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Live from ScotlandThe Old Town, Edinburgh Clear in Edinburgh, and the sun sets at 16:14.Watch Scotland live→
StarsIsle of MuckA clear, dark night is forecast over Isle of Muck.
SnowWatch Scotland liveSnow is forecast on the summit of Ben Macdui, Britain's second highest mountain, tomorrow.
On todayShetlandTomorrow, Spitfire Girls is on in Lerwick.
NewsOrkneyThe Pickaquoy Centre in Kirkwall is due to open its new mountain bike trails at the end of October or the start of November.
WildlifeCaithnessAn orca was seen in Wick on Saturday.
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From the magazine
Issue 03Winter 2021
See Tarmachan Cafe · Aberdeenshire
Issue 03Winter 2021Tàrmachan, a café in an old quarry across the River Dee from Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, is so well insulated that its coffee machine practically heats it.
The café was set up by Caitlin Donald, Tom Checkley and Ben Addy, who designed the building, and it opened in late summer 2020. Its name is Gaelic for ptarmigan, a mountain grouse, and it stands among silver birch, rowan and alder in a quarry now reclaimed by native woodland. Tom says it is heated by a ground source heat pump, 'although it practically heats itself through the use of the coffee machine'. The much-loved venison sausage rolls are made with venison from Balmoral, apple and fennel, and the rainwater now runs into a pond and wetland that Tom says is 'teeming with life'.
See Tarmachan Cafe · Aberdeenshire
Did you know
Scotland's national animal is the unicorn, and on the old Scottish royal arms two crowned unicorns hold up the shield, bound in golden chains.
The oldest surviving version of the arms with unicorns is a weather-worn carving above the gateway of Rothesay Castle, on the Isle of Bute, made no later than the reign of Robert III, which ended in 1406. In about 1484 James III went further and issued gold coins called the unicorn and the half-unicorn. The chain is usually read as a sign of royal strength: the unicorn was thought too wild for anyone to tame, and only a Scottish king was strong enough to hold it. You can still spot unicorns across the country, from the top of the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh to the gate of the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
69 views
WildlifeThis week
Seen 6 times · StrathmorePink-footed goose
Seen 6 timesOtter
Seen 5 timesDipper
Seen 5 timesCommon seal
Seen 4 times · East LothianGannet
Seen 4 times · Loch VoilRed squirrel
Seen 3 times · Highland CouncilWhite-tailed eagle
Seen 3 timesWhooper swan
Seen 3 times · Isle Of North UistBarnacle goose
Seen 3 times · AppinPine marten
Seen 3 timesRed deer
Seen twice · DumfriesRed kite
Seen twice · StornowayGrey seal
Seen twice · HighlandBadger
Seen twice · EdinburghRed grouse
Seen oncePtarmigan
Seen once · Argyll and Bute CouncilGolden eagle
Seen once · HighlandOrca
Seen once · Loch Fleet, GolspieAtlantic salmon
Seen onceMountain hare
Seen 6 times · StrathmorePink-footed gooseSeen 6 timesOtterSeen 5 timesDipperSeen 5 timesCommon sealSeen 4 times · East LothianGannetSeen 4 times · Loch VoilRed squirrelSeen 3 times · Highland CouncilWhite-tailed eagleSeen 3 timesWhooper swanSeen 3 times · Isle Of North UistBarnacle gooseSeen 3 times · AppinPine martenSeen 3 timesRed deerSeen twice · DumfriesRed kiteSeen twice · StornowayGrey sealSeen twice · HighlandBadgerSeen twice · EdinburghRed grouseSeen oncePtarmiganSeen once · Argyll and Bute CouncilGolden eagleSeen once · HighlandOrcaSeen once · Loch Fleet, GolspieAtlantic salmonSeen onceMountain hareThe wildlife people spotted in Scotland this week.
Pink-footed geese come to Scotland in their tens of thousands each autumn, flying in long skeins between the fields and their roosts, and this week they were the animal reported most often in Scotland: 6 sightings, the latest near Strathmore, Blairgowrie. These are the animals people have reported most in the last seven days, the most seen first. Every sighting is logged with a photograph or a recording on iNaturalist, the wildlife recording site, and each card opens them on its map.
Where to see wildlife in ScotlandPerthshire WildlifeElizabeth Tindal, a Dark Sky Ranger in the Galloway Forest in Dumfries and Galloway, says most of the light pollution in her park comes from the moon.The flight between Westray and Papa Westray, two of the Orkney islands, is the world's shortest scheduled flight, timed at two minutes including taxiing.A clear, dark night is forecast over Isle of Muck.Snow is forecast on the summit of Ben Macdui, Britain's second highest mountain, tomorrow.The sheep of North Ronaldsay, in Orkney, live almost entirely on seaweed, kept on the shore by a stone wall that runs right round the island.The Scottish Antique & Arts CentreStef Burgon and Simon Hunt spotted Kilmartin Castle, a 16th-century castle in Argyll, in an advert while living 3,700 miles away under a blistering Middle Eastern sun.The month Mary Queen of Scots spent in Jedburgh in 1566 was a turning point in her life.Orkney and Shetland belonged to Norway until 1468 and 1469, when they were pledged to Scotland for a royal wedding dowry that was never paid.A white-tailed eagle was seen near Ullapool.Wojtek, a bear who was enlisted in the Polish army in the Second World War, spent the rest of his life at Edinburgh Zoo.The whisky bar at Dornoch Castle in Sutherland has been named Whisky Bar of the Year at the 2026 Scottish Licensed Trade News Awards.Andrew Cowderoy, who runs Boath Cabin near Nairn, says the place to go on a rainy day is Culbin Forest, where the Scots pines give shelter from wind, rain and snow.James Seton carved his initials and his wife's above the door of Greenknowe Tower in 1581, and the original iron gate survives.Before planes landed on Traigh Mhor, the beach at the north end of Barra belonged to the cockle pickers, and they never left.J.M. Barrie, from Kirriemuir in Angus, gave Peter Pan to a London children's hospital, and a special law lets it earn from the story for ever.Norsemen who broke into Maeshowe, a 5,000-year-old tomb in Orkney, covered its walls in graffiti, including 'Ingigerth is the most beautiful of women'.Lindores: The Farm Above the TayElaine Campbell, who runs Camella Crafts in Craighouse on Jura, makes her gifts from what the island gives her, from deer antler to old whisky barrels.True or false: marmalade was invented in Dundee, after a Spanish ship carrying Seville oranges sheltered from a storm in the harbour.Ebenezer Place, in Wick in Caithness, is the shortest street in the world, at just 2.05 metres long with a single door.Woodside Lodge: The Jewel of Loch GoilEvery 18.6 years the moon skims low over the hills behind the Callanish Stones, on the Isle of Lewis, and some believe the circle was built to watch it.Sam Heughan, the Outlander actor, runs Ride Galloway, a motorbike weekend that takes around 200 riders on nearly 130 miles of Dumfries and Galloway roads.The oldest Harrier jump jet in existence is being cleaned at the National Museum of Flight for the 60th anniversary of its first flight, on 9 November.The only herd of reindeer in the British Isles roams free in the Cairngorm mountains, and it began with seven reindeer brought from Sweden in 1952.Burns set the witches' dance in Tam o' Shanter at Alloway Auld Kirk, where his own father lies buried.In 1788, at Siccar Point on the Berwickshire coast of the Scottish Borders, the geologist James Hutton saw that the Earth was far older than people then believed.A former sailor and diver spent years researching the people buried at a ruined church near Oban, then made the signs that tell their stories himself.What was the score when Arbroath beat Bon Accord in a Scottish Cup football match in 1885?Every Christmas Day and New Year's Day, hundreds of men in Kirkwall, on Orkney, push a ball through the town's streets in the Ba' game.Spey Bay, where the River Spey meets the Moray Firth near Elgin, has the longest shingle beach in Scotland.Every issue we have printed.The first lasting colour photograph, made in 1861, was a picture of a tartan ribbon, and its method came from the Edinburgh-born physicist James Clerk Maxwell.The Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm, in Orkney, was made from two Nissen huts by Italian prisoners of war in 1943 and 1944.Nick Gardner was over 80 when he set out to climb every Munro, the Scottish mountains over 3,000 feet, and he finished in two years.Wanlockhead, in the Lowther Hills of Dumfries and Galloway, is Scotland's highest village, and it has Scotland's highest pub as well.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Mills Observatory, on Balgay Hill in Dundee, is billed as the only full-time public observatory in Britain, and its dome is made of papier-mâché.The Lewis Chessmen, found on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides in 1831, include rooks carved as wild-eyed warriors biting their shields.Gannets were seen in Edinburgh.Graeme Johncock, who travels Scotland for Hidden Scotland, counts the ruined kirk of St Drostan's, at the end of Glen Esk in Angus, among his favourite quiet places.The Fortingall Yew, in a Perthshire churchyard, is thought to be 2,000 to 3,000 years old, and may be the oldest tree in Britain.The One O'Clock Gun at Edinburgh Castle began in 1861 so that ships at Leith could set their clocks when fog hid the time signal on Calton Hill.In winter, the storyteller Morvern Graham takes a flask of coffee to the top of a rock above the North Sea at high tide to watch the waves.Princess Margaret was born at Glamis Castle, in Angus.James Bond's father came from Glencoe, in the Highlands, a detail Ian Fleming added after Sean Connery played 007.Foraged Kelp Miso RamenWilliam Munro Ferguson makes the UK's most northerly cider in the old stone stables at Novar, a Highland estate on Scotland's northeast coast.The cliffs at Eshaness in Shetland are built from what a volcano threw out 395 million years ago.True or false: the Picts, the people who carved Scotland's Pictish symbol stones, vanished overnight.Cultybraggan, near Comrie, was one of only two maximum-security camps in Britain for German prisoners.Montrose Air Station Museum, in Angus, stands on the site of Britain's first operational military airfield.Scotland, region by region.Scotland, region by region.Scotland, region by region.Scotland, region by region.Scotland, region by region.Scotland, region by region.Scotland, region by region.Half of One, Isle of Skye.CillThe Ceilidh Place in Ullapool is on the shortlist for Venue of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards.Clare Campbell, founder of the Prickly Thistle tartan mill in Easter Ross, designed a tartan for Dennis the Menace's 70th birthday based on his striped jumper.The story goes that the grassy mound in the middle of the 17th fairway at Cruden Bay Golf Club is a grave from a battle in 1012.From Scotland's past.From Scotland's past.From Scotland's past.From Scotland's past.From Scotland's past.From Scotland's past.From Scotland's past.The concrete pylons along the causeway to Cramond Island were a boom against boats in the Second World War.The author Sir Alexander McCall Smith is an investor in Stewart Christie & Co in Edinburgh's New Town, the oldest bespoke tailor in Scotland.A common seal was seen near Lochmaddy.What does the name of Cape Wrath, the north-west tip of mainland Britain, mean?Why Slow Travel Could be Here to StayThis is Rosemarkie in autumn.Di Gilpin arrived on the Isle of Skye in 1983 with a tent, wool and her knitting needles, and later designed knitwear for Paul Smith and Nike.Subscribe to Hidden Scotland.From Glenmore in the Cairngorms, the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd's hill trip ends with a short session of feeding the reindeer by hand.The Old Man of Hoy, the towering sea stack off the island of Hoy in Orkney, has a tall tale attached to its first climb.The poet Robert Burns stayed in Cullen, on the Moray Firth, in 1787, and Robert the Bruce's wife is said to be buried at the town's Auld Kirk.Dryburgh Abbey was founded beside the Tweed.Places to Stay in ArgyllA tale to read.A tale to read.A tale to read.A tale to read.A tale to read.A tale to read.A tale to read.Sam Heughan, the star of Outlander, grew up in rural Galloway, where most of his family's friends were musicians and craftspeople.Loch Affric, in the Highlands, has appeared in which Hollywood film?The Kelpies, at Falkirk, honour the Clydesdale, the working horse that powered Scottish industry.The Black Shed: An Interview with Blair HunterA dipper was seen in Aberdeen.The Malt Room, the first bar in Inverness given over entirely to whisky, was dreamt up in London by an Inverness bar manager and a friend.Morvern Graham, an artist and storyteller, says that moving from the city to a solitary cliff-top house above the North Sea transformed her life and her work.Monkstadt House, near Uig, was once the seat of the MacDonald chiefs, and Bonnie Prince Charlie came ashore on the shore below it.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.John Best came to Fair Isle, halfway between Orkney and Shetland, in 1973 for what was meant to be a single year, and never once thought of leaving.Distilleries in Argyll and Bute.Distilleries in Argyll and Bute.Distilleries in Argyll and Bute.Distilleries in Argyll and Bute.Distilleries in Argyll and Bute.Distilleries in Argyll and Bute.Distilleries in Argyll and Bute.True or false: John o' Groats is the most northerly point of mainland Britain.The youngest prisoner of war held at Edinburgh Castle was six years old.Legend says the rare fairy foxgloves on the walls of Dundrennan Abbey, in Dumfries and Galloway, only grow where Roman soldiers once trod.Issue 13 is out now.In 1892 Tommy Dewar set off round the world to sell his family's whisky, and threw bottles into the sea along the way.Scotland's first surfer is said to be William 'Willy' Tait, a fisherman from Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire, who saw surfing on television and went south to find it.Pink-footed geese were seen near Birnam Place, Dundee.Give a magazine subscription.Robert Workman, a former PE teacher, sells reclaimed furniture and architectural salvage at Yard 97 near Perth, from a row of joined-up 1940s airfield buildings.Home from the crusades in disguise, Colin Campbell asked his wife to pour his drink at her own wedding feast in Kilchurn Castle, on Loch Awe.Alexander II died in 1249, thirty-five years into his reign. Where is he buried?Some good places to go, newly added to the site.For Mandy Maria, an artist who draws Scotland's mountains in soft pastel, a walk is almost psychedelic, because colour is what she notices most.V&A Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show is on today.Restaurants and cafés in Argyll and Bute.Restaurants and cafés in Argyll and Bute.Restaurants and cafés in Argyll and Bute.Restaurants and cafés in Argyll and Bute.Restaurants and cafés in Argyll and Bute.Restaurants and cafés in Argyll and Bute.Discover Borradill with owner and interior designer Claire MookerjeeOur latest days out.Our latest days out.Our latest days out.Our latest days out.Our latest days out.Our latest days out.Our latest days out.Our latest days out.Our latest days out.On the Isle of Muck, west of Mallaig, the photographer Jim Richardson climbed the highest hill three times to get his portrait of the island's laird.Before the River Clyde was deepened in the 1700s, ships could not reach Glasgow. Where was their cargo unloaded instead?Some good places to stay, newly added to the site.Things to do and walks in Argyll and Bute.Things to do and walks in Argyll and Bute.Things to do and walks in Argyll and Bute.Things to do and walks in Argyll and Bute.Things to do and walks in Argyll and Bute.Things to do and walks in Argyll and Bute.Things to do and walks in Argyll and Bute.Clare Coghill, who runs Café Cùil by Carbost on the Isle of Skye, sends her team out foraging every week, and her favourite autumn dish is chanterelles.The NuckelaveeHave you been to Isle of Lewis?Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.Laura Wilson, who runs The Dundonald guesthouse in Culross, Fife, opened The Mercat café and shop in the old village butcher's because her guests kept asking where she found things.Guess where this is?Lara Messer, a Glasgow photographer, found a craft chocolate bar in her bag on a train home and went on to start Bare Bones Chocolate.Robert Andrew, a photographer and mountain path builder, has photographed his crew for ten years on an old Hasselblad film camera with no batteries to fail in the cold.Mary, Queen of Scots is said to have shocked her courtiers by playing real tennis at Falkland Palace in Fife wearing trousers rather than a dress.Alice Varley, a volunteer with the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team, says rescue is like a team sport, except nobody knows when the matches will be.