years ago I produced a small selection of my old photos of Scottish mountain and South-West England views for use as wallpaper (best not all at once!) on my Windows desktop, and it seemed a nice idea to share them around. They are mostly not of a quality that I myself am happy with as desktop wallpaper these days, for their deficiencies really show up on a quality modern large monitor, but at least they are nice views.

The narrower Scottish Highland ones were actually scanned from cheap ‘enprints’ from transparency originals (and indeed the odd ones have survived that treatment brilliantly), while the less narrow ones were taken with an entry-level miniature Fuji digital camera, whose picture quality left a lot to be desired — particularly with regard to an excessive built-in image ‘sharpening’ function that actually put horrible edge effects on everything.

The Alps images were scanned from excellent transparencies using a transparency scanning add-on to my otherwise excellent Epson scanner. That add-on was actually useless because it had no means to gain precise focus on the transparency, and so always produced unsharp results — a blot on the name of Epson.

Until June 2009 these were all available here as zipped low-resolution images, but I've now replaced these with 1280-pixel width versions (about 1024 pixels in the odd case). I recommend that you set the images to be centred and not stretched. A fair range of wallpaper auto-changers can be found with an online search.

These photos are for those who get a buzz from solitude and wilderness, and who find the standard range of Windows wallpapers uninspiring. For the most part they are not showy postcard shots; some of them are in more or less cloudy conditions (in the case of Liathach actually in the cloud). I expect occasionally to add to or change this selection.

For a selection of great hiking routes that have given me a tremendous buzz, go to my Selected Great Hiking Routes page…


Visit Broad Horizon Photos

A resource of photos of nature, wild scenery and various ‘great outdoors’ subjects to uplift and improve one's life. If you want higher-grade desktop wallpaper than is offered below (for one thing, taken with a decent camera), then Broad Horizon Photos is for you!

Scottish Highlands


For a selection of great hiking routes that have given me a tremendous buzz, please see Favourite great hikes…

The image files for downloading are zipped to prevent people from hot-linking to them.

Loch Shiel reflections, Glenfinnan
Looking across the head of Loch Shiel, from beside the Glenfinnan monument (not in this photo), towards Beinn Odhar Mhor (Easter Saturday1979)
2 climbers on Ben Nevis summit plateau
On the summit plateau of Ben Nevis (Easter Monday 1979), with a backdrop of the Mamores.
Zipped jpg image
Thick snow cornice at the top of Ben Nevis' 600m cliffs. (Easter Monday 1979)
On Beinn a' Bheithir, looking towards Glencoe mountains
On Beinn a’ Bheithir, near the main summit, looking towards Bidean nam Bian (Glencoe); a fine sharp corrie edge in the foreground. 
On Beinn a' Bheithir (below Sgor Bhan), overlooking Loch Leven to Mamores
On Beinn a’ Bheithir, just below Sgorr Bhan, overlooking Loch Leven to the Ben Nevis group.
Beinn Aligin, on the Horns of Alligin
On Beinn Alligin, on the highest of the three Horns of Alligin, overlooking the lowest of them; Liathach hazy in the background.

On Beinn Alligin summit, overlooking Horns of Alligin
On the main summit of Beinn Alligin, overlooking the Horns of Alligin to Beinn Dearg, with the top of Beinn Eighe looming beyond; part of Liathach to the R.
Baosbheinn (1)
Atmospheric conditions on Baosbheinn; the main summit to L.; Beinn Alligin partly engulfed in cloud to the right.
Baosbheinn (2)
Atmospheric conditions on Baosbheinn; just south-east of the main summit, looking east-south-east; Beinn Eighe (left) and Beinn Dearg (right), both clipped by cloud.
On Bheinn Bhan, Applecross
Enjoy this huge drop at your feet! — From Beinn Bhan in the Applecross group.
Lochan Coire Mhic Fearchair, Beinn Eighe
The gasp view that hits you as you enter Coire Mhic Fhearchair of Beinn Eighe on the Coire Dubh Mor track from Glen Torridon.
Bidean nam Bian, snowy
The grandeur of Glencoe — Diamond Buttress & the main summit of Bidean nam Bian, from the ridge leading from Stob Coire nan Lochan. Two pairs of walkers on their way up; a dog is well ahead! (Easter 1980)
Lochan on Ben Shieldaig
A lochan on Ben Shieldaig, with Upper Loch Torridon beyond; Beinn Dearg & Liathach.
Upper Loch Torridon from hills by Diabaig
On the rugged low craggy hills by Diabaig, looking up Upper Loch Torridon, with Liathach to the left.
Liathach — Am Fasarinen pinnacles (1)
Atmospheric conditions on Liathach; at the start of the Am Fasarinen pinnacles.
Liathach — Am Fasarinen pinnacles (2)
Atmospheric conditions on Liathach; from the bypass track beside the Am Fasarinen pinnacles.
Tumbling stream in Lairig Leacach
Tumbling water over rock slabs in the Lairig Leacach, the highest part of the Grey Corries beyond. Atmospheric condition
On N ridge of Stob Bàn, Mamores
On the upper north ridge of Stob Bàn in the Mamores, the summit rising to the left. Bidean nam Bian in the distance is framed by the ‘V’ of the ridge. (Easter 1980)

North Cornwall Coast

Higher Sharpnose Point
Higher Sharpnose Point, near Morwenstow — a headland just like a good mountain ridge.
SW from Chipman Point nr Dizzard
Looking south-west from Chipman point, near Dizzard — a formidable challenge for the walker, with a series of steep-sided valleys to cross.
Cambeak, nr Crackington Haven
Cambeak, a headland just like a miniature mountain with wonderfully contorted rock formations, connected to the mainland by an extremely narrow and exposed ridge — near Crackington Have
Cambeak, nr Crackington Haven (2)
Another view of Cambeak
Buckator and Gull Rock, near Boscastle
Buckator & Gull Rock, near Boscastle.
Mouth of Boscastle Harbour, from Penally Hill
Near Boscastle — South-west from Penally Hill, over Penally Head and the mouth of Boscastle Harbour. It is April, with a mass of blackthorn (white) and gorse (yellow) in flower.
Overlooking Eastern Blackapit to Penally Head, Boscastle
Near Boscastle — over the chasm of Eastern Blackapit to the mouth of Boscastle Harbour and Penally Head
Ladies' Window
Ladies' Window, between Boscastle and Tintagel
Overlooking mouth of Rocky Valley, near Tintagel
Between Boscastle and Tintagel — looking NNE, over the mouth of Rocky Valley to Long Island

Cornwall Coast around Land's End peninsula

(granite formations)
Beach of rounded granite boulders, St Loy's Cove
Rounded boulders of granite forming the beach at St Loy's Cove, with Boscawen Point beyond.
Overlooking Porth Curno to Logan Rock headland
Overlooking the sandy cove of Porthcurno, to the headland known as Logan Rock
Sea caves between Porthgwarra and Land's End
Cliff caves near Land's End, from near Carn Barra
Spectacular granite cliffs — Carn Boel from Pordenack Head
South of Land's End (behind camera), the granite cliffs are quite spectacular. Carn Boel from Pordenack Head.
One of the Chair Ladder buttresses, Gwennap Head
By Gwennap Head, a few miles south of Land's End, is a spectacular system of cliff buttresses that are collectively known in the climbing fraternity as Chair Ladder, and this is perhaps the most imposing of them, rising virtually sheer from the sea.

Three from the Alps…

Berner (Bernese) Oberland, near Adelboden)

Ascent of Bunderspitz, nr Adelboden
On the upper reaches of the ascent of the Bunderspitz (2,546 m), the rugged ridge round the corrie top having a notch that is passable for walkers (the Bunderchrinde — just hidden by the buttresses on the left) and leading round to the Grosse Lohner (3,048 m) off to the right — not a walking route! Kandersteg is way down on the other side of that ridge. The upper of the two foreground people is Eric Gillette, who at that time was Local Government Ombudsman for Scotland. He's also one of the figures in the photo below. (July 1985)
On Wildstrubel summit
About 9.0 in the morning on the summit of the Wildstrubel (Grossstrubel) (3,243 m), after a pre-dawn 4.30 start from Engstligenalp. (July 1985.
Ammertengrat, seen during descent from Wildstrubel summit
Earlier that morning: the spectacular ridge — the Ammertengrat — leading up from the Ammertenhorn (beyond). My route didn't come along that ridge but came in from the right, and then continued in the direction behind the camera.

And one from my own living room window in Exeter…

Exeter sunset glow
Part of an exceptional sunset on 10th November 2002. The colour is too strong for me to want to use it as wallpaper myself, but we all have different tastes…


**Attention!**

Don't stop at the photos!

Hear the wildness and wilderness of the Scottish Highlands in music!

Evocative works
by Philip Goddard:

Symphony 4
(Highland Wilderness) (a full-length symphony for orchestra & wordless choir), with an amazing and powerful ‘past life’ story underlying it

Fantasy Variations-
From the Scottish Mountains (a major orchestral work)

Music From the Mountain Waters-
A Contemplation of Wilderness (a terse and intense orchestral nature poem)

The Great Wilderness-Nine Mountain Tableaux (for organ) Movements include: 2.Dawn to Dusk over Upper Loch Torridon; 5.Lightning over Baosbheinn — Mountain of the Wizard 9.Liathach the Mighty Sentinel

MP3 excerpts to play;
CD-quality downloads for sale, of all the works as MIDI simulations of real performances —
Go to my Music site to explore…

Natural Soundscape Recordings
with breathtaking realism

Sea dramatics, birds (including a range of full dawn choruses in delectable locations), weather sounds, with an extensive and often musically challenging Wind Chimes in the Wild sub-project. Please visit Broad Horizon Natural Soundscapes or my Digital Download Catalogue for natural soundscapes.

On another Philip Goddard Site…

Highly original and often provocative
** Novels **
** Short Stories **
** Poetry **
Find out more in my Literary Works site
— All on sale as quality paperbacks and Kindle e-Books