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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 ScotlandBen Loyal Cloudy in Sutherland, and the sun sets at 16:20.Watch Scotland live
  1. The Barra planeBarra AirportThe plane for Glasgow is due to take off from the beach at Barra at 11.50am.
  2. Due this weekFalls of AcharnScotland's woods are turning yellow, copper and gold, and are at their best colour about now.
  3. Just openedShetlandLerwick Town Hall is open again.
  4. Just openedCaithnessCastletown Mill in Caithness, built in 1818, is a whisky distillery now.
  5. NewsSutherlandLinks House in Dornoch is starting night-time wildlife safaris with thermal cameras.

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 5 November, from Scotland with love. The tower house of Duntrune Castle stands on its rocky headland above a loch, autumn-toned shrubs and trees covering the shore below.
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 Stirlingshire

Bridge of Allan's Paterson Memorial Clock, toppled in December 2024, is due back on Henderson Street in spring 2027.

Stirling Council has given the restoration to JPS Restoration of Alloa, who will mend the mechanism, hands and faces, rebuild the cupola on top, pick it out in gold and light it up. The clock went up in 1898 in honour of Dr Alexander Paterson, who was the doctor in the district for more than 50 years.

Read about it
NewNew yesterday

Greyfriars@12: Magnus Turpie and Friends

Magnus Turpie and Friends play a free lunchtime concert at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh on Thursday 12 November.

Find out more about Greyfriars@12: Magnus Turpie and Friends
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
103 views
In Shetland Islands

J G Rae's, the jeweller on Lerwick's Commercial Street since 1965, is now Shetland Jewellery at the Street.

Kenneth Rae has retired at 83 and sold it to the silversmith Sophie Whitehead, who already runs his Shetland Jewellery workshop at Weisdale. A jeweller's bench now sits in one of the windows.

Read about it
Hidden Scotland, the magazineThe magazine

Issue 13

The autumn and winter issue is here.

Get Issue 13
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
TodayFor today's weatherMorayshireWood-fired saunaActivityPerthshireHotBoat Sauna, Taymouth MarinaActivityLothianEscape SaunaActivityAberdeenshireStravaig SaunasActivityAberdeenshireVinyasa YogaActivityThe Black IsleUnwind in the Wood-Fired SaunaActivity

Today calls for a sauna.

7° and cloudy across Scotland. Cold enough to want the heat of a sauna, and the swim after.

See them all
In Orkney

Kirkwall has new winter lights in its town centre, switched on on 2 November after two years of planning.

They replace a set worn out by age and Orkney's weather, give a warmer glow and use less energy. They stay up until spring, when the summer bunting goes back up.

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.

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WildlifeThis weekSeen 8 timesRed deerSeen 7 timesWhooper swanSeen 7 timesPink-footed gooseSeen 4 times · ElginRed squirrelSeen 3 timesWhite-tailed eagleSeen twice · InvernessPtarmiganSeen twiceGannetSeen twiceAdderSeen once · Perth and KinrossRed kiteSeen once · 英国丹弗里斯-加洛韦Barnacle gooseSeen once · River Tyne, HaddingtonDipperSeen onceCommon sealSeen onceOtterSeen once · Cairn Gorm, HighlandMountain 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 Outer Hebrides

HebCelt, the music festival in Stornoway, is up for three of this year's National Outdoor Events Association awards.

It is up for Regional Event of the Year and for its work on access and inclusion, and its operations coordinator is up for the Unsung Heroine award. The winners are named in Bath on 25 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