Editorial policy.
How places come to be on the site, where what we say about them comes from, how it is kept up to date, and how to tell us when something is wrong.
The short of it
Hidden Scotland is an independent guide and magazine about Scotland, founded in 2016. The magazine has been printed twice a year since 2020. This page says how places come to be on the site, where what we say about them comes from, and how to tell us when something is wrong.
What we write about
Places we would send a friend to: independent, made with care, run by people who live there, or simply beautiful. A chain, a corporate launch or a press release in other words does not get a page.
Every part of Scotland is written about on the same terms, and no region is put ahead of another.
Where the facts come from
Each fact on a place's page comes from somewhere that knows it: the place's own website and its own posts first, then the council, Historic Environment Scotland, NatureScot, the National Trust for Scotland, a museum or a newspaper of record.
What a place sells, what is inside it and who runs it come from the place itself, never from an old directory, which keeps its copy long after a place has changed. Where only an encyclopaedia says something, it is left out.
Find out more, at the foot of each place's page, lists the pages its details were read against.
Kept up to date
Every place's page says when its details were last checked. Each one is read again about every three months: opening times, prices, links, and whether it is still open. The date on the page changes only when that has been done.
A place that has closed for good comes off the site.
Photographs
Most of the photographs are our own, taken by us or by photographers we commission. Where we have none of a place, we use the place's own photographs or ones shared on Google, credited to the person who took them.
Adverts and bookings
Places that are members of Hidden Scotland can advertise on the site. Every advert is marked "An advert".
When you book a room, a table or a ticket through a link on the site, the booking is between you and that business, on their terms.
When something is wrong
Opening times, prices and seasons change, and now and then a place closes without telling anyone. If something on a page is wrong, write to hello@hiddenscotland.com and say which page. We check it, put it right and change the date on the page.
Last updated 20 October 2026.