Things to do in Scotland
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Bar 91
By day this happy, buzzy bar serves excellent meals, far better than your average pub food. Salads, pasta and burgers are among the many tasty offerings, and in summer tables spill out onto the sidewalk – ideal for some people-watching.
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Reading Rooms
Dundee’s hippest venue is an arty, bohemian hang-out in a run-down former library that hosts some of Scotland’s best indie club nights. Live gigs have ranged from island singer-songwriter Colin MacIntyre (aka Mull Historical Society) to Ayrshire rock band Biffy Clyro.
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Bow Bar
One of the city's best traditional-style pubs (it's not as old as it looks), serving a range of excellent real ales and a vast selection of malt whiskies, the Bow Bar often has standing-room only on Friday and Saturday evenings.
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Sub Club
Saturdays at the Sub Club are one of Glasgow's legendary nights, offering serious clubbing with a sound system that aficionados usually rate as the city's best. The claustrophobic, last-one-in vibe is not for those faint of heart.
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Beehive Inn
The historic Beehive, a former coaching inn, is a big, buzzing party pub, with a range of real ales, but the main attraction is sitting out the back in the Grassmarket's only beer garden, with views up to the castle.
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Greensleeves
If you want to buy a designer dress without breaking the bank, have a flick through the racks at Greensleeves, which specialises in high-quality secondhand clothes, handbags and shoes, many with designer labels.
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Mr Wood’s Fossils
Founded by the famous fossil hunter who discovered ‘Lizzie’, the oldest fossil reptile yet discovered, this fascinating speciality shop has a wide range of minerals, gems, fossils and other geological gifts.
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King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
One of the city’s premier live-music pub venues, the excellent King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut hosts bands every night of the week. Oasis were signed after playing here.
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Ghost and Gore Walking Tour of Edinburgh
80 minutes (Departs Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
by Viator
A unique and highly entertaining tour of Old Town Edinburgh. Your guide is Alexander Clapperton (deceased), who was an Edinburgh Cemetery Director during the…Not LP reviewed
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Skye Guides
A two-day introduction-to-rock-climbing course costs around £360, and a private mountain guide can be hired for around £200 a day (both rates apply for up to two clients).
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Last Drop
The name commemorates the gallows that used to stand nearby, but the only swingers today are the pub's partying clientele, largely students and backpackers.
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B Jannetta
B Jannetta is a St Andrews institution, offering 52 varieties of ice cream, from the weird (Irn-Bru sorbet) to the decadent (strawberries-and-champagne).
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Howie's
A chic bistro dishing up great-value 'modern Scottish' cuisine accompanied by very reasonably priced house wine. Two-/three-course dinner £18/20.
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Wee Curry Shop
Great home-cooked curries. It's wise to book – it's a snug place with a big reputation, a limited menu and a sensational-value two-course lunch. Cash only.
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O’Donnells Irish Pub
This Irish bar, opposite Oban Backpackers, has live entertainment – usually Celtic music – most nights.
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Baltic Bookshop
Good for local history books and maps.
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Isle of Skye Brewery
Distinctive Hebridean Gold ale, brewed with porridge oats.
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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 olde days of bearded warrior-kings…
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Royal Yacht Britannia
One of Scotland's biggest tourist attractions is the former Royal Yacht Britannia. She was the British royal family's floating home during their foreign travels from the time of her launch in 1953 until her decommissioning in 1997, and is now moored permanently in front of Ocean Terminal.
The tour, which you take at your own pace with an audioguide (available in 20 languages), gives an intriguing insight into the Queen's private tastes – Britannia was one of the few places where the royal family could enjoy true privacy. The entire ship is a monument to 1950s decor and technology, and the accommodation reveals Her Majesty's preference for simple, unfussy surroundings –…
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Scottish National Gallery
Designed by William Playfair, this imposing classical building with its Ionic porticoes dates from the 1850s. Its octagonal rooms, lit by skylights, have been restored to their original Victorian decor of deep-green carpets and dark-red walls.
The gallery houses an important collection of European art from the Renaissance to post-Impressionism, with works by Verrocchio (Leonardo da Vinci's teacher), Tintoretto, Titian, Holbein, Rubens, Van Dyck, Vermeer, El Greco, Poussin, Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Turner, Constable, Monet, Pissarro, Gauguin and Cézanne. Each January the gallery exhibits its collection of Turner watercolours, bequeathed by Henry Vaughan in 1900. Room X is…
reviewed
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Glasgow Cathedral
An attraction that shouldn't be missed, Glasgow Cathedral has a rare timelessness. The dark, imposing interior conjures up medieval might and can send a shiver down the spine. It's a shining example of Gothic architecture, and, unlike nearly all Scotland's cathedrals, survived the turmoil of the Reformation mobs almost intact. Most of the current building dates from the 15th century.
Entry is through a side door into the nave, which is hung with regimental colours. The wooden roof above has been restored many times since its original construction, but some of the timber dates from the 14th century; note the impressive shields. Many of the cathedral's stunning, narrow…
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Palace of Holyroodhouse
This palace is the royal family's official residence in Scotland, but is more famous as the 16th-century home of the ill-fated Mary, Queen of Scots. The palace developed from a guest house, attached to Holyrood Abbey, which was extended by King James IV in 1501. The oldest surviving part of the building, the northwestern tower, was built in 1529 as a royal apartment for James V and his wife, Mary of Guise. Mary, Queen of Scots spent six turbulent years here, during which time she debated with John Knox, married both her first and second husbands, and witnessed the murder of her secretary David Rizzio. The palace is closed to the public when the royal family is visiting…
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Grassmarket
The site of a cattle market from the 15th century until the start of the 20th century, the Grassmarket has always been a focal point of the Old Town. It was also the city's main place of execution, and over 100 martyred Covenanters are commemorated by a monument at the eastern end, where the gallows used to stand. The notorious murderers Burke and Hare (p000) operated from a now-vanished close off the western end.
Nowadays the broad, open square, lined by tall tenements and dominated by the looming castle, has many lively pubs and restaurants, including the White Hart Inn, which was once patronised by Robert Burns. Claiming to be the city’s oldest pub in continuous use…
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Marischal College & Museum
Marischal College, founded in 1593 by the 5th Earl Marischal, 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). A recent renovation project saw the facade returned to it original silvery grey glory, and the building now houses Aberdeen City Council's new headquarters.
Founded in 1786, the Marischal Museum houses a fascinating collection of material donated by graduates and friends…
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Greyfriars Kirk & Kirkyard
One of Edinburgh's most famous churches, Greyfriars Kirk was built on the site of a Franciscan friary and opened for worship on Christmas Day 1620. In 1638 the National Covenant was signed here, rejecting Charles I's attempts to impose episcopacy and a new English prayer book on the Scots, and affirming the independence of the Scottish Church. Many who signed were later executed at the Grassmarket and, in 1679, 1200 Covenanters were held prisoner in terrible conditions in the southwestern corner of the kirkyard. There's a small exhibition inside the church.
Surrounding the church, hemmed in by high walls and overlooked by the brooding presence of the castle, Greyfriars…
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