Places to visit in Scotland. Scotland is one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom. England and Scotland have shared a monarch since 1603 and have been politically unified since 1707. Visiting Scotland, you may notice subtle changes – in speech and architecture, for example – almost as soon as crossing the border from England. There’s enough to be familiar, but it is recognisably different too. The bulk of the population is in the central belt, where Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, and the capital, Edinburgh, are neighbours and rivals. To the south of the central belt, the border area is hilly – and in Dumfries and Galloway relatively mountainous. Above the central belt is the Highlands, and two national parks – Loch Lomond and the Trossachs and the Cairngorms. Visitors come to Scotland for the outdoors – though the weather can be uncertain – and for the unique culture and heritage. A colourful and often violent past means that there are plenty of castles, houses, as well as world-class museums, to see. Many of Scotland’s overseas visitors come to experience the land their ancestors came from.
Unless you knew, you wouldn’t believe this is in Scotland would you? What some know as the Road to the Isles, the A830, runs from Fort William to Mallaig in the west, taking in spectacular views and notable sites such as Glenfinnan, where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised the standards of rebellion in 1745. From Arisaig, […]
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Scotland
Glasgow, one of Britain’s great cities and Scotland’s largest, is famous for many things; but probably not for its cathedral. Indeed, at first glance, Glasgow Cathedral appears a little drab compared with some of its squeaky-cleaned up, maybe wealthier, siblings elsewhere; there is not much trace of a busy, comfort-blanketing close, or precinct, as you
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Scotland
Rosslyn Castle can’t seem to make up its mind how it wants to be spelt. It appears as both Roslin and Rosslyn – clearly the same name; the nearby village is Roslin and the infamous Chapel is invariably Rosslyn. In any event, Rosslyn Castle is often overlooked by those making a pilgrimage to the better-known
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Scotland
Every now and again you come across a story so terrible, so utterly bone-chilling, that you need a mug of cocoa and a lie-down to calm yourself. This particular narrative concerns (the clue is in the picture)… a small dog. Our tale begins in the year 1814, in Forfar (that’s a town, not a stutter),
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Scotland
It’s hard to forget your first sight of Linlithgow Palace. Off the merkat, up cobbled Kirkgate, past St Michael’s, through the impressive outer gateway – and the palace fills your vision. It is massive, literally awesome, so obviously a ruinous shell – and yet there’s a niggling hint of what it once was, or might
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Scotland
Glasgow has its very own City of the Dead, a monumental testimonial to the Victorian age on a hill beyond the Cathedral of St Mungo. It is an astonishing cemetery, a 37 acre site containing the remains of some 50,000 souls. Of course, the great unwashed majority lie in pitiable obscurity, but there are about
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Scotland
Sooner or later, the curious traveller will end up at Rosslyn. Not far from Edinburgh, it is a magnet for mystics, myth-lovers, madmen, movie-goers and the mildly interested. It has been claimed that the chapel was built by the Knights Templar, on the site of a temple of Mithras, and modelled on Solomon’s Temple in
We thought we should go to the Cradle of Christianity in Scotland; the place where St Ninian, Scotland’s first Christian missionary, landed in 397AD and showed the pagan Picts The Way. There is a chapel there, near the Saint’s alleged landing place on the Isle of Whithorn, at the south-east corner of the Machars Peninsula
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Scotland
Splice the mainbrace and look out for the roaring forties. Berthed by the Riverside Museum in Glasgow, in the former Queen’s Dock, is the SV (sailing vessel) Glenlee. Known locally simply as “The Tall Ship”, this is one of the last steel-hulled bulk cargo carriers around, one of only 5 Clyde-built sailing ships still afloat
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum comes under the heading, ‘Not to be missed in Glasgow’. A Spitfire rubs shoulders (or undercarriage/trunk) with Sir Roger the elephant; there’s a stuffed eagle (and other animals), lumps of rock (aka ‘geology’), ancient Egyptian coffins, suits of armour, guns, Charles Rennie Mackintosh bits, fearsome dinosaurs – and loads and
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Scotland
Edinburgh is a very photogenic city, the kind of place where it might once have been nice to buy a post card for a close friend or relative. People hardly ever send post cards anymore. (This should be said somewhat whimsically.) People hardly ever send post cards anymore; instead, they take a quick picture on
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Scotland
These are the remains of Sweetheart Abbey, founded by Dervogilla Balliol. Here’s devotion for you. When her husband, John Balliol, died in 1268, Lady Dervorgilla had his heart removed, embalmed and placed in an ivory casket which she carried with her for the rest of her days. Apparently, it sat there at mealtimes, her ‘sweet
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Scotland