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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 ScotlandThe Old Man of Storr Wet on Skye, and the sun sets at 18:09.Watch Scotland live
  1. Shooting starsWatch Scotland liveThe Orionids are at their best on Wednesday night.
  2. WildlifeOrkneyA common seal was seen near Thurso on Thursday.
  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. WildlifeOrkneyGannets were seen near Kirkwall on Thursday.
  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
Just addedAdded today

We've just added Boat of Garten Golf Club to the website.

A James Braid course through birch, heather and broom beneath the Cairngorms, with steam trains passing alongside.

Find out more about Boat of Garten Golf Club
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 12Issue 12Spring / Summer 2026

None of the three Maclean brothers had a background in rowing, yet in 2019 Ewan, Jamie and Lachlan became the fastest and youngest trio ever to cross the Atlantic.

The three spent their childhood holidays at a cottage their grandfather built in Assynt, in the far northwest, with no television or wi-fi, so they entertained themselves on the water. 'We had dinghies with holes in them and little kayaks that were barely seaworthy', Jamie remembers. Their Atlantic row, from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean in 35 days in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, raised some £200,000 for a clean water charity in Madagascar. After travelling to Madagascar to see what the money had done, they began talking about the Pacific, and in 2025 they rowed that too, setting a world record.

Read the full story in Issue 12
TodayFor today's weatherIsle of IslayBowmore DistilleryAttractionIsle of IslayKilchoman DistilleryAttractionIsle of IslayBruichladdich DistilleryAttractionIsle of ArranLochranza DistilleryAttractionStirlingDeanston DistilleryAttractionEaster RossBalblair DistilleryAttraction

Cold enough for a dram.

9° and cloudy across Scotland: the still house is the warmest room in the county.

See all the distilleries
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
WildlifeThis weekSeen 9 times · Ruchazie, GlasgowWhooper swanSeen 8 times · East LothianPink-footed gooseSeen 7 timesRed deerSeen 5 times · North BerwickGannetSeen 5 times · West Moulin RoadDipperSeen 4 timesCommon sealSeen 4 times · Highland CouncilPine martenSeen 4 timesBeaverSeen 4 timesRed squirrelSeen 3 timesBarnacle gooseSeen 3 timesGrey sealSeen twiceGolden eagleSeen twiceOtterSeen oncePtarmiganSeen onceWhite-tailed eagleSeen 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: 9 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 Nairn Dunbar Golf Club to the website.

A traditional links behind the dunes of Nairn’s East Beach, founded in 1899, with views over the Moray Firth to the Black Isle.

Find out more about Nairn Dunbar Golf Club
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
Shooting starsThis week

The Orionids are at their best on Wednesday night.

They are dust left by Halley's Comet, and they come out of the sky near Orion. The moon is bright this year, so only the best of them will show. Find somewhere dark, lie back and look up; you need no telescope.

Watch Scotland live
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 10Issue 10Spring / Summer 2025

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.

'Planting trees isn’t just about making cities prettier, although that’s a nice bonus'. Research shows urban trees can do everything from improving the air we breathe to reducing flooding, he explains. In summer, pavements and roads soak up the sun's heat, and the shade of leafy trees makes a remarkable difference to the temperature of the street below, cooling the buildings around it too. In winter, the same trees act as windbreaks and help buildings hold on to their heat, so heating costs come down. Through its Urban Forestry Programme, the charity, founded in 2012, backs projects bringing more trees to Scotland's towns and cities.

Read the full story in Issue 10
SnowThursday

Snow is forecast on Aonach Mor, the mountain the Nevis Range gondola climbs, on Thursday.

It is forecast on Ben Nevis too. It is a forecast and it may change. If you are going onto the hills, read the mountain forecast and go equipped for winter.

Watch Scotland live