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 ScotlandGlasgow Central Cloudy in Glasgow, and the sun sets at 16:13.Watch Scotland live→
The Caledonian SleeperCaledonian SleeperThe Caledonian Sleeper, the overnight train to London, was due to leave Edinburgh and Glasgow at 11.40pm.
StarsDunnottar CastleA clear, dark night is forecast over Dunnottar Castle.
Just openedShetlandThe Brae Youth and Community Centre in Shetland has opened again after a retrofit.
NewsOrkneyThe Pickaquoy Centre in Kirkwall is due to open its new mountain bike trails at the end of October or the start of November.
NewsSutherlandLinks House in Dornoch is starting night-time wildlife safaris with thermal cameras.
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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 6 timesOtter
Seen 5 timesPink-footed goose
Seen 4 times · East LothianGannet
Seen 4 times · RenfrewshireDipper
Seen 4 timesRed squirrel
Seen 3 times · DumfriesRed kite
Seen 3 timesBarnacle goose
Seen 3 times · PittenweemGrey seal
Seen twice · Isle Of North UistWhite-tailed eagle
Seen twiceCommon seal
Seen twice · EdinburghRed grouse
Seen oncePtarmigan
Seen once · HighlandOrca
Seen once · Argyll and ButeMinke whale
Seen once · AppinPine marten
Seen once · Loch Fleet, GolspieAtlantic salmon
Seen onceMountain hare
Seen onceRed deer
Seen 6 timesOtterSeen 5 timesPink-footed gooseSeen 4 times · East LothianGannetSeen 4 times · RenfrewshireDipperSeen 4 timesRed squirrelSeen 3 times · DumfriesRed kiteSeen 3 timesBarnacle gooseSeen 3 times · PittenweemGrey sealSeen twice · Isle Of North UistWhite-tailed eagleSeen twiceCommon sealSeen twice · EdinburghRed grouseSeen oncePtarmiganSeen once · HighlandOrcaSeen once · Argyll and ButeMinke whaleSeen once · AppinPine martenSeen 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: 6 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
Loch Ness, in the Highlands near Inverness, holds more water than all the lakes of England and Wales put together.Christmas Tree Festival at St Conan's KirkThe 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 Caledonian Sleeper, the overnight train to London, was due to leave Edinburgh and Glasgow at 11.40pm.A clear, dark night is forecast over Dunnottar Castle.Alan and Jennifer Law were the only married lighthouse keepers in Scotland to work at separate stations, on Stroma and at Holborn Head in Caithness.On this weekend.On this weekend.On this weekend.On this weekend.The 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.This is Kingshouse Hotel in autumn.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.The oldest Harrier jump jet in existence is being cleaned at the National Museum of Flight for the 60th anniversary of its first flight, on 9 November.Leanne Townsend, who teaches foraging, found her calling as a young woman in rural Aberdeenshire, when she came across yellow chanterelle mushrooms in the mossy birch woods.James Seton carved his initials and his wife's above the door of Greenknowe Tower in 1581, and the original iron gate survives.Wojtek, a bear who was enlisted in the Polish army in the Second World War, spent the rest of his life at Edinburgh Zoo.A red kite was seen near Dumfries.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.June Richard welcomed weightlifters from all over the world to her garden to lift the Inver stone, now at the Braemar Highland Games Centre.True or false: Most of the film Braveheart was shot in Scotland.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'.The Scullery: A Slow Stay in the Yarrow ValleyEbenezer Place, in Wick in Caithness, is the shortest street in the world, at just 2.05 metres long with a single door.Friends of the lighthouse keeper John Boath and his wife Hazel phoned ahead whenever the couple moved on, so the next cottage down the road could come out and wave too.True or false: the shaggy Highland cow is a kind of yak.The first fully commercial oil works in the world opened at Bathgate, in West Lothian, in 1851.The world's first full-body MRI scan of a patient was made in Aberdeen in 1980, on a scanner built by a University of Aberdeen team.Sam Heughan, the Outlander actor who grew up in Galloway, says that on a sunny day you can look out across the Solway Firth to Ireland and the Isle of Man.Doune Castle, in Stirlingshire, played Camelot, Castle Anthrax and Swamp Castle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.The Net Store and Rhuroin: Two Houses by the Sea in ApplecrossThe first television picture sent by John Logie Baird, the inventor from Helensburgh on the Clyde, was the head of a ventriloquist's dummy.The Bass Rock, off North Berwick in East Lothian, is home to the largest colony of northern gannets in the world.True or false: Up Helly Aa, the Viking fire festival in Lerwick, Shetland, began in Victorian times.Des Hacket, Urban Programme Manager at the charity Future Woodlands Scotland, says trees in towns and cities can cut flooding and energy bills and even boost our mental health.The Bell Rock Lighthouse, alone in the sea off Arbroath, is the world's oldest working sea-washed lighthouse.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Dunrobin Castle, near Golspie in Sutherland, has its own railway station, first opened in 1870, and trains still stop there today.The concrete pylons along the causeway to Cramond Island were a boom against boats in the Second World War.Which Scottish island supplies the granite for Olympic curling stones?The wildlife film-maker Gordon Buchanan has filmed all over the world, but his best ever bottlenose dolphin encounter was just round the corner from Tobermory, on Mull.The Old Man of Hoy, the 137-metre sea stack on the island of Hoy in Orkney, may be only a few hundred years old.The Ceilidh Place in Ullapool is on the shortlist for Venue of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards.The Knap of Howar, on Papa Westray in Orkney, has two houses thought to be the oldest standing stone buildings in north-west Europe.Archaeologists spent twenty years uncovering 5,000-year-old buildings with painted walls at the Ness of Brodgar in Orkney, then covered them over again in 2024.Every issue we have printed.Antoine and Elisa, from Brittany and Burgundy, make sea salt on the Isle of Skye using nothing but the sea, sun and wind.James Taylor, from near Auchenblae in Kincardineshire, started which crop in Sri Lanka in 1867?Scotland, region by region.Scotland, region by region.Scotland, region by region.Scotland, region by region.Scotland, region by region.Scotland, region by region.Scotland, region by region.In Scottish Gaelic folklore, the Cailleach Bheurra, the Queen of Winter, was believed to rule the land from Samhain at the end of October until Beltane.A red squirrel was seen in Oban.More than 3,000 seals have been counted on the sands at the mouth of the Ythan, north of Aberdeen.For Mandy Maria, an artist who draws Scotland's mountains in soft pastel, a walk is almost psychedelic, because colour is what she notices most.Orkney's name is thought to begin with a Pictish word for a young pig or young boar, which Norse settlers later turned into 'Seal Islands'.Wild Miso Noodle BrothYou can tell who the lords of Lochranza were afraid of by which way the front door faces.A large decorated pot about 5,000 years old is being pieced together from sherds found at the Ness of Brodgar in Orkney.Kate 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.What's on in Scotland, today and coming up.What's on in Scotland, today and coming up.What's on in Scotland, today and coming up.What's on in Scotland, today and coming up.What's on in Scotland, today and coming up.Half of One, Isle of Skye.Chris Dyer, an archaeologist from Hertfordshire, came to Shetland for a job in 2006 and now opens his smallholding on the island of Bressay to visitors.Isle of Barra gin has won Best Overall Gin at this year's World Spirits Competition in New York.Archaeologists excavating the Iron Age broch and village at Old Scatness, in Shetland, uncovered a carving of a bear.From Scotland's past.From Scotland's past.From Scotland's past.From Scotland's past.From Scotland's past.From Scotland's past.From Scotland's past.Graeme Johncock, a writer who travels Scotland for Hidden Scotland's Around Scotland column, reached the Wailing Widow Falls, near Kylesku in Sutherland, by a rough trek over rocks and through mud.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.Loch Affric, in the Highlands, has appeared in which Hollywood film?The wildlife film-maker Gordon Buchanan, aged 54, calls himself the blink of a midge's eye beside Buachaille Etive Mòr in Glencoe, which formed around 420 million years ago.The Story of SpringbankSubscribe to Hidden Scotland.St Conan's Kirk, on Loch Awe in Argyll, was almost fifty years in the building, begun by the architect Walter Douglas Campbell and carried on by his sister.Alan Keery, chef at Nàdair in Marchmont, Edinburgh, wants Scottish cooking to leave haggis bonbons and deep-fried Mars Bars behind.Hideaways in PerthshireTrue or false: John o' Groats is the most northerly point of mainland Britain.The shore at Corrie, a village on the Isle of Arran, holds a fossilised lightning strike and limestone cliffs laid down when Arran lay near the equator.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.Graeme Johncock, who travels Scotland for Hidden Scotland, says few people make the short crossing from Oban to the island of Kerrera, in Argyll.The Never Ending Skein, a goose artwork made by people across Dumfries and Galloway, is spending the winter at WWT Caerlaverock.Half of One: A Family Home on SkyeEastfield, a café near the top of Perth Road in Dundee, takes its name and its snowdrop logo from the house where the owner's wife grew up.In winter the golf course at Askernish on South Uist is shared with the crofters' sheep and cattle.Gannets were seen in Edinburgh.Eskfield, a Palladian spa house of 1714 on the Penicuik Estate just south of Edinburgh, has been restored as a place to stay.Paisley Abbey was begun by thirteen monks from Shropshire?Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.The Dumfriesshire village of Ae probably takes its name from an Old Norse word meaning what?Lara Messer, a Glasgow photographer, found a craft chocolate bar in her bag on a train home and went on to start Bare Bones Chocolate.Distilleries in Aberdeenshire.Distilleries in Aberdeenshire.Distilleries in Aberdeenshire.Distilleries in Aberdeenshire.Distilleries in Aberdeenshire.Distilleries in Aberdeenshire.Killiecrankie House, near Pitlochry, has been named Scotland's fine dining restaurant of the year for the second year running.The Waterloo Monument, a 150ft stone column on a hilltop near Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders, took two attempts to build, because the first one collapsed.Issue 13 is out now.From Glenmore in the Cairngorms, the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd's hill trip ends with a short session of feeding the reindeer by hand.True or false: people spit on the Heart of Midlothian, a heart set into the cobbles of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, for good luck.Gordon Buchanan, the wildlife film-maker who grew up on the Isle of Mull, says that home, for him, means mountains on the horizon and the sea in the foreground.Wallace and Gromit are coming to V&A Dundee in March 2027, in an Aardman exhibition showing in Scotland for the first time.“Walking the Water of Leith from the shore towards Stockbridge will take you past some fantastic inner-city nature and drop you near some of the city's best galleries too.”Pink-footed geese were seen in Aberdeen.At Kylerhea Otter Hide, on the east coast of Skye, patient visitors may glimpse wild otters playing on the remote shore of the narrows.Give a magazine subscription.Some good places to go, newly added to the site.What's Here: Seth Bennett, Dundee Jazz Festival is on today.Elizabeth Tindal, a Dark Sky Ranger in Galloway Forest Park in Dumfries and Galloway, counts a stargazing chat with a 10-year-old boy among the best conversations she has had.Loch Glass, under Ben Wyvis, is where the river that cut the Black Rock Gorge begins.True or false: the sticky postage stamp was invented by a bookseller from Dundee.In 1892 Tommy Dewar set off round the world to sell his family's whisky, and threw bottles into the sea along the way.Restaurants in Fife.Restaurants in Fife.Restaurants in Fife.Restaurants in Fife.Restaurants in Fife.Restaurants in Fife.Restaurants in Fife.Rory Dowling, a guitar maker in Fife's East Neuk, named Taran Guitars after the Gaelic word for thunder and a hill on Harris.Monkstadt House, near Uig, was once the seat of the MacDonald chiefs, and Bonnie Prince Charlie came ashore on the shore below it.Discover Borradill with owner and interior designer Claire MookerjeeOur 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.Garry Jamieson, of the family firm Jamieson's of Shetland, went to university to study mechanical engineering before he came home to the spinning mill his father built at Sandness.Guess where this is?Some good places to stay, newly added to the site.Things to do and walks in Angus.Things to do and walks in Angus.Things to do and walks in Angus.Things to do and walks in Angus.Things to do and walks in Angus.EileanAt Eòlach, in Glenelg in Lochalsh, the chef Verity Hurding serves caramelised beech leaves and spruce-tip lemonade in the house she grew up in.Have you been to Loch Lomond?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.Johanna Basford, an illustrator in Aberdeenshire, panicked when 13,000 copies of her colouring book for adults were printed, and it went on to sell millions.The tennis player Andy Murray says Scotland's bad weather proves how much he loved tennis, because otherwise he just wouldn't have gone out to play.Johanna Basford, the Aberdeenshire illustrator behind the colouring book Secret Garden, records voice notes on her walks and later hears ideas like 'giant owl perched on a tiny house'.Nick Gardner, who climbed all of Scotland's Munros in his 80s, asked to see a mountain as a small boy and was taken to Bradgate Park in Leicestershire.The Isle of Arran is split by the Highland Boundary Fault, so it has both Highland and Lowland scenery in just 55 miles of coastline.Emma and Fergus, who met as students at Edinburgh University, dreamt up The Tartan Blanket Co on the drive up to Skye for their mini-moon, a short honeymoon.In 1969 the engraver Malcolm Appleby bought the old Victorian railway station at Crathes, near Banchory, for 1,600 pounds, seven shillings and four pence.