Must-see attractions in Scotland

  • Viking settlement at Skara Brae, Orkney islands, Scotland, Uk

    Skara Brae

    Orkney

    Predating Stonehenge and the pyramids of Giza, extraordinary Skara Brae is one of the world's most evocative prehistoric sites, and northern Europe’s best…

  • UK, Scotland, Glasgow, ceiling in St Mungo cathedral

    Glasgow Cathedral

    Glasgow

    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…

  • ROSLIN, SCOTLAND - JULY 18, 2016: Rosslyn Chapel (Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew), found by  by William Sinclair. It was mentioned in The Da Vinci Code book

    Rosslyn Chapel

    Scotland

    Many years may have passed since Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code and the subsequent film came out, but floods of visitors still descend on Scotland's…

  • Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom – December 20, 2019: Stirling Castle is a fortified wall sitting atop Castle Hill and is part of the Stirling Sill, a quartz-dolerite formation millions of years old. Records date it back to the early 12th century and the inner grounds are home to replicas of the famous Unicorn Tapestries. The castle offers spectacular views of Stirling from the Outer Defences.

    Stirling Castle

    Stirling

    Hold Stirling and you control Scotland. This maxim has ensured that a fortress of some kind has existed here since prehistoric times. You cannot help…

  • x-default

    Maeshowe

    Orkney

    Constructed about 5000 years ago, Maeshowe is an extraordinary place, a Stone Age tomb built from enormous sandstone blocks, some of which weighed many…

  • Culzean Castle & Country Park

    Southern Scotland

    The Scottish National Trust's flagship property, magnificent Culzean (kull-ane) is one of the most impressive of Scotland's stately homes. On approach the…

  • Bell on the Roal Yacht Britannia.

    Royal Yacht Britannia

    Leith

    Built on Clydeside, the former Royal Yacht Britannia was the British Royal Family's floating holiday home during their foreign travels from the time of…

  • Detail of main facade of Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

    Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

    Edinburgh

    Edinburgh's gallery of modern art is split between two impressive neoclassical buildings surrounded by landscaped grounds some 500m west of Dean Village…

  • Glasgow Riverside Museum, Zaha Hadid Architects, 2011, Exterior wide view of riverside facade

    Riverside Museum

    Glasgow

    This visually impressive modern museum at Glasgow Harbour owes its striking curved forms to late British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid. A transport museum…

  • Mackintosh House Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland.

    Mackintosh House

    Glasgow

    Attached to the Hunterian Art Gallery, this is a reconstruction of the first home that Charles Rennie Mackintosh bought with his wife, noted designer…

  • Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

    Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum

    Glasgow

    A magnificent sandstone building, this grand Victorian cathedral of culture is a fascinating and unusual museum, with a bewildering variety of exhibits…

  • Royal Botanic Garden

    Edinburgh

    Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Garden is the second-oldest institution of its kind in Britain (after Oxford), and one of the most respected in the world…

  • Paisley Abbey

    Paisley Abbey

    Greater Glasgow

    Paisley Abbey is well worth the short trip from Glasgow. This majestic Gothic building was founded in 1163 by Walter Fitzalan, first high steward of…

  • Highland Wildlife Park

    The Cairngorms

    This place features a drive-through safari park as well as animal enclosures offering the chance to view rarely seen native wildlife, such as wildcats,…

  • Herma Ness is the northernmost headland of Unst. It is a National Nature Reserve.

    Hermaness National Nature Reserve

    Shetland

    At marvellous Hermaness headland, a 4.5-mile round walk takes you to cliffs where gannets, fulmars and guillemots nest, and numerous puffins frolic. You…

  • Reflections of The Falkirk Wheel at night
1366835562
boat, calm, circles, colourful, famous, forth and clyde canal, imaginative, innovative, landmark, mechanism, nobody, outdoor, reflections, rotating, scenic, tranquil, unique, waterway

    Falkirk Wheel

    Central Scotland

    Completed in 2002, the Falkirk Wheel is a modern engineering marvel, a rotating boat lift that raises vessels 115ft from the Forth & Clyde Canal to the…

  • UK, Scotland, Glasgow, Glasgow Science Centre and Glasgow Tower on River Clyde

    Glasgow Science Centre

    Glasgow

    This brilliant science museum will keep the kids entertained for hours (that's middle-aged kids, too!). It brings science and technology alive through…

  • Edinburgh, Scotland - August 20, 2019, Jupiter Artland is a large unusual park with garden, rivers and sculptures; Shutterstock ID 1790431646; full: Digital; gl: 65050; netsuite: POI; your: Barbara Di Castro
1790431646

    Jupiter Artland

    Scotland

    The grounds of 17th-century Bonnington House, 10 miles west of Edinburgh, have been lovingly converted by owners and art patrons Robert and Nicky Wilson…

  • Glasgow School of Art

    Glasgow School of Art

    Glasgow

    In 2018, Charles Rennie Mackintosh's greatest building was gearing up for reopening after a devastating 2014 fire when, unbelievably, another blaze…

  • In geography and geology, a cliff is a vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually formed by rock that is resistant to erosion and weathering. Sedimentary rocks most likely to form cliffs include sandstone, limestone, chalk, and dolomite. Igneous rocks such as granite and basalt also often form cliffs.

    Isle of Noss

    Shetland

    Little Noss, 1.5 miles wide, lies just east of Bressay. High seacliffs harbour over 100,000 pairs of breeding seabirds, while inland heath supports…

  • Turquoise waters of Luskentyre Beach on the Isle of Harris.

    Luskentyre

    Outer Hebrides

    Luskentyre is one of the biggest and most beautiful beaches in Scotland, famed for its acres of low-tide white sands and turquoise waters. A minor road…

  • Sumburgh Head Visitor Centre

    Shetland

    High on the cliffs at Sumburgh Head, this excellent attraction is set across several buildings. Displays explain about the lighthouse, foghorn and radar…

  • Unst Bus Shelter

    Shetland

    At the turn-off to Littlehamar, just past Baltasound, is Britain's most impressive bus stop. Enterprising locals, tired of waiting in discomfort, decided…

  • Sunrise at Quiraing on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.

    Quiraing

    Trotternish

    Staffin Bay is dominated by the dramatic basalt escarpment of the Quiraing: its impressive land-slipped cliffs and pinnacles constitute one of Skye’s most…

  • Blair Castle

    Highland Perthshire

    One of the most popular tourist attractions in Scotland, magnificent Blair Castle – and its surrounding estates – is the seat of the Duke of Atholl, head…

  • Museum of Lead Mining

    Dumfries & Galloway

    ‘Lead mining’: even the phrase has a sort of dulling effect on the brain, and you’d think it’d be a tough ask to make the subject interesting. But this…

  • Robert Burns Birthplace Museum

    Southern Scotland

    This impressive museum has collected a solid range of Burns memorabilia, including manuscripts and possessions of the poet, like the pistols he packed for…

  • Mount Stuart

    Southern Highlands & Islands

    The family seat of the Stuart Earls of Bute is one of Britain's more magnificent 19th-century stately homes, the first to have a telephone, underfloor…

  • Surgeons' Hall Museums

    Edinburgh

    Housed in a grand Ionic temple designed by William Playfair in 1832, these three fascinating museums were originally established as teaching collections…

  • Kinloch Castle

    Central Highlands

    When George Bullough, a dashing, Harrow-educated cavalry officer, inherited Rum along with half his father’s fortune in 1891, he became one of the…

  • Kilchurn Castle

    Southern Highlands & Islands

    At the northern end of Loch Awe are the scenic ruins of the strategically situated and much-photographed Kilchurn Castle. Built in 1440, it enjoys one of…

  • Caerlaverock Castle

    Dumfries & Galloway

    The ruins of Caerlaverock Castle, by Glencaple on a beautiful stretch of the Solway coast, are among the loveliest in Britain. Surrounded by a moat, lawns…

  • Innerpeffray Library

    Lowland Perthshire & Kinross

    Scotland’s oldest lending library (founded in 1680) houses a huge collection of rare, interesting and ancient books, some of them 500 years old. If you…

  • Rothiemurchus Estate

    The Cairngorms

    The Rothiemurchus Estate, which extends from the River Spey at Aviemore to the Cairngorm summit plateau, is famous for having one of Scotland’s largest…

  • Dumfries House

    Southern Scotland

    A Palladian mansion designed in the 1750s by the Adam brothers, Dumfries House is an architectural jewel: such is its preservation that Prince Charles…

  • Tomb of the Eagles

    Orkney

    Two significant archaeological sites were found here by a farmer on his land. The first is a Bronze Age stone building with a firepit, indoor well and…

  • St Magnus Cathedral

    Kirkwall

    Constructed from local red sandstone, Kirkwall's centrepiece, dating from the early 12th century, is among Scotland's most interesting cathedrals. The…

  • New Lanark Visitor Centre

    Southern Scotland

    The main attractions of this World Heritage mill town are accessed via a single ticket. These include a huge working spinning mule, producing woollen yarn…

  • Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre

    Glasgow

    This extraordinary mechanical theatre is located at the Trongate 103 arts centre. Russian sculptor and mechanic Eduard Bersudsky, now resident in Scotland…

  • Whithorn Timescape

    Dumfries & Galloway

    Ruined Whithorn Priory (Scotland's earliest recorded church) is part of this excellent complex, which introduces you to the history of the place with a…

More destinations you need to see