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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 ScotlandEdinburgh Castle Watch Scotland live
  1. Loch levelsLoch MareeLoch Maree, in Wester Ross, is 51 centimetres higher than it usually is in October.
  2. WildlifeShetlandA grey seal was seen in the Shetland Islands on Friday.
  3. WildlifeCaithnessA common seal was seen in Caithness yesterday.
  4. Just openedOrkneyScapa Flow Museum on Hoy launches Voices from Scapa Flow, a collection of wartime stories from Orkney, on 14 October.
  5. Just openedCaithnessCastletown Mill in Caithness, built in 1818, is a whisky distillery now.
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
Just addedAdded yesterday

We've just added Eaglesham to the website.

A planned village begun in 1769, its two rows of houses facing each other across the Orry, a long common green with a burn running down it.

Find out more about Eaglesham
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 13Issue 13Autumn / Winter 2026-27

Sam Heughan, the Outlander actor who grew up in Galloway, says that on a sunny day you can look out across the Solway Firth to Ireland and the Isle of Man.

'Everyone talks about the Highlands, but actually the Lowlands and Galloway are really beautiful'. Sam remembers going to the beach as a boy, and he loves the history too, from its ancient ties to northern England and Wales to its Viking past. His perfect day there starts with a coffee by the harbour in one of the lovely wee towns by the sea, maybe Kirkcudbright or Port William. Then comes a walk, perhaps up to Bruce's Stone, which has a stunning view, before he hikes down to the beach at Mossyard to watch the sun go down with a wee dram. Galloway has dark skies, so the stars come out after.

Read the full story in Issue 13
TodayFor today's weatherGlasgowGlengoyne DistilleryAttractionArgyll and ButeOban DistilleryAttractionEaster RossGlenmorangie DistilleryAttractionOrkneyHighland Park DistilleryTourIsle of SkyeTorabhaig DistilleryAttractionIsle of SkyeIsle of Raasay DistillerySleeps 2

Today calls for a dram.

5° and clear with periodic clouds across Scotland. Cold enough for the tour that ends by the stills.

See them all
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
WildlifeThis weekSeen 11 timesWhooper swanSeen 10 timesPink-footed gooseSeen 8 timesGrey sealSeen 8 times · ForsinardRed deerSeen 5 timesGannetSeen 5 timesWhite-tailed eagleSeen 5 timesCommon sealSeen 4 timesBarnacle gooseSeen 4 timesDipperSeen 4 timesPine martenSeen 4 timesRed squirrelSeen 3 timesOtterSeen once · AngusRed kiteSeen once · Perthshire and KinrossBeaverSeen once · Endrick WaterAtlantic salmonSeen onceBadgerSeen onceRed grouse

Seen this week.

Where people have seen them in Scotland over the last seven days. Sightings from iNaturalist.

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.

Just addedAdded yesterday

We've just added Greenbank Garden to the website.

A National Trust for Scotland garden in Clarkston, around a Georgian house of the 1760s, with a walled garden of more than 3,600 named plants and woodland walks.

Find out more about Greenbank Garden
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 08Issue 08Spring / Summer 2024

Learning to row is 'required education' for island children in Stromness, Orkney, as the photographer Jim Richardson found when he went out with them.

Jim Richardson first came to Orkney to take pictures for National Geographic, and going back over the next 25 years became a habit. Like most visitors he started with the famous sights, but island life showed itself best in its everyday rhythms. From the air, Stromness made a beautiful picture, an historic fishing village strung along the bay. It came to life most for him out on the water, though, in a boat with the schoolchildren who were learning to row. His note on their lessons is short: 'They crashed a lot'.

Read the full story in Issue 08
LochsToday

Loch Maree, in Wester Ross, is 51 centimetres higher than it usually is in October.

That is about 20 inches, against the loch's own average for the month over many years. It is on its way down. A gauge on the loch, kept by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, reads the level every quarter of an hour.

See Loch Maree
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
This weekendThis weekendThis weekend · GlasgowThe Royal National Mòd 2026This weekend · Dumfries and GallowaySouth of Scotland Dark Sky FestivalThis weekend · Isle of SkyeLiz Myhill at Gallery An Talla DeargThis weekend · AberdeenshireHalloween Trail of TreatsThis weekend · AberdeenshireRoyal Deeside RailwayThis weekend · GlasgowBarbie: The Exhibition

On this weekend.

Things on around Scotland on Saturday and Sunday.

See everything that is on