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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 ScotlandTraquair House Cloudy in the Borders, and the sun sets at 16:25.Watch Scotland live
  1. Due this weekRSPB Loch of StrathbegWhooper swans, big wild swans with lemon-yellow bills, are flying in to Caerlaverock and the Loch of Strathbeg for the winter about now.
  2. StarsStac PollaidhA clear, dark night is forecast over Stac Pollaidh.
  3. Just openedShetlandLerwick Town Hall is open again.
  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. Just openedCaithnessCastletown Mill in Caithness, built in 1818, is a whisky distillery now.

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 4 November, from Scotland with love. A pink sandstone castle bristling with conical turrets and a Union Jack flag rises above a gravel forecourt, autumn-tinged ivy climbing one wing beside cannon displayed on the lawn.
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
132 views
In Glasgow

The Citizens Theatre in Glasgow's Gorbals has been named Great British Theatre 2026.

The award came at the first Great British Theatre Awards in London, where the Citizens also won the prize for the best renovation. It reopened in August 2025 after seven years of rebuilding, which kept its Victorian auditorium and added new spaces around it.

Read about it
NewNew today

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
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 11Issue 11Autumn / Winter 2025–26

The author Sir Alexander McCall Smith is an investor in Stewart Christie & Co in Edinburgh's New Town, the oldest bespoke tailor in Scotland.

The news came out in early 2024, at the same moment the firm launched its first ladies' bespoke tailoring studio, and he was full of praise. 'There is nowhere quite like Stewart Christie & Co'. He added that it has been a vital part of the Scottish clothing and textile industry for a very long time. He is in good company. The tailor still counts the High Constables of Holyroodhouse and the Royal Company of Archers among its clients, and on the windows of its shop the words Country Outfitters and Bespoke Tailors are picked out in gold.

Read the full story in Issue 11
Just opened

Lochore Meadows near Lochgelly has three new mountain bike trails, open now.

There is a red run named after the Dunfermline mountain biker Rab Wardell and two blues, Wullie's Way going up and Rig & Furrow coming down, which together add around 2.5km to the park's 6km of trails. More path work is to follow, with 6,500 native trees going in on Harran Hill.

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
87 views
Weather for itFor today's weatherFifeThe Kinneuchar InnRestaurantFifeThe Ship Inn, ElieRestaurantFifeThe Railway InnRestaurantEdinburghCorbie InnRestaurantEdinburghOriginal Rosslyn InnRestaurantLothianThe Bridge InnRestaurant

A pint by the fire.

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

See all the pubs
93 views
In Speyside

The Turbo 2026, the most heavily peated whisky in GlenAllachie's Meikle Tòir range, goes on sale on 5 November.

The fourth yearly Turbo is a five-year-old Speyside single malt, made at The GlenAllachie Distillery and aged this time in American virgin oak with Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherry casks. It is sold through specialist whisky shops.

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 7 timesWhooper swanSeen 7 timesPink-footed gooseSeen 7 timesRed deerSeen 6 times · ElginRed squirrelSeen 3 timesWhite-tailed eagleSeen twice · InvernessPtarmiganSeen twiceAdderSeen onceGannetSeen once · Perth and KinrossRed kiteSeen once · River Tyne, HaddingtonDipperSeen onceCommon sealSeen onceGrey sealSeen onceOtterSeen once · Cairn Gorm, HighlandMountain hare

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: 7 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
In Royal Deeside

Douneside House in Tarland is turning its health club into a spa, due to open in mid-April 2027.

The pool stays, with a sauna, treatment rooms, an outdoor relaxation area and a room of light and sound added round it, and the treatments take their lead from the hotel's 17 acres of gardens.

See Douneside House · Aberdeenshire
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