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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 Old Town, Edinburgh Cloudy in Edinburgh, and the sun sets at 18:03.Watch Scotland live
  1. Northern LightsKylesku BridgeThe Northern Lights may be seen from the north of Scotland tonight.
  2. Shooting starsWatch Scotland liveThe Orionids are at their best on Wednesday night.
  3. WildlifeCaithnessA common seal was seen in Caithness on Thursday.
  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. WildlifeOrkneyGannets were seen near Orkney Islands on Thursday.
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 the Forge Experience at Gretna Green to the website.

Half an hour with Gretna Green's resident blacksmith, pressing your own commemorative coin from hot metal to take home.

Find out more about the Forge Experience at Gretna Green
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 05Issue 05Autumn / Winter 2022-23

William Munro Ferguson makes the UK's most northerly cider in the old stone stables at Novar, a Highland estate on Scotland's northeast coast.

He spent a season in Normandy learning cidermaking from a master, Eric Bordelet. Back home, Highland apples were mainly cookers and eaters, but he needed tannic apples for real depth of flavour, so he headed to Herefordshire and came back with 21 of the hardiest varieties. His seven-acre orchard of 3,000 trees now mixes them with heritage Highland apples on a south-facing slope. Lately he has been experimenting with wild yeast, letting it establish on the crushed apples for 48 hours before pressing. 'The wild yeasts up here work down to around two degrees,' he says.

Read the full story in Issue 05
TodayFor today's weatherIsle of SkyeThe Storr SanctuaryWalkIsle of SkyeOronsay, Loch BracadaleWalkIsle of SkyePoint of Sleat WalkWalkIsle of SkyeWaternish PointWalkIsle of SkyeRubha Hunish WalkWalkIsle of SkyeIdrigill Point and Macleod's MaidensWalk

Today calls for a walk.

10° and cloudy across Scotland. Dry enough for the boots.

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 12 timesRed deerSeen 10 times · Ruchazie, GlasgowWhooper swanSeen 8 times · East LothianPink-footed gooseSeen 6 times · North BerwickGannetSeen 6 timesGrey sealSeen 5 timesCommon sealSeen 4 timesWhite-tailed eagleSeen 4 times · GlasgowDipperSeen 4 timesOtterSeen 4 timesRed squirrelSeen 3 timesBarnacle gooseSeen 3 timesPine martenSeen 3 times · Mid ArgyllBeaverSeen twiceGolden eagleSeen oncePtarmiganSeen once · Endrick WaterAtlantic salmonSeen onceMountain hareSeen once · HighlandBadgerSeen onceRed grouse

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: 12 sightings, the latest in Argyll and Bute Council. 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
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 the Smithy Experience at the Gretna Green Forge to the website.

An hour at your own anvil in Gretna Green's forge, learning the basics of blacksmithing and making a fireside poker to take home.

Find out more about the Smithy Experience at the Gretna Green Forge
Did you knowRachel EunsonWritten byRachel EunsonRead Rachel’s piece

The Old Man of Hoy, the sea stack off the island of Hoy in Orkney, has drawn some remarkable climbers over the years.

‘Other notable climbers in the following years include an ascent by seven-year-old Roy Clarkson who became the youngest to conquer the Stack, an ascent by a blind climber, Red Szell in 2013 and a daring BASE jump from the summit in 2008. The French climber Catherine Destivelle became the first woman to solo climb the stack in 1998 and gained the name ‘the Rock Queen’ for her efforts. Incredibly, Catherine was 4 months pregnant at the time of her climb and so carried with her possibly the youngest ever to reach the summit.’

Rachel EunsonWritten byRachel EunsonRead Rachel’s pieceSee The Old Man of Hoy · Orkney
Northern LightsTonight

The Northern Lights may be seen from the north of Scotland tonight.

A strong display is forecast for tonight. The sky is forecast to be clear over Assynt, Sutherland and Dumfries and Galloway. Go somewhere dark after ten, look north, and give your eyes twenty minutes. Nobody can promise the aurora, so take a flask.

See Kylesku Bridge
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
Shooting starsThis week

The Orionids are at their best on Wednesday night.

They are dust left by Halley's Comet, and they come out of the sky near Orion. The moon is bright this year, so only the best of them will show. Find somewhere dark, lie back and look up; you need no telescope.

Watch Scotland live