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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 ScotlandStirling Cloudy in Stirlingshire, and the sun sets at 17:55.Watch Scotland live
  1. The last Jacobite of the yearJacobite Steam TrainThe Jacobite steam train makes its last run of the year today.
  2. The Caledonian SleeperCaledonian SleeperThe Caledonian Sleeper, the overnight train from London, was due into Aberdeen at 7.50am.
  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. WildlifeCaithnessWhooper swans were seen in Wick on Friday.
  5. Just openedCaithnessCastletown Mill in Caithness, built in 1818, is a whisky distillery now.
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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Just addedAdded today

We've just added Agnew Park to the website.

Stranraer's lochside park, with a boating lake, a playground and a café.

Find out more about Agnew Park
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 10Issue 10Spring / Summer 2025

Stef Burgon and Simon Hunt spotted Kilmartin Castle, a 16th-century castle in Argyll, in an advert while living 3,700 miles away under a blistering Middle Eastern sun.

The couple sent Stef's parents on an eight-hour road trip to view it, and in 2018 they swapped the desert heat for Scottish mizzle, a fine misty drizzle. They spent their first year living in a campervan, working as 'apprentice builders' to put in heating and plumbing and fix the leaks. Today guests can stay in five ensuite bedrooms, one of them reached by a secret spiral staircase, and walk from the castle to the Temple Wood stone circle in a glen full of ancient monuments. Next, the couple are turning an old church nearby into a gallery for the artists who come on residencies at the castle.

Read the full story in Issue 10
Weather for itFor today's weatherGlasgowInn DeepRestaurantAberdeenshireThe Creel InnRestaurantPlocktonPlockton InnRestaurantDumfries and GallowayThe Globe Inn, DumfriesRestaurantDumfries and GallowayThe Steamboat Inn, CarsethornRestaurantFifeThe Kinneuchar 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
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
In Issue 13The magazine

Gretna Green, Where Sparks Fly

Before the 1754 Marriage Act drove forbidden English couples north, Gretna Green was a quiet farming village. Over 270 years on, couples still marry over the anvil, while visitors come to immerse themselves in the stories, traditions and experiences that have shaped Gretna Green for generations.

Read it in Issue 13
WildlifeThis weekSeen 6 times · Ruchazie, GlasgowWhooper swanSeen 6 times · Hamilton GardensDipperSeen 4 times · DriftwoodGolden eagleSeen 4 times · East LothianPink-footed gooseSeen 3 timesOtterSeen 3 timesBeaverSeen 3 times · KillinRed deerSeen twice · FortroseGannetSeen oncePtarmiganSeen once · Dunain CottageRed kiteSeen onceMinke whaleSeen onceGrey sealSeen once · Highland CouncilPine martenSeen onceRed squirrelSeen onceMountain hareSeen once · HighlandBadgerSeen onceRed grouse

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: 6 sightings, the latest near Ruchazie, Glasgow. 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 today

We've just added Dunoon Burgh Hall to the website.

Dunoon's Victorian burgh hall, run as the town's arts centre by a charitable trust.

Find out more about Dunoon Burgh Hall
From the magazineThe printed copy of The Best of SkyeThe Best of Skye

Misty Isle Boat Trips has sailed from Elgol on the Isle of Skye to Loch Coruisk since 1969, and one of its early customers was the film director Alfred Hitchcock.

The family who run Misty Isle have been based in Elgol since the 1300s, and they have been taking visitors across to Loch Coruisk for more than 50 years. The loch lies in a ring of the Cuillin mountains, and on the crossing you might spot anything from razorbills to golden eagles. The magazine's guide to boat trips on Skye picked Misty Isle out.

See Misty Isle Boat Trips · Isle of Skye
8amJust now

The Jacobite steam train makes its last run of the year today.

It leaves Fort William at quarter past ten for Mallaig, over the Glenfinnan Viaduct, 84 miles there and back with an hour and a half in Mallaig, and is back just after four. After today the line belongs to the ordinary trains until the spring.

See Jacobite Steam Train
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
7.50amJust now

The Caledonian Sleeper, the overnight train from London, was due into Aberdeen at 7.50am.

It left London Euston at 9.15pm last night as the Highlander and was divided at Edinburgh while its passengers slept; the Aberdeen part keeps to the east coast, by Dundee, Arbroath, Montrose and Stonehaven.

See Caledonian Sleeper