Hidden Scotland
Sign in
Issue 13, the walk to the cabin

Join us on a journey
through Scotland.

It’s 16:14 in Scotland.
Join now

The roads less travelled that take you to places that matter. The adventures that gather you up and sweep you away. The blend of the wild and the artistic that makes Scotland what it is. We'd love for you to join us.

Live from ScotlandBen Nevis Bright in Lochaber, and the sun sets at 16:21.Watch Scotland live
  1. GeeseWWT CaerlaverockThe sun is about to set at WWT Caerlaverock, and the barnacle geese are coming in to roost.
  2. Due this weekCluny House GardensThe red squirrels are busy on the woodland floor, burying nuts for the winter.
  3. On todayShetlandSpitfire Girls opens in Lerwick tomorrow.
  4. NewsOrkneyThe Pickaquoy Centre in Kirkwall is due to open its new mountain bike trails at the end of October or the start of November.
  5. WildlifeOuter HebridesRed deer were seen near Kintail Cottage, Isle of North Uist, on Monday.

The Daily

Arrives at 5am every day.

A free morning email to see what’s on this week, catch up on what’s happening in Scotland and find somewhere new to go.

The Daily for 9 November, from Scotland with love. an autumn-wooded loch reflected in still water, rocks breaking the surface in the foreground
Hidden Scotland

The places worth the journey, and the help to get there.

Twice a year, in printMagazine What to see, do and eatPlaces Cottages, bothies and hotelsAccommodation Ready-made daysDays out Region by regionDestinations From £30 a yearJoin
Did you know

On the island of Barra, in the Outer Hebrides, scheduled passenger planes land on a beach, and the flight times move with the tide.

Barra Airport's three runways are marked out on the sand of Tràigh Mhòr, the beach known in English as the Cockle Strand, with wooden poles at each end. At high tide all three are under the sea, so the times of the flights to Glasgow change with the tide. Because the runways point three different ways, the little Twin Otter planes can almost always land into the wind. The first official service touched down on the sands in August 1936, and Barra is still the only scheduled beach runway in the world.

See Barra Airport · Outer Hebrides
187 views
In Edinburgh

National Records of Scotland has brought out a new edition of its guide to tracing your Scottish family history.

The eighth edition of Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors walks you step by step through building a family tree from Scotland's archives. It adds the records put online since the last one, from kirk session papers to Land Army index cards. It also explains how to see the ones held only in the search rooms at General Register House in Edinburgh.

Read about it
TodayFor today's weatherCaithnessOld Pulteney DistilleryAttractionIsle of MullTobermory distilleryTourArdnamurchanArdnamurchan DistilleryAttractionScottish BordersBorders DistilleryTourGlasgowGlengoyne DistilleryAttractionArgyll and ButeOban DistilleryAttraction

Today calls for a dram.

6° and mostly sunny across Scotland. Cold enough for the tour that ends by the stills.

See them all
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 03Issue 03Winter 2021

Tàrmachan, 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
In Isle of Skye

Radio Skye came home from the Community Radio Awards in Birmingham with four prizes.

The Portree station took silver for its digital content and for its news and factual storytelling, and bronze for its YouthSPACE project and a sports show, at the awards' tenth year on 24 October. Radio Wester Ross won gold for one of its presenters.

Read about it
Hidden Scotland, the magazineThe magazine

Issue 13

The autumn and winter issue is here.

Get Issue 13
Did you know

Skara Brae, a stone village on the Bay of Skaill in Orkney, was a thriving community before Stonehenge or the Egyptian pyramids were built.

People lived in the village from roughly 3180 BC to about 2500 BC. That is earlier than the Great Pyramid, built around 2560 BC, and earlier than the main building at Stonehenge, begun around 3000 BC. Once its people had gone, the village was lost from sight until a storm uncovered it in 1850. The houses still have their stone dressers and box-beds, and Historic Environment Scotland calls it the best-preserved Neolithic, or New Stone Age, settlement in Western Europe. Today you can walk among ten of its buildings and four of its passageways, five thousand years after they were built.

See Skara Brae · Orkney
116 views
WildlifeThis weekSeen 8 timesRed deerSeen 7 times · Birnam Place, DundeePink-footed gooseSeen 5 times · EdinburghDipperSeen 4 times · East LothianGannetSeen 4 timesOtterSeen 3 timesWhooper swanSeen 3 times · Isle Of North UistBarnacle gooseSeen 3 times · East LothianCommon sealSeen 3 times · AppinPine martenSeen twiceWhite-tailed eagleSeen twiceRed squirrelSeen twice · HighlandBadgerSeen oncePtarmiganSeen once · Argyll and Bute CouncilGolden eagleSeen once · HighlandOrcaSeen onceGrey sealSeen once · Loch Fleet, GolspieAtlantic salmonSeen onceMountain hare

The wildlife people spotted in Scotland this week.

Red deer are Britain's largest land mammal, and in autumn the stags roar through the rut, and this week they were the animal reported most often in Scotland: 8 sightings. 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 Scotland
In Argyll and Bute

The last of the Rosneath Peninsula's Victorian drinking fountains has been restored.

Four were put up in the 1880s and this one, from the Shore Road in Cove and Kilcreggan, is the only survivor. Public donations paid for its repair at a foundry in Lochgelly, and it goes on show in the Creggans bar in Kilcreggan for a few days later this month.

Read about it
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.

68 views
4.22pmJust now

The sun is about to set at WWT Caerlaverock, and the barnacle geese are coming in to roost.

They spend the day feeding on the fields and fly back to the water at dusk, skein after skein, calling as they come. They stay for the winter and leave again in the spring. Sunset there is at 4.22pm today.

See WWT Caerlaverock
In Ayrshire

The Gaiety in Ayr has announced its spring and summer 2027 season, the first under its new creative director, Laila Noble.

It includes a new play by L C Stephens, written for the Gaiety and rooted in Ayrshire history, as the theatre heads into its 125th year in 2027.

Read about it
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 06Issue 06Spring / Summer 2023

Ben Larg, raised on the Isle of Tiree, an island of 600 people, became a professional surfer at just 17.

In 2022 he signed with Red Bull, and his sponsorship with Red Bull and O'Neill Wetsuits has let him chase some of the biggest waves around the world. That same year his younger sister Robyn won the Scottish under-18 title, as the Scottish Surfing Federation brought on young talent across the country. Ben was one of more than 85 surfers met by the Aberdeenshire surfer and photographer Sam Howard for In Scotland We Surf, his photographic record of Scotland's surf community. When Sam asked him about the growth of surfing, Ben answered in two short sentences: 'Surfing has brought me so much happiness. Everyone has the right to that happiness'.

Read the full story in Issue 06