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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 ScotlandKyleakin Bright on Skye, and the sun sets at 16:24.Watch Scotland live
  1. Due this weekWatch Scotland liveGrey seal pups are being born about now, in white coats, on quiet beaches and islands round the coast.
  2. StarsCastle TioramA clear, dark night is forecast over Castle Tioram.
  3. On todayShetlandThe Shetland Arts and Crafts Association Christmas Craft Fair is happening now in Lerwick.
  4. NewsSutherlandLinks House in Dornoch is starting night-time wildlife safaris with thermal cameras.
  5. WildlifeOuter HebridesRed deer were seen near Kintail Cottage, Isle of North Uist, on Monday.

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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 8 November, from Scotland with love. An ivy-covered ruined tower stands on a small headland across the loch, autumn hills rising behind it through a screen of green leaves.
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 the Outer Hebrides

The old mission hall at Knock, in Point on Lewis, is to become a centre for the area's Gaelic heritage.

Point and Sandwick Trust bought the hall in 2025 and is now asking local people what they would like it to hold. One idea is a reading room for the Gaelic poet Derick Thomson, who came from Point, with his writing desk and books, which are in storage for now.

Read about it
TodayFor today's weatherAberdeenshireHuntly CastleAttractionAberdeenshireCastle FraserAttractionAberdeenshireFyvie CastleAttractionAberdeenshireCraigievar CastleAttractionLochalshEilean Donan CastleAttractionArgyll and ButeInveraray CastleAttraction

Today calls for a castle.

8° and cloudy across Scotland. Dry enough for the ramparts and the walk round the walls.

See them all
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 02Issue 02Spring / Summer 2021

Fiona, an islander on Fair Isle between Orkney and Shetland, ran the shop and post office, taught art and led the island's fire unit, all at once.

She first came to the island as a ten-year-old, and on an island of 55 people every adult holds several jobs, because some things simply need doing. Fiona ran the shop and post office with her husband Robert and taught art at the primary school, which had just four pupils. She was Watch Manager of Fair Isle's unit of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, a trained aircraft firefighter for the airstrip and a community councillor, and she knits too. 'For us, no day is the same and there's always something to do,' she said. The biggest misconception, she added, is that islanders must be bored in the evenings or in winter.

See Fair Isle · Shetland Islands
In Inverness

Ember Kafe on Queensgate in Inverness has been named Cafe of the Year at the Scotland Prestige Awards.

The cafe opened in September 2024 and is fully halal, with Kashmiri pink tea and karak chai on the menu and an Indian breakfast, Desi Nashta, beside the Scottish one. The owners never entered: someone nominated them, and a judge visited without saying who they were.

Read about it
Hidden Scotland, the magazineThe magazine

Issue 13

The autumn and winter issue is here.

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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
112 views
WildlifeThis weekSeen 8 timesRed deerSeen 7 times · East LothianPink-footed gooseSeen 4 times · CraiglockhartDipperSeen 4 timesOtterSeen 3 timesGannetSeen 3 times · Isle Of North UistBarnacle gooseSeen twiceWhite-tailed eagleSeen twice · Argyll and Bute CouncilWhooper swanSeen twice · East LothianCommon sealSeen twicePine martenSeen twice · ElginRed squirrelSeen twice · HighlandBadgerSeen once · InvernessPtarmiganSeen once · HighlandOrcaSeen onceGrey sealSeen once · Loch Fleet, GolspieAtlantic salmon

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 Glasgow

The Waverley, the paddle steamer that sails from Glasgow, carried almost 160,000 passengers in its 80th anniversary season.

Next year's first sailing is set for 7 May, and over the winter you can join a hard hat tour of the ship with its general manager, starting on 23 January.

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
Seal pupsThis week

Grey seal pups are being born about now, in white coats, on quiet beaches and islands round the coast.

Grey seals come ashore to have their pups from October to December, and each pup stays on the beach for its first weeks. Watch from a long way back, from a clifftop or a signed viewpoint, and never walk up to one.

Watch Scotland live
In Wester Ross

The Ceilidh Place in Ullapool is on the shortlist for Venue of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards.

The hotel, bookshop and music room on West Argyle Street has put on traditional music since it opened as a café in 1970. Anyone can vote for the winner, and the awards are handed out at Paisley Arena on Saturday 5 December.

See Ceilidh Place · Sutherland
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
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