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Issue 13, the walk to the cabin

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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 ScotlandThe Falkirk Wheel Cloudy in Stirlingshire, and the sun sets at 16:41.Watch Scotland live
  1. Due this weekFalls of AcharnScotland's woods are turning yellow, copper and gold, and are at their best colour about now.
  2. Golden hourCastle TioramThe sun sets at Castle Tioram at 4.48pm this evening, and the sky is forecast to be clear.
  3. On todayShetlandTales, Traditions and the Unexplained is happening now in Lerwick.
  4. WildlifeShetlandAn otter was seen near Lerwick on Friday.
  5. NewsOrkneyThe Pickaquoy Centre in Kirkwall is due to open its new mountain bike trails at the end of October or the start of November.

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 29 October, from Scotland with love. An aerial view from a garden staircase looks down a formal garden's central path, statues and cherub urns lining the balustrade 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
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In Orkney

The handmade ba's for this year's Christmas and New Year Ba' games in Kirkwall will be on show in shops around the town.

The ba' for the boys' game on Christmas Day will be at Annie Glue Knitwear, the boys' New Year ba' at Logo Orkney, and the last ba' of the season at William Shearer on Victoria Street. The trophy, also made by hand, will be at W. Hourston Jeweller.

Read about it
NewNew today

Designing a Universe: Science, Art and Imagined Worlds

Catherine Heymans, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, gives an evening talk at The McManus in Dundee on Tuesday 10 November.

Find out more about Designing a Universe: Science, Art and Imagined Worlds
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
69 views
In Scotland

Bunnahabhain on Islay has released its 2026 12 Year Old Cask Strength.

This year's is matured in equal parts first-fill Oloroso sherry and bourbon casks, which makes it sweeter and creamier than last year's sherry-led bottling.

See Bunnahabhain Distillery · Argyll and Bute
Hidden Scotland, the magazineThe magazine

Issue 13

The autumn and winter issue is here.

Get Issue 13
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 03Issue 03Winter 2021

Donna Stiven came to visit a friend in Glenelg, in Lochalsh, in 1973, and stayed on to make candles in a village where wearing jeans made her a hippie.

After spells in the pub, the tearoom and as a painter-decorator, Donna realised that to stay she would have to do something 'out of my own head'. She worked to the end of a rather odd list of suggested jobs in a government pamphlet and set herself up making candles. She and her husband Eddie now run an organic walled garden and orchard at their home, Balcraggie, with volunteers from all over the world. Amy, one of her first volunteers, went on to take on volunteers of her own, and Neil, who now brews beer in the village, first came to help build her candle workshop. 'I just want this community to become as resilient as it can,' she says.

Read the full story in Issue 03
Weather for itFor today's weatherLothianChampany InnRestaurantGlasgowInn DeepRestaurantAberdeenshireThe Creel InnRestaurantPlocktonPlockton InnRestaurantDumfries and GallowayThe Globe Inn, DumfriesRestaurantDumfries and GallowayThe Steamboat Inn, CarsethornRestaurant

A pint by the fire.

Cold and wet enough out there. The pubs with a fire lit and good food.

See all the pubs
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Just opened

Desi Cuisine, a Pakistani takeaway, has opened on Court Street in Dundee.

It cooks in traditional degi pots brought over from Pakistan, and serves a Pakistani breakfast on Sundays.

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.

WildlifeThis weekSeen 11 times · Hogganfield LochWhooper swanSeen 11 times · BallachulishRed deerSeen 5 timesGolden eagleSeen 5 timesDipperSeen 5 timesCommon sealSeen 3 timesGrey sealSeen 3 times · FifeOtterSeen 3 timesRed squirrelSeen twiceGannetSeen twice · East LothianPink-footed gooseSeen onceWhite-tailed eagleSeen once · Dumfries and GallowayBarnacle gooseSeen once · Glenmore ForestBeaver

The wildlife people spotted in Scotland this week.

Whooper swans are big wild swans with lemon-yellow bills that come to Scotland's lochs and fields each autumn for the winter, and this week they were the animal reported most often in Scotland: 11 sightings, the latest near Hogganfield Loch, Ruchazie, Glasgow. 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 Aberdeen

McPhee's, a new pub at 10 Union Terrace in Aberdeen, is due to open by St Andrew's Day.

The bar beside the Caledonian Hotel, once known as Elrond's, has been shut to the street for many years. It will have live music and live sport, with the folk singer Jarad Rowan playing on 30 November.

Read about it
Did you know

Loch Ness, in the Highlands near Inverness, holds more water than all the lakes of England and Wales put together.

Loch Ness isn't the biggest loch in Scotland by area: that is Loch Lomond, at 71 square kilometres. What Loch Ness has is depth. It runs for about 37 kilometres and reaches around 230 metres at its deepest, so it holds 7,452 million cubic metres of water, more than any other loch in Scotland. The water is murky too, because of the peat in the soil around it. And for all that depth, it is not the deepest loch in the country: that is Loch Morar, further west, at 310 metres.

See Loch Ness · Inverness-shire