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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 ScotlandJohnshaven Cloudy in Aberdeenshire, and the sun sets at 16:40.Watch Scotland live
  1. The moonWatch Scotland liveThe moon is full tonight.
  2. SalmonThe HermitageThe River Braan at the Hermitage is running higher than usual, and that is when salmon are most often seen leaping at the falls.
  3. Just openedCaithnessCastletown Mill in Caithness, built in 1818, is a whisky distillery now.
  4. On todaySutherlandAutumn Highland Festival is on in Dornoch today.
  5. NewsOuter HebridesFlavour in Tarbert has been awarded three AA Rosettes.

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.

The Daily for 26 October, from Scotland with love. A waterfall tumbles over mossy rocks into a woodland pool, autumn leaves scattered on the water.
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
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Just addedAdded yesterday

We've just added Folktober Fest to the website.

Dornoch Castle Hotel holds Folktober Fest, an evening of street food and folk music, on Saturday 31 October.

Find out more about Folktober Fest
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 11Issue 11Autumn / Winter 2025–26

Zanna Wilson, an artist who runs the Watermill Gallery in Aberfeldy, Highland Perthshire, says the town's community Facebook page gives the most reliable northern lights alerts.

Zanna has lived in Aberfeldy since 2008, and she tells visitors to join the Aberfeldy Community page before they arrive. It is the go-to place for local events, helping hands and lost property, and she says the town has seen the northern lights about eight times in the past four years. 'Someone always posts the best viewing spots straight away!' she says. She loves the sense of community, and finds Aberfeldy feels more like a village than a town. In autumn the tree colours are spectacular too, best seen on a drive through Glen Lyon or a climb up Drummond Hill.

Read the full story in Issue 11
TodayFor today's weatherArdnamurchanNc'nean DistilleryAttractionFort WilliamBen Nevis DistilleryTourCaithnessOld Pulteney DistilleryAttractionIsle of MullTobermory distilleryTourArdnamurchanArdnamurchan DistilleryAttractionScottish BordersBorders DistilleryTour

Cold enough for a dram.

5° 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
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Hidden Scotland, the magazineThe magazine

Issue 13

The autumn and winter issue is here.

Get Issue 13
WildlifeThis weekSeen 15 timesRed deerSeen 11 times · Hogganfield LochWhooper swanSeen 7 timesGolden eagleSeen 6 times · Argyll and ButeDipperSeen 6 timesCommon sealSeen 5 timesRed squirrelSeen 3 times · East LothianPink-footed gooseSeen 3 times · FifeOtterSeen twiceGannetSeen once · Dunain CottageRed kiteSeen onceWhite-tailed eagleSeen once · Dumfries and GallowayBarnacle gooseSeen onceMinke whaleSeen once · AngusPine marten

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: 15 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
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 Leslie Odom in Jr. in concert to the website.

Leslie Odom, Jr., the Tony-winning Aaron Burr of Hamilton, sings at the Edinburgh Playhouse on Sunday 25 October.

Find out more about Leslie Odom in Jr. in concert
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 10Issue 10Spring / Summer 2025

Hugo Macdonald and James Stevens opened Bard, their shop of Scottish craft, on two floors of Scotland's oldest customs building in Leith, Edinburgh.

The pair met on a blind date. Hugo grew up on the Isle of Skye at the Kinloch Lodge hotel, and James trained as an architect. The pandemic gave them the push to stop waiting, and in spring 2022 they spotted online that the building in Leith was becoming vacant. Within days they set off on a ten-week journey round Scotland, visiting sixty studios, workshops and factories to meet the makers. As Hugo says, 'Nothing beats drinking three cups of tea out of a potter's own mug in their studio in rural Galloway to get a feel for their work'. They named the shop after the traditional Celtic storyteller, and each piece in it is chosen for its story.

See Bard · Edinburgh
The moonTonight

The moon is full tonight.

A full moon rises around sunset and is up all night. Cloud is forecast over much of the country, so watch for gaps. It looks biggest when it is low, just after it rises in the east.

Watch Scotland live
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
SnowYesterday

About 14 centimetres of snow fell on the summit of Ben Macdui, Britain's second highest mountain, yesterday.

There was snow on Cairn Gorm as well. The figure is from the weather model for the hill, not a measuring stick, so take it as about right. If you are going onto the hills, read the mountain forecast and go equipped for winter.

Watch Scotland live