Sights in Central Scotland
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British Golf Museum
The British Golf Museum has an extraordinarily comprehensive overview of the history and development of the game and the role of St Andrews in it. Favourite fact: bad players were formerly known as ‘foozlers’. Interactive panels allow you to relive former British Opens (watch Paul Azinger snapping his putter in frustration), and there’s a large collection of memorabilia from Open winners both male and female.
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Scone Palace
'So thanks to all at once and to each one, whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.' This line from Macbeth indicates the importance of this place (pronounced 'skoon'), 2 miles north of Perth. The palace itself was built in 1580 on a site intrinsic to Scottish history. Here in 838, Kenneth MacAlpin became the first king of a united Scotland and brought the Stone of Destiny, on which Scottish kings were ceremonially invested, to Moot Hill. In 1296 Edward I of England carted the talisman off to Westminster Abbey, where it remained for 700 years before being returned to Scotland.
These days, however, Scone doesn't really conjure up ye olden days of bearded warrior-kings swe…
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Marischal College & Museum
Across Broad St from Provost Skene's House is Marischal College, founded in 1593 by the 5th Earl Marischal, and merged with King's College (founded 1495) in 1860 to create the modern University of Aberdeen. The huge and impressive facade in Perpendicular Gothic style – unusual in having such elaborate masonry hewn from notoriously hard-to-work granite – dates from 1906 and is the world's second-largest granite structure (after L'Escorial near Madrid). Recently the building was being converted into Aberdeen City Council's new headquarters.
Founded in 1786, the Marischal Museum houses a fascinating collection of material donated by graduates and friends of the university…
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St Andrews Old Course
Everyone knows that St Andrews is the home of golf, but few people realise that anyone can play on the Old Course. Although it lies beside the exclusive, all-male (female waiters are, unsurprisingly, allowed) Royal & Ancient Golf Club, it's a public course and not owned by the club. If you baulk at the green fees, stroll the Old Course in the evening instead.
The trust runs frequent guided walks of the Old Course; these take half an hour and will take you to famous landmarks like the Swilcan Bridge and the Road Hole bunker. If you play on a windy day, expect those scores to balloon: Nick Faldo famously stated that when it blows, 'even the seagulls walk'.
Advance bookings …
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Stirling Castle
Hold Stirling and you control Scotland. This maxim has ensured that a fortress of some kind has existed here since prehistoric times. Commanding superb views, you cannot help drawing parallels with Edinburgh castle – but many find Stirling's fortress more atmospheric; the location, architecture and historical significance combine to make it a grand and memorable sight. This means it draws plenty of visitors, so it's advisable to visit in the afternoon; many tourists come on day-trips from Edinburgh or Glasgow, so you may have the castle to yourself by about 4pm.
Admission costs for the castle will rise once the Royal Palace opens. The mooted price was £14 for adults, whi…
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Balmoral Castle
Eight miles west of Ballater lies Balmoral Castle, the Queen’s Highland holiday home, screened from the road by a thick curtain of trees. Built for Queen Victoria in 1855 as a private residence for the royal family, it kicked off the revival of the Scottish Baronial style of architecture that characterises so many of Scotland’s 19th-century country houses.
The admission fee includes an interesting and well thought-out audioguide, but the tour is very much an outdoor one through garden and grounds; as for the castle itself, only the ballroom, which displays a collection of Landseer paintings and royal silver, is open to the public. Don’t expect to see the Queen’s priva…
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National Wallace Monument
Towering over Scotland’s narrow waist, this nationalist memorial is so Victorian Gothic it deserves circling bats and ravens. It commemorates the bid for Scottish independence depicted in the film Braveheart. From the tourist office, walk or shuttle-bus up the hill to the building itself. Once there, break the climb up the narrow staircase inside to admire Wallace’s 66 inches of broadsword and see the man himself re-created in a 3-D audiovisual display. More staid is the marble pantheon of lugubrious Scottish heroes, but the view from the top over the flat, green gorgeousness of the Forth Valley, including the site of Wallace’s 1297 victory over the English at Stirling …
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Falkland Palace
Rising majestically out of the town centre and dominating the skyline is the outstanding 16th-century Falkland Palace, a country residence of the Stuart monarchs. Mary, Queen of Scots is said to have spent the happiest days of her life ‘playing the country girl in the woods and parks’ at Falkland. The palace was built between 1501 and 1541 to replace a castle dating from the 12th century; French and Scottish craftspeople were employed to create a masterpiece of Scottish Gothic architecture. The King’s bedchamber and the chapel, with its beautiful painted ceiling, have both been restored. Don’t miss the prodigious 17th-century Flemish hunting tapestries in the hall. One fe…
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HM Frigate Unicorn
One of Dundee’s floating tourist attractions retains the authentic atmosphere of a salty old sailing ship. Built in 1824, the 46-gun Unicorn is the oldest British-built ship still afloat – she was mothballed soon after launching and never saw action. By the mid-19th century sailing ships were outclassed by steam and the Unicorn served as a gunpowder store, then later as a training vessel. When it was proposed to break up the ship for scrap in the 1960s, a preservation society was formed. Wandering around the four decks gives you an excellent impression of what it must have been like for the crew forced to live in such cramped conditions. The Unicorn is berthed in Vict…
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Aberdeen Art Gallery
Behind the grand facade of Aberdeen Art Gallery is a cool, marble-lined space exhibiting the work of contemporary Scottish and English painters, such as Gwen Hardie, Stephen Conroy, Trevor Sutton and Tim Ollivier. There are also several landscapes by Joan Eardley, who lived in a cottage on the cliffs near Stonehaven in the 1950s and '60s and painted tempestuous oils of the North Sea and poignant portraits of slum children. Among the Pre-Raphaelite works upstairs, look out for the paintings of Aberdeen artist William Dyce (1806–64), ranging from religious works to rural scenes.
Downstairs is a large, empty, circular white room, with fish-scaled balustrades evoking the bri…
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Findhorn Foundation
Hippies old and new should check out the Findhorn Foundation, an international spiritual community founded in 1962. There’s a small permanent population of around 150, but the community receives thousands of visitors each year. With no formal creed, the community is dedicated to cooperation with nature, ‘dealing with work, relationships and our environment in new and more fulfilling ways’, and fostering ‘a deeper sense of the sacred in everyday life’. Projects include an eco-village, a biological sewage-treatment plant and a wind-powered generator. Guided tours (£5) start from the visitor centre at 2pm on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from April to November, and …
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Aberdeen Beach
Aberdeen Beach is 800m east of the city centre. A spectacular 2-mile sweep of clean, golden sand stretching between the mouths of the Rivers Dee and Don. At one time Aberdeen Beach was a good, old-fashioned British seaside resort, but the availability of cheap package holidays has lured Scottish holidaymakers away from its somewhat chilly delights. On a warm summer's day, though, it's still an excellent beach.
You can get away from the fun fair atmosphere by walking north towards the more secluded part of the beach. There is a bird-watching hide on the south bank of the River Don, between the beach and King St, which leads back south towards Old Aberdeen.
Buses 14 and 15 (…
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Castle Menzies
About 1½ miles west of town by the B846, Castle Menzies is the impressive restored 16th-century seat of the chief of the clan Menzies (ming-iss). The Z-plan tower house is magnificently located against a backdrop of Scottish forest. And inside it doesn’t disappoint: the place smells just like a castle should – musty and lived in. It reeks of authenticity despite extensive restoration work and is a highly recommended ramble. Check out the fireplace in the dungeon-like kitchens and the gaudy great hall upstairs, with windows unfurling a ribbon of lush, green countryside extending into wooded hills beyond the estate. You’ll get in for free if you share a surname with the ca…
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Scottish Lighthouse Museum
The excellent Scottish Lighthouse Museum provides a fascinating insight into the network of lights that have safeguarded the Scottish coast for over 100 years, and the men and women who built and maintained them (plus a sobering fact – that all the world’s lighthouses are to be decommissioned by 1 January 2080). A guided tour takes you to the top of the old Kinnaird Head lighthouse, built on top of a converted 16th-century castle; the engineering is so precise that the 4.5-ton light assembly can be rotated by pushing with a single finger. The anemometer here measured the strongest wind speed ever recorded in the UK, with a gust of 123 knots (142mph) on 13 February 1989.…
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RRS Discovery
The three masts of Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s famous polar expedition vessel the RRS Discovery dominate the riverside to the south of the city centre. The ship was built in Dundee in 1900, with a wooden hull at least half a metre thick to survive the pack ice, and sailed for the Antarctic in 1901 where she spent two winters trapped in the ice. From 1931 on she was laid up in London where her condition steadily deteriorated, until she was rescued by the efforts of Peter Scott (son of Robert) and the Maritime Trust, and restored to her 1925 condition. In 1986 she was given a berth in her home port of Dundee, where she became a symbol of the city’s regeneration.
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Scotland’s Secret Bunker
Three miles north of Anstruther, off the B9131 to St Andrews, is Scotland’s Secret Bunker. This fascinating Cold War relic was to be one of Britain’s underground command centres and a home for Scots leaders in the event of nuclear war. Hidden 30m underground and surrounded by nearly 5m of reinforced concrete are the austere operation rooms, communication centre and dormitories. It’s very authentic and uses artefacts from the period, which make for an absorbing exploration. The Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has an exhibit, bringing home the realities of Britain’s current nuclear Trident policy. The bunker is a gripping experience and highly recommended.…
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City Square
The heart of Dundee is City Sq, flanked to the south by the 1930s facade of Caird Hall, which was gifted to the city by a textile magnate and is now home to the City Chambers. A more recent addition to the square, unveiled in 2001, is a bronze statue of Desperate Dan, the lantern-jawed hero of children's comic the Dandy (he's clutching a copy in his right hand), which has been published in Dundee since 1937.
Pedestrianised High St leads west into Nethergate, flanked to the north by St Mary's Church. Most of the church dates from the 19th century, but the Old Steeple was built around 1460.
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Castle Campbell
Charming Dollar is about 11 miles east of Stirling in the lower Ochil Hills. Castle Campbell is a 20-minute walk up Dollar Glen, into the wooded hills above the town. It’s a spooky old stronghold of the Dukes of Argyll and stands between two ravines; you can clearly see why it was known as ‘Castle Gloom’. There’s been a fortress of some kind on this site from the 11th century, but the present structure dates from the 15th century. The castle was sacked by Cromwell in 1654, but the tower is well preserved. From the little car park near the castle there’s a great ramble with sweeping views over Castle Campbell and the surrounding country.
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Discovery Point
The three masts of Captain Robert Falcon Scott's famous polar expedition vessel the RRS Discovery dominate the riverside to the south of the city centre. The ship was built in Dundee in 1900, with a wooden hull at least half a metre thick to survive the pack ice, and sailed for the Antarctic in 1901 where it spent two winters trapped in the ice. From 1931 on it was laid up in London where its condition steadily deteriorated, until it was rescued by the efforts of Peter Scott (son of Robert) and the Maritime Trust, and restored to its 1925 condition. In 1986 the ship was given a berth in its home port of Dundee, where it became a symbol of the city's regeneration.
Exhibitio…
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Aberdeen Maritime Museum
Overlooking the nautical bustle of the harbour is the Maritime Museum. Centred on a three-storey replica of a North Sea oil production platform, its exhibits explain all you ever wanted to know about the petroleum industry. Other galleries, some situated in Provost Ross's House, the oldest building in the city and part of museum, cover the shipbuilding, whaling and fishing industries. Sleek and speedy Aberdeen clippers were a 19th-century shipyard speciality, used by British merchants for the importation of tea, wool and exotic goods (opium, for instance) to Britain, and, on the return journey, the transportation of emigrants to Australia.
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St Andrews Castle
Not far from the cathedral and with dramatic coastline views, the castle is mainly in ruins, but the site itself is evocative. It was founded around 1200 as the bishop's fortified home. After the execution of Protestant reformers in 1545, other reformers retaliated by murdering Cardinal Beaton and taking over the castle. They spent almost a year holed up, during which they and their attackers dug a complex of siege tunnels, said to be the best surviving example of castle-siege engineering in Europe; you can walk (or stoop) along their damp mossy lengths. A tourist office gives a good audiovisual introduction and has a small collection of Pictish stones.
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Falkirk Wheel
Visitors can take boat trips on the Falkirk Wheel, spinning around on its giant gondolas. Boats leave every half-hour (hourly in winter) and travel from the visitor centre into the wheel, getting delivered to the Union Canal, high above. Boats then go through Roughcastle Tunnel before the descent on the wheel and return trip to the visitor centre. Anyone with an interest in engineering marvels should not miss this boat ride – it’s great for kids, too. The nearby visitor centre explains the workings of the mighty wheel – it only takes the power of about eight toasters for a full rotation!
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Black Watch Museum
Housed in a mansion on the edge of North Inch, this museum honours what was once Scotland’s foremost regiment. Formed in 1725 to combat rural banditry, the Black Watch fought in numerous campaigns, re-created here with paintings, memorabilia and anecdotes. Little attempt at perspective is evident: there’s justifiable pride in the regiment’s role in the gruelling trench warfare of WWI, where it suffered nearly 30,000 casualties, but no sheepishness about less glorious colonial engagements, such as against the ‘Fuzzy Wuzzies’ of Sudan. In 2006 the Black Watch was subsumed into the new Royal Regiment of Scotland
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Provost Skene's House
Surrounded by concrete and glass office blocks in what was once the worst slum in Aberdeen is Provost Skene's House, a late-medieval turreted town house occupied in the 17th century by the provost (the Scottish equivalent of a mayor) Sir George Skene. It was also occupied for six weeks by the Duke of Cumberland on his way to Culloden in 1746. The tempera-painted ceiling with its religious symbolism, dating from 1622, is unusual for having survived the depredations of the Reformation. It's a period gem featuring earnest-looking angels, soldiers and St Peter with crowing cockerels.
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Montrose Basin Visitor Centre
At the southern edge of town, Montrose Basin Visitor Centre has indoor and outdoor hides, and viewing platforms with high-powered binoculars and remote-controlled TV cameras where you can zoom in on the local wildlife. In summer you can see curlews, oystercatchers and eider ducks – and perhaps an otter if you’re lucky – and in autumn the basin is invaded by huge flocks of pink-footed and greylag geese. The birdwatching is best from two hours after high tide till two hours before the next high tide – check times at any tourist office.
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