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 ScotlandLoch Faskally Bright in Perthshire, and the sun sets at 16:10.Watch Scotland live→
StarsGalloway Forest ParkA clear, dark night is forecast over Galloway Forest Park.
Golden hourIsle of MuckThe sun sets at Isle of Muck at 4.19pm this evening, and the sky is forecast to be clear.
On todayShetlandSpitfire Girls is happening now in Lerwick.
On todayOrkneyStromness Glimmers: A Festival of Light is happening now.
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.
Hidden Scotland
The places worth the journey, and the help to get there.
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 week
Seen 8 timesOtter
Seen 7 timesPink-footed goose
Seen 5 timesDipper
Seen 5 timesRed squirrel
Seen 3 times · East LothianGannet
Seen 3 times · DumfriesRed kite
Seen 3 times · RenfrewshireBarnacle goose
Seen 3 timesCommon seal
Seen 3 times · AppinPine marten
Seen twice · Isle Of North UistWhite-tailed eagle
Seen twice · Argyll and Bute CouncilWhooper swan
Seen twice · StornowayGrey seal
Seen twice · HighlandBadger
Seen twice · EdinburghRed grouse
Seen oncePtarmigan
Seen once · Argyll and Bute CouncilGolden eagle
Seen once · HighlandOrca
Seen once · Argyll and ButeMinke whale
Seen once · Loch Fleet, GolspieAtlantic salmon
Seen onceMountain hare
Seen onceRed deer
Seen 8 timesOtterSeen 7 timesPink-footed gooseSeen 5 timesDipperSeen 5 timesRed squirrelSeen 3 times · East LothianGannetSeen 3 times · DumfriesRed kiteSeen 3 times · RenfrewshireBarnacle gooseSeen 3 timesCommon sealSeen 3 times · AppinPine martenSeen twice · Isle Of North UistWhite-tailed eagleSeen twice · Argyll and Bute CouncilWhooper swanSeen twice · StornowayGrey sealSeen twice · HighlandBadgerSeen twice · EdinburghRed grouseSeen oncePtarmiganSeen once · Argyll and Bute CouncilGolden eagleSeen once · HighlandOrcaSeen once · Argyll and ButeMinke whaleSeen once · Loch Fleet, GolspieAtlantic salmonSeen onceMountain hareSeen onceRed deerThe wildlife people spotted in Scotland this week.
Scotland's otters live along the sea coast as well as the rivers, and on the west coast and the islands they are often seen in the kelp at low tide, and this week the otter was 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 ScotlandA guest who planned a whole trip around Black h, a holiday house on Skye, turned out to be an old college friend of its owner, Sarah.Christmas Market at Drumlanrig CastleThe flight between Westray and Papa Westray, two of the Orkney islands, is the world's shortest scheduled flight, timed at two minutes including taxiing.The Never Ending Skein, a goose artwork made by people across Dumfries and Galloway, is spending the winter at WWT Caerlaverock.A clear, dark night is forecast over Galloway Forest Park.The sun sets at Isle of Muck at 4.19pm this evening, and the sky is forecast to be clear.The very first bottle of whisky from Nc'nean, a distillery on the Morvern peninsula, sold for £41,000 at a charity auction.Christmas in the Historic House at AbbotsfordThe sheep of North Ronaldsay, in Orkney, live almost entirely on seaweed, kept on the shore by a stone wall that runs right round the island.On today around Scotland.On today around Scotland.On today around Scotland.Orkney and Shetland belonged to Norway until 1468 and 1469, when they were pledged to Scotland for a royal wedding dowry that was never paid.On this weekend.On this weekend.On this weekend.On this weekend.House of Gods, a hotel just off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh's Old Town, takes the look of its rooms from the Orient Express.A tale to read.A tale to read.A tale to read.A tale to read.A tale to read.A tale to read.A tale to read.Wojtek, a bear who was enlisted in the Polish army in the Second World War, spent the rest of his life at Edinburgh Zoo.Before the River Clyde was deepened in the 1700s, ships could not reach Glasgow. Where was their cargo unloaded instead?J.M. Barrie, from Kirriemuir in Angus, gave Peter Pan to a London children's hospital, and a special law lets it earn from the story for ever.Norsemen who broke into Maeshowe, a 5,000-year-old tomb in Orkney, covered its walls in graffiti, including 'Ingigerth is the most beautiful of women'.Alan Keery, chef at Nàdair in Marchmont, Edinburgh, wants Scottish cooking to leave haggis bonbons and deep-fried Mars Bars behind.The Tower on Portobello BeachEbenezer Place, in Wick in Caithness, is the shortest street in the world, at just 2.05 metres long with a single door.The tune that greets the US president began in a poem set on which Scottish loch?The Victorian public toilets in Rothesay, on the Isle of Bute, are so grand that they have become one of the town's most celebrated sights.Kelso Abbey, in the Scottish Borders, was once the region's grandest and wealthiest abbey, and is now the most ruined of its four great abbeys.Speyside's Malt Whisky Trail links eight of Scotland's most famous distilleries, with tours and tutored tastings.How big was the official crowd when Scotland played England at Hampden Park, Glasgow, in 1937?Corrour, on Rannoch Moor in the Highlands, is the highest mainline railway station in the UK, and no public road leads to it.On his first day as a volunteer at a dig on St Ninian's Isle, in Shetland, a 15-year-old schoolboy found a hoard of Pictish silver.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Roslin Castle, hidden in the glen below Rosslyn Chapel in Midlothian, was built by the Sinclairs, one of the most powerful families in Scotland.The story goes that a Norwegian princess strung a chain across this strait and charged every ship that passed.True or false: some Atlantic salmon survive spawning and come back to spawn again.Jura's rum distillery, in Craighouse, began when Michael Walton, who was born on the island, told his partner Charlotte Gillett he would love to make rum.The Duke of Atholl's own regiment, the Atholl Highlanders of Blair Castle in Perthshire, has been described as the only legal private army in Europe.A dipper was seen in Aberdeen.Thomas Blake Glover, from Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire, helped found the company that became Mitsubishi and was honoured by the Emperor of Japan.Australia's Royal Military College at Duntroon, in Canberra, takes its name from Duntrune Castle on Loch Crinan in Argyll.Thomas the RhymerKate Duncan, who runs A Highland Life at Rannoch in Perthshire, is the first woman, and the youngest ever, to be Chieftain of the Rannoch Highland Gathering.Places to Stay in Argyll for TwoWhen Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh, died in 1922, every telephone in North America fell silent for a minute in his honour.The air-filled tyre was first patented in 1845 by Robert William Thomson, a 23-year-old from Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire, more than 40 years before John Boyd Dunlop's.A free exhibition of historic fakes and forgeries has opened at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.Jonny and Daisy Ames, husband-and-wife falconers on the Rothiemurchus estate near Aviemore, let visitors fly their birds, including one of the largest eagles in the world.The Britannia Panopticon in Glasgow, billed as the world's oldest surviving music hall, is said to be where Stan Laurel first appeared on stage, in 1906.Distilleries in Aberdeenshire.Distilleries in Aberdeenshire.Distilleries in Aberdeenshire.Distilleries in Aberdeenshire.Distilleries in Aberdeenshire.Distilleries in Aberdeenshire.Fingal's Cave, on the uninhabited island of Staffa off Mull, inspired Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture after the composer visited in 1829.Graeme Johncock, who travels Scotland for Hidden Scotland, says few people make the short crossing from Oban to the island of Kerrera, in Argyll.Parts of Aberdour Castle in Fife, among them its kitchen, stables and gallery, were used as filming locations for Outlander.In winter the golf course at Askernish on South Uist is shared with the crofters' sheep and cattle.True or false: the village of Beauly, near Inverness, got its name when Mary, Queen of Scots, called it 'un beau lieu', a beautiful place.Graeme Johncock, who travels Scotland for Hidden Scotland, drove out to Ardnamurchan Lighthouse, near the western tip of the Scottish mainland.A large decorated pot about 5,000 years old is being pieced together from sherds found at the Ness of Brodgar in Orkney.A barn owl flies almost without a sound, because a row of tiny hooks on the front edge of its wing deadens the rush of the air.Give a magazine subscription.The two stone mermaids on the shore at Raasay House were meant for its front door.Rory Dowling, who builds guitars by hand near Pittenweem in Fife, was first hooked on wood by a Swiss Army knife he was given at seven.The New Shetlander, the magazine of Shetland prose and poetry first printed in 1947, is back after three years away.Tessa Knott bought 103 acres of moorland in Galloway unseen, and over four decades she turned it into Glenwhan Gardens, looking out over Luce Bay.Pink-footed geese were seen near Strathmore, Blairgowrie.Issue 13 is out now.On the Isle of Muck, west of Mallaig, the photographer Jim Richardson climbed the highest hill three times to get his portrait of the island's laird.From Glenmore in the Cairngorms, the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd's hill trip ends with a short session of feeding the reindeer by hand.For ten days in 2004, the Black Rock Gorge at Evanton was a set for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.In 1902 John Dewar & Sons, the Perth firm whose family built Aberfeldy distillery, trademarked the name of a way to drink whisky. Which?Isle of Barra gin has won Best Overall Gin at this year's World Spirits Competition in New York.Eskfield, a Palladian spa house of 1714 on the Penicuik Estate just south of Edinburgh, has been restored as a place to stay.Restaurants and cafés in Lochaber.Restaurants and cafés in Lochaber.Restaurants and cafés in Lochaber.Restaurants and cafés in Lochaber.Restaurants and cafés in Lochaber.Mary, Queen of Scots is said to have shocked her courtiers by playing real tennis at Falkland Palace in Fife wearing trousers rather than a dress.Discover Borradill with owner and interior designer Claire MookerjeeAt The House in the Hill near Jedburgh, a family of foxes has raised its cubs on the land around the house.Graeme Johncock, who travels Scotland for Hidden Scotland, would rather walk the quiet sands of Huisinis than famous Luskentyre, on the Isle of Harris.V&A Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show is on today.Guess where this is?Our latest days out.Our latest days out.Our latest days out.Our latest days out.Our latest days out.Our latest days out.Our latest days out.Our latest days out.Our latest days out.Some good places to go, newly added to the site.The tennis player Andy Murray and his wife Kim bought Cromlix, the hotel near Dunblane, in 2013 after Andy learned it was facing closure.Things to do and walks in Aberdeenshire.Things to do and walks in Aberdeenshire.Things to do and walks in Aberdeenshire.Things to do and walks in Aberdeenshire.Things to do and walks in Aberdeenshire.Things to do and walks in Aberdeenshire.Things to do and walks in Aberdeenshire.DùnSome good places to stay, newly added to the site.The Fife Arms, the hotel in Braemar in Aberdeenshire, has an Art Deco cocktail bar with a story behind its name.Broughty Castle, at the mouth of the Tay in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, stayed vital to the defence of the nation right up to the end of the Second World War.Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.Somewhere to stay.