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 Clear in Glasgow, and the sun sets at 16:19.Watch Scotland live→
Mountain weatherBen NevisIt is 2° in Fort William, but on the summit of Ben Nevis, Britain's highest mountain, it feels like minus 8°.
Loch levelsLoch MareeLoch Maree, in Wester Ross, is 37 centimetres lower than it usually is in November.
On todayShetlandTomorrow, Spitfire Girls is on in Lerwick.
NewsOrkneyThe Pickaquoy Centre in Kirkwall is due to open its new mountain bike trails at the end of October or the start of November.
WildlifeCaithnessAn orca was seen in Wick on Saturday.
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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 times · StrathmorePink-footed goose
Seen 6 timesOtter
Seen 5 timesDipper
Seen 5 timesCommon seal
Seen 4 times · East LothianGannet
Seen 4 times · Loch VoilRed squirrel
Seen 3 times · Highland CouncilWhite-tailed eagle
Seen 3 timesWhooper swan
Seen 3 times · Isle Of North UistBarnacle goose
Seen 3 times · AppinPine marten
Seen 3 timesRed deer
Seen twice · DumfriesRed kite
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 · Loch Fleet, GolspieAtlantic salmon
Seen onceMountain hare
Seen 6 times · StrathmorePink-footed gooseSeen 6 timesOtterSeen 5 timesDipperSeen 5 timesCommon sealSeen 4 times · East LothianGannetSeen 4 times · Loch VoilRed squirrelSeen 3 times · Highland CouncilWhite-tailed eagleSeen 3 timesWhooper swanSeen 3 times · Isle Of North UistBarnacle gooseSeen 3 times · AppinPine martenSeen 3 timesRed deerSeen twice · DumfriesRed kiteSeen twice · StornowayGrey sealSeen twice · HighlandBadgerSeen twice · EdinburghRed grouseSeen oncePtarmiganSeen once · Argyll and Bute CouncilGolden eagleSeen once · HighlandOrcaSeen once · Loch Fleet, GolspieAtlantic salmonSeen onceMountain hareThe wildlife people spotted in Scotland this week.
Pink-footed geese come to Scotland in their tens of thousands each autumn, flying in long skeins between the fields and their roosts, and this week they were the animal reported most often in Scotland: 6 sightings, the latest near Strathmore, Blairgowrie. 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 ScotlandHouse of Gods, a hotel just off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh's Old Town, takes the look of its rooms from the Orient Express.Perthshire WildlifeThe flight between Westray and Papa Westray, two of the Orkney islands, is the world's shortest scheduled flight, timed at two minutes including taxiing.It is 2° in Fort William, but on the summit of Ben Nevis, Britain's highest mountain, it feels like minus 8°.Loch Maree, in Wester Ross, is 37 centimetres lower than it usually is in November.Each August, the Fife fishing town of Pittenweem holds a week-long arts festival, with artists showing their work everywhere from front rooms to garden sheds.The Scottish Antique & Arts CentreThe 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.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 Marshall family of Marshall's Farm Shop at Kintore have won the Royal Northern Agricultural Society's Good Farming Practice Award.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 month Mary Queen of Scots spent in Jedburgh in 1566 was a turning point in her life.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 white-tailed eagle was seen near Ullapool.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.How big was the official crowd when Scotland played England at Hampden Park, Glasgow, in 1937?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 whisky bar at Dornoch Castle in Sutherland has been named Whisky Bar of the Year at the 2026 Scottish Licensed Trade News Awards.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'.James Seton carved his initials and his wife's above the door of Greenknowe Tower in 1581, and the original iron gate survives.Before planes landed on Traigh Mhor, the beach at the north end of Barra belonged to the cockle pickers, and they never left.The tune that greets the US president began in a poem set on which Scottish loch?Ebenezer Place, in Wick in Caithness, is the shortest street in the world, at just 2.05 metres long with a single door.Nick Gardner was over 80 when he set out to climb every Munro, the Scottish mountains over 3,000 feet, and he finished in two years.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.Corrour, on Rannoch Moor in the Highlands, is the highest mainline railway station in the UK, and no public road leads to it.Lindores: The Farm Above the TayRobert Andrew, a photographer and mountain path builder, has photographed his crew for ten years on an old Hasselblad film camera with no batteries to fail in the cold.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.True or false: marmalade was invented in Dundee, after a Spanish ship carrying Seville oranges sheltered from a storm in the harbour.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.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.Woodside Lodge: The Jewel of Loch GoilAndrew Cowderoy, who runs Boath Cabin near Nairn, says the place to go on a rainy day is Culbin Forest, where the Scots pines give shelter from wind, rain and snow.Fingal's Cave, on the uninhabited island of Staffa off Mull, inspired Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture after the composer visited in 1829.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.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.Mills Observatory, on Balgay Hill in Dundee, is billed as the only full-time public observatory in Britain, and its dome is made of papier-mâché.Burns set the witches' dance in Tam o' Shanter at Alloway Auld Kirk, where his own father lies buried.Spey Bay, where the River Spey meets the Moray Firth near Elgin, has the longest shingle beach in Scotland.Elaine Campbell, who runs Camella Crafts in Craighouse on Jura, makes her gifts from what the island gives her, from deer antler to old whisky barrels.Every issue we have printed.When Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh, died in 1922, every telephone in North America fell silent for a minute in his honour.Isobel Hutchison, who grew up at Carlowrie Castle near Edinburgh, walked across Iceland after her plan was met with derision, and became known as 'The Quiet Explorer'.Thomas Blake Glover, from Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire, helped found the company that became Mitsubishi and was honoured by the Emperor of Japan.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Our latest collections.Princess Margaret was born at Glamis Castle, in Angus.Gannets were seen in Edinburgh.Sam Heughan, the star of Outlander, grew up in rural Galloway, where most of his family's friends were musicians and craftspeople.Keny Drew, a stained glass maker based in Crail in Fife, trained as a photographer and now puts screen-printed images into his glass.The cliffs at Eshaness in Shetland are built from what a volcano threw out 395 million years ago.Scotland's national poet is known as the Makar, from the old Scots word for 'maker', used mostly for a maker of verses.Foraged Kelp Miso RamenTrue or false: the Picts, the people who carved Scotland's Pictish symbol stones, vanished overnight.Cultybraggan, near Comrie, was one of only two maximum-security camps in Britain for German prisoners.One of Arran's French kitchens started out in a pale blue vintage Peugeot van called Pierre.Montrose Air Station Museum, in Angus, stands on the site of Britain's first operational military airfield.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.Half of One, Isle of Skye.CillThe Ceilidh Place in Ullapool is on the shortlist for Venue of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards.Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island, would not join his family's lighthouse business, yet his poem The Light-Keeper looks out from the lamp room itself.The story goes that the grassy mound in the middle of the 17th fairway at Cruden Bay Golf Club is a grave from a battle in 1012.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.The concrete pylons along the causeway to Cramond Island were a boom against boats in the Second World War.The poet Robert Burns stayed in Cullen, on the Moray Firth, in 1787, and Robert the Bruce's wife is said to be buried at the town's Auld Kirk.A common seal was seen near Lochmaddy.What does the name of Cape Wrath, the north-west tip of mainland Britain, mean?Why Slow Travel Could be Here to StayThis is Rosemarkie in autumn.Antoine and Elisa, from Brittany and Burgundy, make sea salt on the Isle of Skye using nothing but the sea, sun and wind.Subscribe to Hidden Scotland.From Glenmore in the Cairngorms, the Cairngorm Reindeer Herd's hill trip ends with a short session of feeding the reindeer by hand.The Old Man of Hoy, the towering sea stack off the island of Hoy in Orkney, has a tall tale attached to its first climb.The ferry to the Isle of Raasay, the MV Hallaig, was the world's first hybrid-electric ferry, says Calum Gillies, an artist who grew up on the island.Dryburgh Abbey was founded beside the Tweed.Places to Stay in ArgyllA 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.Morvern Graham, an artist and storyteller, says that moving from the city to a solitary cliff-top house above the North Sea transformed her life and her work.The Old Man of Hoy, the sea stack off the island of Hoy in Orkney, has drawn some remarkable climbers over the years.Loch Affric, in the Highlands, has appeared in which Hollywood film?The Kelpies, at Falkirk, honour the Clydesdale, the working horse that powered Scottish industry.The Black Shed: An Interview with Blair HunterA dipper was seen in Aberdeen.Eastfield, 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.Monkstadt House, near Uig, was once the seat of the MacDonald chiefs, and Bonnie Prince Charlie came ashore on the shore below it.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.Stories from Scotland.A former sailor and diver spent years researching the people buried at a ruined church near Oban, then made the signs that tell their stories himself.Legend says the rare fairy foxgloves on the walls of Dundrennan Abbey, in Dumfries and Galloway, only grow where Roman soldiers once trod.Distilleries in Argyll and Bute.Distilleries in Argyll and Bute.Distilleries in Argyll and Bute.Distilleries in Argyll and Bute.Distilleries in Argyll and Bute.Distilleries in Argyll and Bute.Distilleries in Argyll and Bute.True or false: John o' Groats is the most northerly point of mainland Britain.When the writer Rosie Steer eloped to Highland Perthshire, she married by a waterfall in a forest near Dunkeld, on her fifteenth anniversary as a couple.The youngest prisoner of war held at Edinburgh Castle was six years old.Issue 13 is out now.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.In 1892 Tommy Dewar set off round the world to sell his family's whisky, and threw bottles into the sea along the way.Pink-footed geese were seen near Birnam Place, Dundee.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.Give a magazine subscription.Alexander II died in 1249, thirty-five years into his reign. Where is he buried?Eskfield, a Palladian spa house of 1714 on the Penicuik Estate just south of Edinburgh, has been restored as a place to stay.Some good places to go, newly added to the site.V&A Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show is on today.Restaurants and cafés in Argyll and Bute.Restaurants and cafés in Argyll and Bute.Restaurants and cafés in Argyll and Bute.Restaurants and cafés in Argyll and Bute.Restaurants and cafés in Argyll and Bute.Restaurants and cafés in Argyll and Bute.Discover Borradill with owner and interior designer Claire MookerjeeWhen Bill Gault, later the last of Scotland's lighthouse keepers, was posted to Copinsay Lighthouse in Orkney, his son kept in touch by radio from Stromness.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.Before the River Clyde was deepened in the 1700s, ships could not reach Glasgow. Where was their cargo unloaded instead?Some good places to stay, newly added to the site.Laura Wilson, who runs The Dundonald guesthouse in Culross, Fife, opened The Mercat café and shop in the old village butcher's because her guests kept asking where she found things.Things to do and walks in Argyll and Bute.Things to do and walks in Argyll and Bute.Things to do and walks in Argyll and Bute.Things to do and walks in Argyll and Bute.Things to do and walks in Argyll and Bute.Things to do and walks in Argyll and Bute.Things to do and walks in Argyll and Bute.The NuckelaveeHave you been to Isle of Lewis?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.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.Guess where this is?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.Scotland's first surfer is said to be William 'Willy' Tait, a fisherman from Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire, who saw surfing on television and went south to find it.