Hidden Scotland
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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 ScotlandGlen Coe Partly cloudy in Lochaber, and the sun sets at 18:10.Watch Scotland live
  1. Northern LightsKylesku BridgeThe Northern Lights may be seen from the north of Scotland tonight.
  2. Shooting starsWatch Scotland liveThe Orionids are at their best on Wednesday night.
  3. WildlifeCaithnessA common seal was seen in Caithness on Thursday.
  4. NewsOrkneyThe Pickaquoy Centre in Kirkwall is due to open its new mountain bike trails at the end of October or the start of November.
  5. WildlifeOrkneyGannets were seen near Orkney Islands on Thursday.
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 yesterday

We've just added the Forge Experience at Gretna Green to the website.

Half an hour with Gretna Green's resident blacksmith, pressing your own commemorative coin from hot metal to take home.

Find out more about the Forge Experience at Gretna Green
From the magazineThe printed copy of The Best of SkyeThe Best of Skye

The painter Ellis O'Connor works outdoors on the Isle of Skye in winter, sometimes in storms, so that the wind, rain and sea become part of each canvas.

Originally from Dundee, Ellis now has her studio at Drumfearn, near the southern edge of the island. She chases the movement of the weather with broad brush strokes and layered oils, and her canvases are large, abstract and expressive. Torrin, where mountain meets loch and the light can change by the minute, has become a personal touchstone, and it is where she watches the weather come through the valley. Her studio is by appointment only, often because she is out painting in the elements, but her prints and art cards are sold at Skye Gift Company in Broadford and Café Cuil in Carbost.

Read the full story in The Best of Skye
TodayFor today's weatherIsle of SkyeThe Storr SanctuaryWalkIsle of SkyeOronsay, Loch BracadaleWalkIsle of SkyePoint of Sleat WalkWalkIsle of SkyeWaternish PointWalkIsle of SkyeRubha Hunish WalkWalkIsle of SkyeIdrigill Point and Macleod's MaidensWalk

Today calls for a walk.

10° and cloudy across Scotland. Dry enough for the boots.

See them all
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 12 timesRed deerSeen 10 times · Ruchazie, GlasgowWhooper swanSeen 8 times · East LothianPink-footed gooseSeen 6 times · North BerwickGannetSeen 6 timesGrey sealSeen 5 timesCommon sealSeen 4 timesWhite-tailed eagleSeen 4 times · GlasgowDipperSeen 4 timesOtterSeen 4 timesRed squirrelSeen 3 timesBarnacle gooseSeen 3 timesPine martenSeen 3 times · Mid ArgyllBeaverSeen twiceGolden eagleSeen oncePtarmiganSeen once · Endrick WaterAtlantic salmonSeen onceMountain hareSeen once · HighlandBadgerSeen onceRed grouse

The wildlife people spotted in Scotland this week.

Red deer are Britain's largest land mammal, and in autumn the stags roar through the rut, and this week they were the animal reported most often in Scotland: 12 sightings, the latest in Argyll and Bute Council. 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 yesterday

We've just added the Smithy Experience at the Gretna Green Forge to the website.

An hour at your own anvil in Gretna Green's forge, learning the basics of blacksmithing and making a fireside poker to take home.

Find out more about the Smithy Experience at the Gretna Green Forge
Did you knowLucy GillmoreWritten byLucy GillmoreMore from Lucy

Eskfield, a Palladian spa house of 1714 on the Penicuik Estate just south of Edinburgh, has been restored as a place to stay.

‘Just south of Edinburgh, Penicuik Estate at the foot of the Pentland hills has been in the Clerk family since 1654, successive generations managing the 7,660-acre property, and, more recently, doing up the estate’s cottages. Eskfield, one of the collection, a Palladian spa house built in 1714 and surrounded by its own walled garden, has been restored. Along with 20km of walking and cycling trails, added extras include a private chef, whisky tastings, guided estate tours, private yoga classes and falconry.’

Lucy GillmoreWritten byLucy GillmoreMore from LucyRead the full story
Northern LightsTonight

The Northern Lights may be seen from the north of Scotland tonight.

A strong display is forecast for tonight. The sky is forecast to be clear over Assynt and Ardnamurchan. Go somewhere dark after ten, look north, and give your eyes twenty minutes. Nobody can promise the aurora, so take a flask.

See Kylesku Bridge
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