Edinburgh
Opened in 1913, Edinburgh Zoo is one of the world's leading conservation zoos. Edinburgh's captive breeding program has helped save many endangered…
Must-see attractions in Scotland
Biggar & Upper Clydesdale Museum
Southern Scotland
This museum is an enthusiastic community project that is well worth a visit. The pièce de résistance is Gladstone Court, a reconstructed street with…
Southern Highlands & Islands
This museum, in Kilmartin village, is a fascinating interpretive centre that provides a context for the ancient monuments you can go on to explore,…
Southern Highlands & Islands
One of Scotland's most spectacularly sited castles, Castle Stalker perches on a tiny offshore island – Monty Python buffs will recognise it as the castle…
Orkney
The Italian Chapel is all that remains of a POW camp that housed the Italian soldiers who worked on the Churchill Barriers. They built the chapel in their…
Southern Highlands & Islands
There were once no fewer than 32 distilleries around Campbeltown, but most closed in the 1920s. Today this is one of only three still in operation. It is…
Dumfries & Galloway
If your kids are complaining about historic sights and Robert Burns, pack up the clan and get down to this spot, between Dumfries and New Abbey off the…
Orkney
A mile northwest of Stenness is this wide circle of standing stones, some over 5m tall. The last of the three Stenness monuments to be built (2500–2000 BC…
Southern Highlands & Islands
Subtropical plants thrive in Gigha's Achamore Gardens, the island's principal sight. Rhododendrons, camellias and azaleas take advantage of the…
Southern Highlands & Islands
The splendid, ruined 13th-century Rothesay Castle, with seagulls and jackdaws nesting in the walls, was once a favourite residence of the Stuart kings. It…
Dumfries & Galloway
The 18th-century Broughton House displays paintings by EA Hornel, one of the Glasgow Boys (he lived and worked here). The library, with its wood panelling…
Southern Scotland
A well-loved local institution that runs matinée shows every couple of days throughout the summer using miniature Victorian puppets and bizarre glow-in…
Dumfries & Galloway
The mild climate in this southwestern part of Scotland is demonstrated at Logan Botanic Garden, a mile north of Port Logan, where an array of subtropical…
Shetland
This enthusiastic modern museum by Scalloway Castle has an excellent display on Scalloway life and history, with prehistoric finds, witch-burnings and…
Orkney
There are several archaeological sites on Sanday, the most impressive being this chambered tomb, similar to Maeshowe and dating from the 3rd millennium BC…
The Cairngorms
Built for Queen Victoria in 1855 as a private residence for the Royal Family, Balmoral kicked off the revival of the Scottish Baronial style of…
Stirling
Perched high on a crag above the floodplain of the River Forth, this Victorian monument is so Gothic it deserves circling bats and croaking ravens. In the…
Edinburgh
With its moored yachts, stately swans and whitewashed houses spilling down the hillside at the mouth of the River Almond, Cramond is the most picturesque…
Glasgow
Across the road from the Hunterian Museum, and part of the same bequest, this art gallery incorporates Mackintosh House as well as a good selection of…
Glasgow
A marvellous thing about walking in here is the way the noise of Great Western Rd suddenly recedes into the background. The wooded gardens follow the…
Scotland
Just a few miles outside Edinburgh lies this glorious historic estate and its surrounding 1000 acres of ancient oak woodland. Seven walking and biking…
Glasgow
Now headquarters of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society, this is the only one of Mackintosh's church designs to be built. It has an excellent stained…
Edinburgh
A working community smallholding with a range of farm animals (including woolly pigs!), a wildlife garden, a play park, a mini farm shop, and a pet lodge…
The Cairngorms
West of Braemar spreads the National Trust for Scotland's Mar Lodge Estate, one of the country's most important nature conservation areas, covering 7% of…
Leith
This state-of-the-art building located on an old railway siding is the first purpose-built centre dedicated to sculpture in the UK. There are regular…
Edinburgh
A patch of countryside enclosed by the city’s southern suburbs, craggy Blackford Hill (164m) offers pleasant walking and splendid views. The panorama to…
Scotland
One of Scotland's finest stately homes, Hopetoun House has a superb location in lovely grounds beside the Firth of Forth. The family seat of the earls of…
Stirling
Robert the Bruce's defeat of the English army on 24 June 1314 at Bannockburn established Scotland as a separate nation. The Bannockburn Heritage Centre…
Skye
Skye’s most famous historic building, and one of its most popular tourist attractions, Dunvegan Castle is the seat of the chief of Clan MacLeod. In…
Glasgow
Housed in the glorious sandstone university building, which is in itself reason enough to pay a visit, this quirky museum contains the collection of…
Highland Perthshire
Waymarked walks lead upstream from Dunkeld Cathedral through the gorgeous grounds of Dunkeld House Hotel, formerly a seat of the dukes of Atholl. In the…
Glasgow
Near the cathedral is Provand's Lordship, the oldest house in Glasgow. This rare example of 15th-century domestic Scottish architecture was built in 1471…
Scapa Flow Visitor Centre & Museum
Orkney
Lyness was an important naval base during both World Wars, when the British Grand Fleet was based in Scapa Flow. This fascinating museum and photographic…
Scotland
This magnificent loch-side palace was begun by James I in 1424, and became a favourite royal residence – James V was born here in 1512, as was his…
Aberdeen
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…
Dumfries & Galloway
Surrounded by wooded hills, Eskdalemuir is a remote settlement 13 miles northwest of Langholm. About 1.5 miles further north is this, the first Tibetan…
Outer Hebrides
The Butt of Lewis – the extreme northern tip of the Hebrides – is windswept and rugged, with a very imposing lighthouse, pounding surf and large colonies…
Orkney
This tiny, low-lying agricultural island between Hoy and Stromness once supported a healthy population of crofting families (more than 200 people in 1841)…
Orkney
Egilsay is the larger of the two islands off Rousay, and is accessed from the same ferry. The RSPB have a base here; listen for the corncrakes at the…
Orkney
Next to Skara Brae, and entered on a joint ticket, Skaill House is an imposing step-gabled Orcadian mansion built for the bishop in 1620. It may feel a…
