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

Join us on a journey
through Scotland.

It’s 15:53 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 ScotlandKeiss Castle, Wick Cloudy in Caithness, and the sun sets at 16:10.Watch Scotland live
  1. Loch levelsLoch MareeLoch Maree, in Wester Ross, is 23 centimetres lower than it usually is in November.
  2. Just openedShetlandLerwick Town Hall is open again.
  3. NewsOrkneyThe Pickaquoy Centre in Kirkwall is due to open its new mountain bike trails at the end of October or the start of November.
  4. On todayCaithnessGun Ghaol at Central is happening now in Thurso.
  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 7 November, from Scotland with love. A roofless ruined tower looks down over its own walled garden and rolling hills from above, hedges turning copper along the enclosure.
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
176 views
New at Bonnie & Wild

Bonnie & Wild, the Scottish food hall in Edinburgh's St James Quarter, has a new tartan and wildflower design over its entrance by the Black Isle fashion designer Siobhan Mackenzie.

The artwork mixes a traditional tartan with grasses and flowers, a nod to the two halves of the hall's name, and it is there to stay. Its Christmas display was switched on the same night.

Read about it
TodayFor today's weatherAberdeenshireRoyal Lochnagar DistilleryAttractionAberdeenshireFettercairn DistilleryAttractionDumfries and GallowayAnnandale DistilleryAttractionDumfries and GallowayNinefold DistilleryAttractionFifeLindores Abbey DistilleryAttractionIsle of JuraIsle of Jura DistilleryAttraction

Cold enough for a dram.

8° and cloudy across Scotland: the still house is the warmest room in the county.

See all the distilleries
51 views
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 06Issue 06Spring / Summer 2023

Stephanie and her husband Ryan took on a derelict farm on the edge of North Berwick, in East Lothian, and now run a holiday cottage there called The Barn.

In 2015 the couple had sold their house and were renting a flat in Edinburgh when the details of Williamstone Farm arrived, and it was love at first sight. The steadings, the old farm buildings, were derelict and the farmhouse needed a lot of work, all while they both worked full time. The quiet spot on the edge of the seaside town sealed it. The Barn is now a grade B listed holiday cottage, and Stephanie says: 'Seven years on we still feel like we're on holiday so I think we definitely made the right decision'. Her tip is to come in November, January or March, for crisp beach walks and evenings by the log burner.

Read the full story in Issue 06
In Orkney

Sanday Craft Hub in Orkney has made a Calendar Girls-style charity calendar for 2027, with island crafters posing with their work around Sanday.

The pictures take in the island's beaches, lighthouse and farms. It marks the hub's tenth year and raises money for Scotland's Charity Air Ambulance.

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
110 views
WildlifeThis weekSeen 8 times · East LothianPink-footed gooseSeen 8 timesRed deerSeen 5 timesWhooper swanSeen 4 timesOtterSeen 3 times · Inglis Green RoadDipperSeen 3 times · ElginRed squirrelSeen twiceGannetSeen twiceWhite-tailed eagleSeen twice · Dumfries and GallowayBarnacle gooseSeen twice · East LothianCommon sealSeen twicePine martenSeen twice · HighlandBadgerSeen once · InvernessPtarmiganSeen onceGrey sealSeen once · Loch Fleet, GolspieAtlantic salmon

The 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: 8 sightings, the latest in East Lothian. 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 Shetland Islands

Fair Isle's new ferry, the Good Shepherd V, has been seen for the first time, at the boatyard in Whitby where it is being built.

It will take over from the Good Shepherd IV, which has carried passengers and supplies between Fair Isle and the Shetland mainland since 1986. Fitting out and sea trials come next.

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.

66 views
LochsToday

Loch Maree, in Wester Ross, is 23 centimetres lower than it usually is in November.

That is about 9 inches, against the loch's own average for the month over many years. A gauge on the loch, kept by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, reads the level every quarter of an hour.

See Loch Maree
In Cairngorms

Portraits of 42 artists and makers who live in the Cairngorms National Park have been laid out on the Cairngorm plateau for Inside Out, the global art project.

Inside Out was started by the French artist JR, and has brought together more than 700,000 people in 154 countries. The group picture puts the Cairngorms Creative Collective on its world map.

Read about it
Did you knowGraeme JohncockWritten byGraeme JohncockRead Graeme’s piece

Graeme Johncock, who travels Scotland for Hidden Scotland, says few people make the short crossing from Oban to the island of Kerrera, in Argyll.

‘Just a five minute drive from Oban, then a five minute ferry, took me to Kerrera. This tiny island is in full view of the busy west coast town, but few people make the effort to visit. It’s a world away from the town, and with no visitor cars allowed, it’s a great place to walk.’

Graeme JohncockWritten byGraeme JohncockRead Graeme’s pieceSee Isle of Kerrera · Argyll and Bute