Hidden Scotland
Sign in

Places to visit
in Lothian.

It’s 20:54 in Lothian.
Lothian

The Forth coast and the Pentland Hills.

The Lothians wrap round Edinburgh on three sides, and they make wonderfully easy days out from the city. East Lothian runs along the Firth of Forth in sandy bays, links courses and seaside towns, with the Bass Rock white with gannets offshore. There are red sandstone castles on the cliffs, a richly carved chapel at Roslin and a sculpture park in the woods west of the city. To the south, reservoirs and walks lie at the foot of the Pentland Hills above Balerno. Trains from Edinburgh run to North Berwick and Dunbar, so you can leave the car behind.

CastlesBeachesMuseumsGalleriesGardensOn screenVillages
From our archive20 hours agoLothianGlenkinchie DistilleryEdinburghSteampunk CoffeeLothianCoade Stone ColumnsLothianForth BridgeLothianDunbar CastleLothianDunbar Battery

Lothian this autumn, in our photographs.

Six places in Lothian, each as we found it.

Read the guide
Places to visit20 hours ago

Portobello Promenade.

The Victorian promenade along Portobello's beach, just east of Edinburgh city centre.

See the place
Did you know20 hours ago

Phantassie Doocot, across the river from Preston Mill, was built to house 500 pigeons.

A doocot, the Scots word for a dovecote, stands across the river from Preston Mill in the Lothians. Phantassie Doocot was built in the 16th century to house 500 pigeons.

Photograph: Debbie Lister on Google MapsSee Preston Mill · Lothian
From our guide20 hours ago

North Berwick Law.

Rising sharply behind the town, the Law is the plug of an ancient volcano, 187 metres high and easy to spot from all over East Lothian. A waymarked path climbs from the car park at its foot, steep in places, through gorse and rock to the top. Up there you'll find the ruins of old lookout posts and an arch made from a whale's jawbone, a replica of the jawbones that have stood on the summit since 1709. The view takes in the red roofs of the town, the islands in the Forth and the coast of Fife beyond.

See the place
Did you know19 hours ago

The north range of Linlithgow Palace collapsed in 1607.

The original north range of the palace collapsed in 1607. The present structure was added between 1618 and 1624, and has a remarkable courtyard facade with a central turnpike, the old word for a spiral stair.

See Linlithgow Palace · Lothian
Places to visit19 hours ago

Red Phone Box - Balerno Village Trust.

Cared for by the Balerno Village Trust, this BT classic red phone box was decommissioned in 2019 – but saved as a local landmark by a group of residents

See the place
From the JournalThe journal19 hours agoLothianThe Bonnie BadgerRestaurantLothianArcherfield Walled GardenAttractionLothianLaura Thomas Co

Meet Laura, founder of Laura Thomas Co. A luxury lifestyle brand

Laura Thomas Co. is a luxury lifestyle brand supplying scents, textiles and homewares made with as little impact on the planet as possible, inspired by nature and coastal living in Scotland.

Read the story
True or false19 hours ago

True or false: Samuel Johnson is on record calling the library at Newhailes, near Musselburgh, "the most learned drawing-room in Europe".

From our guide18 hours ago

Belhaven Bridge.

On the wide sands of Belhaven Bay, just west of Dunbar, a little metal footbridge crosses a stream on its way to the sea. At low tide it's simply the way onto the beach. When the tide comes in, the sand around it disappears and the bridge is left standing alone in the water, which is how it earned its name, the Bridge to Nowhere. The bay is part of John Muir Country Park, with dunes, salt marsh and plenty of waders. Check the tide times if you want to cross, and walk out from Dunbar along the clifftop path.

See the place
Places to visit18 hours ago

Escape Sauna.

Two saunas with cold plunges on the clifftop above Quarrel Sands at North Berwick, one wood-fired, looking out to the Bass Rock.

See the place
Did you know18 hours ago

The first fully commercial oil works in the world opened at Bathgate, in West Lothian, in 1851.

It belonged to the chemist James Young, who distilled oil from minerals mined nearby, among them torbanite and bituminous coal, and turned it into naphtha and lubricating oils. From 1856 his company also sold paraffin, and the paraffin oil it sold around the world earned him the name Paraffin Young. He was a lifelong friend of David Livingstone and gave generously towards Livingstone's expeditions in Africa. West Lothian's oil-shale industry peaked around 1892 with 120 works, before cheaper petroleum from Russia and America had almost ended it by 1919.

Read about it
From our collectionsA collection18 hours agoLothianDunbar Golf CourseLothianLuffness New Golf ClubLothianMuirfieldLothianNorth Berwick Golf Club

The Best Links in East Lothian

East Lothian has one links after another along the shore of the Forth. From championship courses to quiet members' clubs with a warm welcome for visitors, these are the links to play here.

See the whole collection