Scotland's Best 2020

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THE GO-TO GUIDE FOR SCOTTISH TRAVEL

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BEST 2020

Must-visit places

ROYAL HOUSES Magnificent palaces & historic castles

OUTLANDER EXPERIENCE

TARTAN, TWEED & WHISKY

Retrace Claire and Jamie’s love story

The most authentic gifts to bring home

MYTHS & LEGENDS

Faeries, giants & monsters on the folklore trail

STANDING ON CEREMONY Edinburgh Tattoo and other must-see events

HOTELS

DISTILLERIES

CRUISES

AT T R A C T I O N S

EDITOR’S WORD

W Scottish travel, brought to you by the team behind Scotland magazine.

elcome to the third edition of Scotland’s Best, an annual that celebrates the very best of

With so much to draw on, from awe-inspiring landscapes to ancient landmarks and some of the most charming villages you’re ever likely to come upon, it’s no mean feat pulling this curated collection together, I can tell you. But we think we’ve managed it.

Over the next 116 pages, you can read about each of the main Scottish regions, from the rugged beauty of Inverness and The Highlands, to the gentler allure of Dumfries and Galloway, home to some of the darkest skies in Britain.

Personally, whenever I can, I like to escape to one of Scotland’s many islands, for some peace, fresh air and the chance to slow down and switch off. My particular favourites are Islay, Iona and the secret corners of Skye. Turn to page 72 to read about more of Scotland’s varied and inviting islands.

This year we’ve also taken the folklore trail to unearth some of Scotland’s more enduring myths and legends (see page 12), and we visit some of the most spectacular locations that have provided backdrops to some very well-known films and television series (see page 16).

© PAUL TOMKINS/VISIT SCOTLAND

But first up, I’m sure you want to know all about the events taking place across the country in 2020. Turn to page 7 to read about the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo (and the many other festivals celebrated in Edinburgh over the summer), as well as some very special anniversaries.

It’s going to be a very good year in Scotland – you won’t want to miss it.

SALLY COFFEY

editor@scotlandmag.com

facebook.com/ScotlandMagazine

@Scotland_Mag

Editor

@scotlandmagazine

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COVER IMAGE:

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo – featured in our essential experiences piece on page 7. © Scott Campbell/Alamy

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© PETER CHISHOLM/ALAMY/PAUL GLENDELL/KENNY LAM/VISIT SCOTLAND/PAUL TOMKINS

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CONTENTS 7 Essential Experiences

The unmissable events of the year

12 Following the Folklore Trail Our favourite Scottish myths and legends

16 Cinematic Scenery

The famous backdrops of big-screen blockbusters

REGIONS 20 The Borders

Romance, reivers and religion

26 Dumfries & Galloway Dark sky country

32 Edinburgh & the Lothians The cultural cornerstone

38 Glasgow & the Clyde A phoenix from the ashes

44 Fife, Kinross & Clackmannanshire The Kingdom and the wee counties

48 Argyll & Lomond Western wonderland

54 Angus, Moray & Aberdeenshire On the castle and whisky trail

60 Perthshire & Stirlingshire The heart of Scotland

66 Inverness & the Highlands From bustling city to wild hinterland

72 Scotland’s Islands

Wild beauty and Viking legacies

SCOTLAND’S BEST 78 Directory 80 Visitor Attractions 86 Castles & Stately Homes 92 Distilleries 98 Tours & Cruises 104 Shopping 106 Where to Stay Scotland’s Best 2020 5

Enjoy delicious dining at one of our elegant hotels. Situated in north and south of the Isle of Skye, each of our venues has something unique to offer.

Explore the island and visit our boutique hotels and discover the beauty of our comfortable lounges, open ď€ res and stylish restaurants.

All three hotels have an award-winning restaurant serving the best of the Island and Highland cuisine with a ď€ ne selection of wine, whisky and gin.

ON TOUR DIARY DATES

ESSENTIAL EXPERIENCES From major exhibitions to three-day-long celebrations, these are the events you won’t want to miss this year BURNS NIGHT All over Scotland If you’ve ever wondered what the right way to serve haggis is, then you really should attend a Burns Night supper in Scotland. Held each year on 25 January (the birthday of Scotland’s beloved bard, Robert Burns), during a traditional dinner the haggis or “great chieftain o’ the puddin’-race”, as Burns would have it, takes centre stage, presented to guests as the words of his Address to a Haggis are recited. scotland.org

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UP HELLY AA Shetland On the last Tuesday in January each year, this Viking-infused festival, held since the 1870s, celebrates the Norse heritage of the Shetland islands and is an awesome spectacle to witness. Central to proceedings is the offering up of a Viking longship, which is carried through the town of Lerwick in a procession that flanks the ship with as many as 1,000 torches held by costumed participants dressed in helmets, Viking suits and sheepskins. At the end of the parade the flaming torches are thrown upon the ship, which burns away, making way for the real party. You will never have experienced anything quite like this before. uphellyaa.org

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ON TOUR DIARY DATES

THE YEAR OF COASTS AND WATERS

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For tartan, kilts and bagpipes, there is no better one-place-fits-all event

All over Scotland With thousands of miles of coastline, over 750 islands and innumerable lochs, in Scotland you are never too far from the water and this year there are even more excuses to dip your toe in, as 2020 is the Year of Coasts and Waters. As well as turning the spotlight on beautiful waterways such as Loch Ness and Loch Lomond, where you can take to the water aboard cruises, kayaks and paddle boards, and revealing secret bays and lesser-known craggy coasts well worth visiting, there will be lots of coastal festivals taking place throughout the year.

In June, for instance, you’ll be spoiled for choice with the Fife Regatta, which both sets off from and returns to Largs, a seaside resort on the Clyde, and the Crail Food Festival, where you can feast on lobster sandwiches as you watch the boats come and go in this cutest of the East Neuk villages. visitscotland.com

700TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION OF ARBROATH National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh In 2020 it will be 700 years since the signing of this most significant of documents – the precursor to the American Declaration of Independence. Seen by many as the founding document of modern

Scotland, the Declaration of Arbroath was a letter drafted and signed on 6 April 1320 (a day known in the US as Tartan Day) that implored the Pope to acknowledge Robert the Bruce as the rightful King of Scotland and to recognise Scotland’s independence from England. Written in Latin, and sealed by eight earls and around 40 barons, a copy of the original, which was sent to the Pope in Avignon, will go on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh from 27 March to 26 April 2020 – a rare opportunity indeed. nms.ac.uk

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HIGHLAND GAMES Various locations in The Highlands Each year from May to September dozens of Highland games take place across the region, from small, community-run events, to big showcases of pomp and ceremony. If you want to see tartan, kilts and bagpipes on full display, then there really is no better one-placefits-all than at one of these events. The original Highland games were a way for a chieftain to select his strongest warriors, but modernday interpretations owe much to the Victorian revival, which gained the royal seal of approval when Queen Victoria began attending the Braemar Gathering, near her Scottish hideaway, Balmoral, in 1848.

Today’s games have many peculiar traditions, and the events, which

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In Stonehaven, witness the spectacle of one of Scotland’s many winter fire festivals

usually take place over the course of a day, are often located amid beautiful surroundings. The season begins in May, peaking in July and August with about 30 different events each month – most fall on weekends. Expect to see contestants battling it out in the caber toss, tug o’war and the hammer throw, all accompanied by dancing and general joviality. shga.co.uk

EDINBURGH FESTIVALS Edinburgh While for some, the frisson of excitement in Scotland’s capital in August when no fewer than five festivals take place concurrently is too much, for others, it’s the best time to visit. While the slightly more grown-up Edinburgh Festival, which showcases world-class theatre, dance and music, may be the original, it’s the avant-garde Fringe Festival, which likewise started up in 1947, that draws most visitors.

If comedy and slightly esoteric performance is not your thing though, try the more laid-back Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Edinburgh Art Festival. Time your visit with the unmissable Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo from 7 to 29 August. This annual series of world-class military events, which held its first performance

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in 1950, continues to exceed the expectations of its audiences to this day. edinburghfestivalcity.com

HOGMANAY

All over Scotland Hogmanay is the name the Scots give New Year’s Eve, though here, often the revelry goes on for a few days. Nowhere celebrates New Year quite like Scotland. In Stonehaven, in Aberdeenshire, you can witness the spectacle of one of Scotland’s many winter fire festivals at its free fireballs parade on 31 December. Held for over 100 years, this traditional ceremony, a cleansing ritual that sees locals march through the streets behind a piper, swinging balls of fire above their heads, symbolises the burning off of any bad spirits, so that they may enter the new year afresh.

Of course, the most recognised of all of Scotland’s Hogmanay celebrations is the three-day-long extravaganza that takes place in Edinburgh each year. It incorporates many elements, from a torchlight procession, to fireworks at the castle and a party in Princes Street Gardens. If you’re still standing on New Year’s Day, you should head to South Queensferry where lots of brave (and a little silly) people dive into the freezing waters of the Firth of Forth. stonehavenfireballs.co.uk; edinburghshogmanay.com

© GEORGE ROBERTSON/ALAMY/DAVE DONALDSON/SHAHID KAHN/JASPERIMAGE/SHUTTERSTOCK

ON TOUR DIARY DATES

ON THE FOLKLORE TRAIL There are many mysterious tales to be uncovered in Scotland, if you let your imagination go.

Here are some of our favourites WORDS LOUISE HOFFMAN

THIS PHOTO: Kilchurn Castle on Loch Awe

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ON TOUR MYTHS AND LEGENDS

THE MINCH, NORTHWEST SCOTLAND The Blue Men of the Minch are human-sized, merman-like creatures with blue skin, which are said to live in the strait between mainland Scotland and the Outer Hebrides. The waters remain calm while the creatures sleep in deep-water caves, but when they awake they cause the sea to swell and the winds to rise – especially if they’re in a disagreeable mood. Any unsuspecting sailors passing by in their ships may come to an untimely demise should these ‘storm kelpies’ decide to stir up a tempest to drown them. But, curiously it seems, the Blue Men are also rather passionate about poetry and sometimes use it to decide the fate of the crew.

They’re said to shout out two lines of verse to the ship’s captain, challenging him to complete the poem with two more rhyming lines. If the captain succeeds, the Blue Men abandon any attempts to capsize the vessel.

CULROSS ABBEY, FIFE Now lying in ruin, 13th-century Culross Abbey was once a thriving Cistercian monastery. Post-Reformation, it became a parish church

and was remodelled several times in the centuries that followed, resulting in the miscellany of structures and architectural styles seen today. The sloping hill to which the structure clings is said to have been home to a much earlier Christian community, led by St Serf – but that’s not the only tradition associated with the abbey site.

Legend has it that a secret tunnel runs beneath the buildings and in that tunnel sits a man on a golden chair, waiting to bestow great riches on the person who finds him. A blind piper and his dog are said to have entered the tunnel many years ago, with those above ground tracking their progress by listening to the sound of the man’s pipes (a common narrative theme in folklore). But, while the dog emerged at the other end, the piper did not...

CALLANISH STANDING STONES, ISLE OF LEWIS As with most prehistoric sites, numerous legends and faerie stories are attached to the mysterious Callanish Standing Stones, located 12 miles west of Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. Some say, for instance, that the megaliths are giants who were petrified as punishment for refusing to help build a church for St Kieran.

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Another story tells of a pure white cow that magically appeared at the stone circle during a time of famine, to provide the locals with milk. No matter how often the cow was milked, there would always be more – so long as each person only took one pail-full at a time. Then, one fateful day, a scheming local witch used a sieve instead of a pail and milked the cow dry – at which point it vanished, never to be seen again.

CULA BAY, ISLE OF BENBECULA In the 19th century, a strange and rather sad tale emerged from the Hebridean isle of Benbecula. While cutting seaweed on the west coast of the island, crofters spotted a small, woman-like creature swimming in the shallows. They immediately set about trying to catch her, but as their efforts proved futile, a boy picked up a rock from the beach and took a well-aimed shot. When the stone struck, the creature let out a wail and disappeared. Several days later, a body washed up on the shore a mile or so north of the spot at Cula Bay. An eyewitness account described it as being “about the size of a well-fed child of three or four years of age, with an abnormally developed breast. The lower part of the body was like a salmon, but without scales.”The legend of the Cula Bay mermaid was born.

SADDELL CASTLE, KINTYRE Restored and converted into holiday accommodation by the Landmark Trust in the 1970s, Saddell Castle nestles on the east 14 Scotland’s Best 2020

coast of Kintyre, looking out toward the isle of Arran. According to folklore, a local tailor once fled to this 16th-century tower house under hot pursuit by the Devil (or, perhaps even more chillingly, a black spectral hand, as another version of the tale tells).

Having accepted a challenge to spend the night in the supposedly haunted graveyard of nearby Saddell Abbey, the tailor had just settled down on a tomb to work on a pair of trousers when the ground began to rumble, and a huge head surged up from the earth. “Do you see this great head of mine?” bellowed a voice. “Ay, ay, I’m seeing it,” replied the tailor, “but I’m too busy making my breeks.” The head was followed by a hefty pair of shoulders. “Do you see these great shoulders of mine?” pressed the voice. “Ay, ay!” said the tailor, continuing at his work. At that, a hulking body climbed out of the ground, and the voice demanded: “Do you see this great body of mine?” The tailor responded: “Ay, ay, but I must get finished with my breeks!” When the trousers were completed, the tailor cut the final thread, dashed hell for leather to the castle and slammed the gate behind him. The outwitted Devil smote the entrance pillar in a fit of rage, and to this day it is said to bear the mark of his hand.

TULLIBARDINE, PERTHSHIRE You may know Tullibardine as an award-winning distillery near Auchterarder, but the area also has a folkloric claim to fame.

Many centuries ago, so the story goes, the lands of Tullibardine

ON TOUR MYTHS AND LEGENDS

LEFT: The Callanish Standing Stones on Lewis RIGHT: Culross Abbey, Fife

were owned by a beautiful young woman, who spent her days strolling along the banks of the rivers and through the dense forests. However, it was in those forests that a terrifying wild man lived, and so she promised her hand in marriage to whomever could remove the beast. After many failed attempts, the honour finally went to a handsome yeoman who tricked the wild man into drinking a fittingly whisky-like concoction that sent him off to sleep – ready for easy capture.

LOCH AWE, ARGYLL Do you know how Scotland’s longest lake, Loch Awe, came to exist? Well, according to tradition, it was the result of a pretty embarrassing oversight by the Cailleach – a goddess of Gaelic mythology. The Cailleach is said to have fallen asleep while guarding a spring at the top of Ben Cruachan, allowing the waters to cascade down the mountainside and flood the valley below. When she awoke, the Cailleach was so mortified by her mistake that she turned into stone, and still sits at the Pass of Brander, gazing out across the loch.

© VISIT SCOTLAND/AIRBORNE LENS/KENNY LAM/SZYMON MUCHA

LEITH, EDINBURGH

Legend has it that “ Dundreggan was once the den of a huge dragon ”

The dockland area of Leith was supposedly the haunt of a particularly disconcerting character from Scottish mythology: the Shellycoat. Cloaked, as his name suggests, in a coat of shells that can be heard jangling as he approaches, this bogeyman lurks in rivers and streams with, at best mischievous, and at worst malicious, intent. He’s said to have frequented a large rock near the Leith Citadel, which was either moved or destroyed when the docks were constructed. Children would sometimes dare each other to run round it, chanting: “Shellycoat, Shellycoat, gang awa’ hame, I cry na’ yer mercy, I fear na’ yer name.”

DWARFIE STANE, HOY, ORKNEY Thought to be the only wholly rock-cut prehistoric tomb in the British Isles – sitting in an atmospheric valley on the island of Hoy, between towering Ward Hill and a craggy rock face known as the Dwarfie Hamars – it’s little wonder that the Dwarfie Stane has become the stuff of legend.

Contrary to its name (and the size of its interior chambers), this huge block of sandstone is said to have been the prison of a giant, who was forced to gnaw his way out through the roof – or, according to another tale, the humble abode of a giant couple.

Far more sensibly, the Dwarfie Stane was chosen as the dwelling of Trolld – a dwarf or troll from Scandinavian legend –

by Sir Walter Scott in his novel, The Pirate.

DUNDREGGAN, INVERNESS While Loch Ness probably holds the crown for the best known Scottish myth, nearby Dundreggan has its fair share of stories.

Legend has it that it was once the den of a huge dragon, which was taken on in combat, slain and buried by the mythical Irish warrior Fionn Mac Cumhaill (who is also said to have built the Giant’s Causeway). As is the case with many ‘duns’ (ancient or medieval hill forts) Dundreggan is linked with faerie lore. Elves living in the hill there had a penchant for spiriting away new mothers to be wet nurses to their own offspring. One tale tells of a man who was walking past the knoll when he heard a faint voice singing: “I am the wife of the Laird of Balnain, the Folk have stolen me over again.” Having rushed to the laird’s house and discovered that his wife and child were indeed missing, the man engaged the services of a priest to bless the area. When the priest threw holy water onto the hill there was a thunderous rumble, the moon appeared from behind a cloud, and the laird’s wife appeared on the grass, the baby in her arms, with no memory of how she came to be there. SB Scotland’s Best 2020 15

CINEMATIC SCENERY With a magical aura and unique geology, Scotland is the perfect backdrop for big-screen blockbusters, from Harry Potter to James Bond WORDS MICHAEL RENOUF

GLENFINNAN VIADUCT Starring roles: Harry Potter, Charlotte Gray, Ring of Bright Water Where: A830 Road, Glenfinnan, PH37 4LT Built in 1898 to carry the West Highland Line, the Glenfinnan Viaduct is a commanding curved structure that crosses the Finnan River with a stunning natural backdrop of glorious Highland mountains.

The iconic site in west Scotland, just half an hour from Fort William, shot to international fame following appearances in four of the films from the Harry Potter franchise, most notably the 2002 release, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (think of the enchanted Ford Anglia flying overhead).

The Jacobite steam train used during filming and now affectionately nicknamed ‘The Hogwart’s Express’, still passes over the viaduct daily at around 10.45am and 3pm between April and October. You can snap this scene-stealing train best from the hillside left of the bridge as you look at it from the car park.

History buffs should cross the river to see the Glenfinnan Monument, which commemorates the Jacobite uprising in 1745 when Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his father’s standard on these shores.

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For stupendous views of Loch Shiel and the surrounding mountainous panorama, the dizzying climb to the top of the monument is a must.

ARDVERIKIE HOUSE Starring roles: Mrs Brown, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Outlaw King Where: Kinloch Laggan, PH20 1BX Ardverikie estate is familiar to many as the fictional Glenbogle estate from the popular TV series Monarch of the Glen and it also features in Netflix’s The Crown, but were you aware it is also a recurring movie star? Ardverikie has seen everyone from Chris Pine to Dame Judi Dench – who was nominated for an Oscar for her role playing Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown, filmed here – walk its sprawling grounds. The estate, which once boasted 145,000 acres is now a still-impressive, but more modest, 38,000 acres and has been owned by the same family for around 150 years. The property, which has breathtaking views, is cocooned deep in the heart of the Highlands, and is home to over 1,000 red deer. There are even six cottages available for holiday let within its bounds.

ON TOUR FILM LOCATIONS

THIS PHOTO: The Glenfinnan Viaduct carries the West Highland Line

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ARNISTON HOUSE Starring roles: Churchill, Tommy’s Honour Where: Gorebridge, EH23 4RY Arniston House, set amid 6,000 acres of grounds, situated 11 miles from Edinburgh and just a mile from the historic village of Temple, has starred in two historic biopics. First up was Tommy’s Honour about the lives and careers of Scottish golf champions Old Tom Morris and his son, Young Tom Morris, followed by Churchill with its superb turn from Brian Cox in the lead role, just a year later.

In 1571 George Dundas, 16th Laird of Dundas Castle in South Queensferry and his wife Katherine Oliphant purchased the land, which had at one time been the hunting ground of King David of Scotland. Two centuries later, it was here that Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, a powerful Tory politician and the last person in the UK to be impeached, was born. Visitor tours take place at set times between May and September and highlights include detailed stucco work, plus paintings by Scottish artists Sir Henry Raeburn and Alexander Nasmyth.

DOUNE CASTLE

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Doune’s audio tours are narrated by Monty Python’s Terry Jones

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Starring roles: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Game of Thrones, Outlander Where: Castle Hill, Doune, FK16 6EA Fans of John Cleese and his cohorts will recognise Doune Castle in many a scene from the 1975 film release Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The 14th-century courtyard castle, which lies approximately eight miles northwest of Stirling, was built for the Regent Albany, ‘Scotland’s uncrowned King’ and not only features a 100ft-high gatehouse but the particularly well-preserved Lord’s Hall, where your gaze will be drawn to the carved oak screen.

In more recent years it has also made appearances in TV smash hits Outlander and Game of Thrones. In a nod to the location’s film fame you can even take an audio tour narrated by Terry Jones of the Monty Python mob.

GEORGE SQUARE Starring role: World War Z Where: Glasgow, G2 1DU If you find yourself in Glasgow’s George Square, look at all the tourists and locals going about their business, then try and imagine them as zombies, pick one of the better-looking gents and imagine him as Brad Pitt – there, you have your own personalised version of 2013 flick World War Z. The square, initially laid out in 1781 but not developed for many years afterwards, was named after King George III and is featured early on in the film when the Hollywood heartthrob is trying to escape from a horde of maniacal zombies. Eagle-eyed viewers may spot the iconic City Chambers, the cenotaph and the statue of Sir Walter Scott that stands in the square.

GLEN NEVIS Starring roles: Braveheart, Highlander Where: Ben Nevis, PH33 6PF The award for most memorable quote in a Scottish film must be the impassioned rally cry from Mel Gibson’s William Wallace as he implores his followers – “They may take away our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom”– in a speech that played some part in the

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ON TOUR FILM LOCATIONS

huge success the film had in that year’s Oscars. Although many of Braveheart’s scenes were actually shot in Ireland, some filming did take place in Glen Nevis. The glen, which is considered one of the best examples of a glaciated valley in the country, is flanked to the north

by Britain’s tallest mountain, Ben Nevis, which stands an impressive 1,345m above sea level, and elsewhere by the Mamore mountain range. For the best views of the glen, including locations that feature in both Braveheart and the film Highlander, leave your wagon in the aptly named Braveheart Car Park and explore it on foot or bike.

RANNOCH MOOR Starring role: Rob Roy Where: Rannoch Moor Visitor Centre/Railway Station, PH17 2QA Rannoch Moor, which is about 50 square miles in total, is notable for its wildlife, such as grouse, curlews and roe, as well as its flora. It covers an expanse of boggy moorland to the west of Loch Rannoch.

Much of the moor lies within the Ben Nevis and Glen Coe National Scenic Area and is made up of untouched lochs, lochans and rivers – just as nature intended.

One way to experience this remarkable area is to take the train.

The famous West Highland Line crosses the moorland and provides plenty of opportunity to take in the views of one of Britain’s true wildernesses out of the carriage windows. More active readers can take on one of the walking trails and literally follow in the footsteps of Liam Neeson, who played the famous Rob Roy MacGregor, or Tim Roth, who was nominated for an Oscar and won a BAFTA for his portrayal of Archibald Cunningham in the film.

© KENNY LAM/VISITSCOTLAND/AIRBORNE LENS/JOHN MCKENNA/ALAMY/PETER CHISHOLM

POLDULLIE BRIDGE Starring role: Mary Queen of Scots Where: Strathdon Built in 1715 by Sir John Forbes of Inverenan, this bridge, with a 70-foot span across the River Don is a category B-listed building, which was used over 300 years later in the movie Mary Queen of Scots. The notable scene involves Mary, who became Queen at just six days old, being ambushed in a scene where cows block the bridge.

Forbes, also known as Black Jock, did not have long to admire his work, which is one of the best surviving examples of an 18th-century single semi-circular arch stone bridge. He was with the Jacobite clans under the Earl of Mar when he was taken prisoner at Sheriffmuir, close to Perth, in mid-November 1715 by British government forces.

He later died of his wounds in Carlisle Castle in 1716 shortly before his scheduled execution.

GLENCOE Starring role: Skyfall Where: Glencoe Visitors Centre, PH49 4HX Bond, that most English of secret agents, has on several occasions visited Scotland during his plethora of exciting adventures and he was also memorably played by Scotsman Sean Connery on six occasions.

In Skyfall, with Daniel Craig in the eponymous role, Bond visits his family home, from which the film takes its name. While the house itself was just a film set, you can recreate the drive Bond and M take through Glencoe along the A82, one that has many sublime vistas as the road twists and curls through the magnificent valley in the shadow of giant mountains. Nearby Glen Etive also stars in the film (as well as providing backdrops in Braveheart), so should be factored into your route too. SB

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Doune Castle and the River Teith; Glencoe; the main hall in Arniston House; Glasgow’s George Square

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THE BORDERS Romance, reivers and religion

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he Scottish Borders officially begin when you enter Scotland at Coldstream on the A698 in Berwickshire, or travel across the moors from Carter Bar on the A68. However, it is the River Tweed, snaking 97 miles from the Lowther Hills through Drumelzier and journeying west to spill into the North Sea at Berwick-upon-Tweed, which, for its final 20 miles, creates the natural Anglo-Scottish border.

Along its banks lie the principal towns of the central Scottish Borders: Broughton, Peebles, Galashiels, Melrose, Kelso, Jedburgh, Hawick, Selkirk and St Boswells.

Due to its proximity to the English border, this region has historically been a place of unrest, indeed between the 13th and 17th centuries, English armies invaded Scotland nine times, and Scotland reciprocated three times. Cross-border skirmishes and cattle reiving were an everyday occurrence. It was an unpredictable life, but one that took place amid glorious scenery.

In the early centuries of the second millennium, great abbeys were built at Melrose, Dryburgh, Kelso and Jedburgh to house Augustinian, Cistercian and Tironensian canons and monks. Their primary purpose was to operate as instruments of observation, governance and protection in an age when the pre-Reformation church paid homage to Rome, but allied itself to the patronage of the Scottish monarchy.

Under that same patronage, influential Borders clans – the Douglas, Kerr, Armstrong, Elliot, Pringle, and Scott families, to name a few

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THIS PHOTO: Looking along the River Tweed towards Peebles

– presided over vast swathes of land. Many of their descendants still live in the region, all of them sharing the indelible imprint of Scotland’s unsettled past.

But while its history may have been dramatic, its scenery is not. Here, there’s a softer, more serene landscape than that of the Highlands, yet it is nonetheless breathtakingly beautiful.

Rolling hills give way to gentle valleys, and its lush acres are dotted with working farms and pretty historic villages.

It’s little wonder that two of Scotland’s most cherished writers drew inspiration from here. The first, John Buchan, author of the ThirtyNine Steps, lived in Biggar Water, a small, picturesque, village that flows into the River Tweed.

To find out more about the writer though, you’ll have to travel around 12 miles northeast to Peebles, where you will find the small, but very good, museum, The John Buchan Story.

The slogan ‘Peebles for Pleasure’ became attached to the market town after it played an important role in the Scottish wool industry during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was also popular as a health spa, but the imposing Peebles Hydro is the only remaining establishment from that era.

The picturesque ruins of Horsburgh Castle – the pile that was famously sketched by JMW Turner on his 1834 tour of Scotland – just past Peebles also offers a good photo opportunity.

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A few miles further southeast will bring you to Traquair House, the oldest continually inhabited house in Scotland. Built in the style of a fortified mansion, it was once a royal hunting lodge occupied

by Scottish kings and later passed to the Earls of Traquair. Visited

by Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745, the magnificent Bear Gates of the entrance drive – known as The Steekit Yetts – were closed on his departure. It is said that the gates are not to be re-opened until a Stuart sits on the throne of Scotland once more.

Just 13 miles east of Traquair is Galashiels, affectionately known as ‘Gala’, which is the biggest town in the region. Like Peebles, Galashiels was a major player in the wool industry of the Victorian era.

On the northwest edge of the town are the remains of an Iron Age hill fort at Torwoodlee, but it’s for the annual Braw Lads Gathering that many people visit. Established in 1930, this traditional spectacle takes place on horseback every year in June.

The event celebrates the history of Galashiels and includes a series of symbolic ceremonies, such as the presentation to each Braw Lad by a Braw Lass of a sprig of sour plum – a reference to a battle in 1337 when local men routed a group of English soldiers who were distracted by eating sour plums.

The Clovenfords Hotel, formerly known as the Whytebank Inn, en route from Traquair to Galashiels, was a regular haunt of Sir Walter Scott when

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Sir Walter Scott took inspiration from the Scottish Borders, where he spent much of his childhood

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ABOVE: Abbotsford was the beloved home of Sir Walter Scott LEFT: Members of the annual Braw Lads Gathering leave Abbotsford House FAR LEFT: Jedburgh Abbey

he was appointed sheriff-depute of Selkirk in 1799. The poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy also stayed here.

Today it retains much of its charm and is a sweet, if little old-fashioned, stop-over when exploring the region.

Of course, Sir Walter Scott is the writer to whom the Tweed Valley is most associated. The celebrated author of historic (though largely romanticised) novels took inspiration from the Scottish Borders, where he spent much of his childhood and returned to in later life.

For anyone wanting to follow the Sir Walter Scott trail, there really is no better place to visit than Abbotsford House, the extravagant Scottish baronial-style ‘conundrum castle’ he started building on the south bank of the River Tweed in 1811.

With money pouring in from his novels and poems, the initial modest extension of an old farmhouse was soon expanded. A grand palace was created by architect William Atkinson, the man who later designed Chequers in Buckinghamshire, and lavish interiors were designed by David Ramsay Hay of Edinburgh, who later refurbished the Palace of Holyroodhouse for Queen Victoria.

Open to the public, inside is a palace of curiosities, with many of Scott’s most prized possessions and artefacts on display, including the Duke of Montrose’s sword, Claverhouse’s pistol and Rob Roy’s gun, proof that his obsession with Scottish history went far beyond the page.

Abbotsford can be reached by train from Edinburgh in under an Scotland’s Best 2020 23

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RIGHT: Sir Walter Scott is buried at Dryburgh Abbey BELOW: The statue of Mr Morris (a character in Scott’s novel, Rob Roy) in the gardens of Abbotsford House

James II of Scotland “ was killed in 1460 within

hour thanks to the Borders Railway, which stops at Tweedbank. From Tweedbank, there is a free minibus to Abbotsford, timed to meet the trains (though not on Wednesdays) or it’s a 20-minute walk along the Abbotsford Link walkway.

Melrose Abbey, just a couple of miles east of Abbotsford, is perhaps the most famous of the Borders’ abbeys thanks in no small part to the fact that it is here that Scotland’s hero king, Robert the Bruce, chose to have his heart buried, imploring his followers to take it on a crusade before returning it here. Whether the heart actually lies beneath the plaque in what would have been the chapter house today is a subject of debate.

The abbey, which stands in spectacular ruin, was founded for the Cistercian order by David I in the early 12th century. It was attacked many times by the English in the Middle Ages, but was still used as an abbey up until the Scottish Reformation of the 16th century.

The abbey was one of several places of worship set up along the Scottish Borders to display the wealth, power and piety of the Scottish to their English foes.

The other three great abbeys – Kelso, Jedburgh and Dryburgh can now all be visited on foot or by bike via the 64.5-mile-long Borders Way. Dryburgh is particularly worth a visit as it is here that Sir Walter Scott is buried, while Kelso, way over to the east, was once one of the most spectacular examples of Romanesque architecture in Scotland.

Though it was virtually obliterated during Henry VIII’s Rough Wooing of the 1540s, clues to its once rich embellishment can be found around what remains of the great western door.

While at Kelso, take the opportunity to visit Floors Castle and Gardens, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Roxburghe. In August 2019 the 10th Duke of Roxburghe died after a lengthy cancer battle and was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles, the 11th Duke of Roxburghe.

Scotland’s largest inhabited castle, Floors is outstanding both in its scale and its grandeur. Designed by revered Scottish architect William Adam in 1721, it was originally a rather restrained symmetrical Georgian country house, but was later extensively developed by William Playfair between 1837 and 1847 into the romantic fairytale castle you see today. It now boasts a spectacular Victorian Walled Garden as well as a formal Millenium Garden.

The sense of history is palpable too, for it was here, within the grounds of the present castle, that James II of Scotland was killed by an exploding cannon in 1460 while laying siege to Roxburgh Castle, which was held at the time by the English. In retaliation, James’s widow, Mary of Guelders, razed the fortification to the ground.

Today, thankfully, you’re more likely to find superb afternoon tea and halls adorned with masterpieces, if you don’t get lost in the sprawling grounds, that is. SB

the present-day grounds of Floors Castle

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© KENNY LAM/IAN RUTHERFORD/VISIT SCOTLAND

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SCOTLAND

— 2020 Escorted Tours — British Isles

Scotland: Dumfries and Galloway England: Hadrian’s Wall, Lake District Wales: Snowdonia National Park, Welsh Castles Ireland: Dublin, the magnificent Neolithic site at Knowth in Bru Na Boinne, Belfast

May 9-22, 2020 • 13 Nights • $5,795

Special 17th Annual Outlander Tour®

Western & Northern Isles of Scotland

A combination tour of the popular Lords of the Isles and Viking Treasure. Skye, Lewis, Harris, Orkney, the Northwest and Northeast coasts, and the Highlands.

Includes the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

August 12-27, 2020 • 15 Nights • $5,995

17th Annual Outlander Tour®

Based on the book series by Diana Gabaldon.

An extended version of the 8-night Outlander Tour.

The addition of the Isle of Lewis, the Calanais Stone Circle, and other archaeological wonders of the Outer Hebrides, makes this extended version a once-in-a-lifetime adventure!

Based on the book series by Diana Gabaldon.

Time travel back to the 18th-century Highlands, where history and fantasy come face to face. See secret places and magical sites that are off the beaten path and that will paint a new portrait of Scotland for you.

June 25-July 6, 2020 • 11 Nights • $4,995

September 26-October 4, 2020 • 8 Nights • $3,995

Deluxe escorted tours 16-guest maximum

Contact Judy at judy@celticjourneys.us

Scotsmaster / Member of the Better Business Bureau / Licensed and Insured / Tourist Board Certification

www.CelticJourneys.us • (703) 941-6455

DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY Dark sky country

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aking up a large part of southwest Scotland, and stretching all the way down to the English border at Gretna Green, this region of Scotland is known for its dark skies, gorgeous undulating coastline and acres of forest and green fields.

Agricultural settlements in what was long considered to be the western stretch of the ‘Debatable Land’ between England and Scotland remained largely unchanged for centuries. Then, in 1915, the UK Ministry of Munitions arrived to establish a factory which, at its peak, employed 30,000 workers. Today, their story is told at the town of Gretna’s innovative Devil’s Porridge Museum.

However, most visitors are more likely to have heard of the nearby parish of Gretna Green, famous for the 5,000 or so marriages it hosts each year. It all began in 1754, when Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act was passed in England to stop those under the age of 21 from marrying without parental consent. Under Scots law it was permitted for girls of 12 and for boys of 14 to marry. Moreover, they did not require a religious ceremony, which seems surprising in this predominantly Protestant country. Instead, couples could be legally betrothed and joined in union under a ‘declaration’.

All that came to an end in 1940 when marriage by declaration was made illegal in Scotland and, by 1977, English law had changed to allow couples over 18 to marry without parental consent. Nevertheless, marriage at 16 remained in Scotland and by then the romance of ‘running away to Gretna Green’ was cemented.

THIS PHOTO: A clear night’s sky over Clatteringshaws Loch deep in the Galloway Forest Park

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Even today, couples (runaway or not) flock to the First House in Scotland (the Old Toll Bar) to get married and to visit the Hands Across the Border ‘Auld Acquaintance’ cairn. This collection of over 130,000 painted stones, gathered from across the UK and painted and decorated, is a modern symbol of the Union with England.

From Gretna Green, the A75 travels west into the market town of Dumfries, close to where the River Nith meets the Solway Firth. East of Gretna, the A7 heads in a northerly direction through Canonbie, with the Clan Armstrong Centre at Gilnockie Tower, to the former textile town of Langholm, known as the ‘Muckle Toon’. In centuries past, it was the stronghold of the formidable Borders Armstrong family and civil engineer Thomas Telford was born nearby.

Meanwhile, directly north of Gretna Green, the A74 races past the pretty village of Ecclefechan, renowned as the birthplace of the Victorian essayist and philosopher Thomas Carlyle, then surges onwards past Lockerbie towards Beattock, Elvanfoot and Abingdon.

North of Beattock, on the A701, is the early spa town of Moffat.

Once a major centre for the Scottish wool trade, today it’s perhaps best known for its mouthwatering toffee. Between Dumfries and Moffat are the ruins of Lochmaben Castle, which was built by King Edward I of England in the 13th century, after which it was destroyed and rebuilt in the reign of King James IV, before being abandoned in the 17th century.

Nearby is Drumlanrig Castle, built in the 17th century on the site of an earlier Douglas castle for the 1st Duke of Queensberry, whose

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Dumfries boasts a gleaming mausoleum where Burns is buried

ducal title and lands would eventually pass through cousin marriages into the Scotts of Buccleuch family.

Nonetheless, with 120 rooms, 17 turrets and four towers, Drumlanrig remains one of Scotland’s most spectacular country residences.

In addition to its sumptuous furnishings, it accommodates part of the fabulous Buccleuch Art Collection and visitor features include an adventure playground for children, mountain biking and Land Rover tours of the estate.

Coal and lead mining were integral to the local economy, notably at Leadhills, which sits just on the edge of South Lanarkshire. Less than a mile away, at the head of the Mennock Pass and nestling into the Lowther Hills, is Wanlockhead, which is Scotland’s highest village. Here, the Museum of Lead Mining features a genuine lead mine that is open to the public as a tourist attraction.

Travel back along the A76 to the south and you come back to the handsome town of Dumfries. Although nowadays Dumfries is a bustling modern centre of commerce and industry, its history is inescapable. It was here at the Kirk of the Greyfriars, demolished during the Reformation and subsequently rebuilt, that Robert the Bruce allegedly stabbed his cousin, the Red Comyn, before the high altar in a dispute over the Scottish Crown in 1306.

In 1791, the 33-year-old poet Robert Burns, having failed to earn a 28 Scotland’s Best 2020

decent living as a farmer at Ellisland, brought his family to Dumfries. Here he worked as an excise man, in control of the Solway coast. To start off with, the family occupied an apartment on Bank Street before moving to a larger house in what is today known as Burns Street.

Although the name of Scotland’s National Bard is largely associated with his childhood home in Ayrshire, his former home in Dumfries is now a small museum, which contains a wealth of memorabilia. There’s also a gleaming mausoleum in St Michael’s Kirkyard in the town, where the poet is buried.

From the town centre, the A75 to the east crosses to Annan where each July townsfolk traditionally Ride the Marches. Be sure to book a tour of the Annandale Distillery, or pop in for lunch at its on-site restaurant. To the south of Dumfries, on either side of the mouth of the Nith, is the northern shore of the Solway Firth. Just 11 miles south and off the B725, as it follows the eastern banks of the Nith, is the famous Caerlaverock Castle.

Seven miles to the south of Dumfries, at New Abbey, are the melancholy ruins of Sweetheart Abbey, built in the 13th century by widowed Lady Devorgilla in honour of her husband, John Balliol. So grief-stricken was Devorgilla that she is said to have carried her husband’s embalmed heart everywhere with her. It was their son, also John, who went on to become Scotland’s ‘Puppet King’ under Edward I of England.

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© SCOTTISH VIEWPOINT/KEITH FERGUS/STOCKSOLUTIONS/ALAMY/VISIT SCOTLAND/KENNY LAM

LEFT: Drumlanrig Castle and country estate BELOW: Newton Stewart and the River Cree

Heading southwest from Dumfries, the A75 takes travellers to Castle Douglas and into the region of Galloway. While here, be sure to take time to explore the breathtakingly beautiful Galloway Forest Park, which incorporates the 2,765-foot tall Merrick, the highest hill in southern Scotland. It is designated as a Dark Sky Park and is perfect for stargazing.

Halfway between Dumfries and Castle Douglas, Crocketford is also known as Nine Mile Bar and was once a meeting of drove roads.

Kirkpatrick Durham is the next village heading west, and was once a prosperous hand-loom weaving centre.

The planned town of Castle Douglas is beside Carlingwark Loch, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, which was created in the late 18th century by the entrepreneurial Sir William Douglas.

To the north, at Glenlochar, are the remains of two Roman forts, the first dating from Agricola’s invasion and the second from the Antonine period. To the west, situated on an island in the River Dee, are the ruins of Threave Castle, which was the seat of the formidable Black Douglas Earls of Douglas. Today, the surrounding 64 acres make up Threave Gardens, home to the Practical School of Horticulture, and it is maintained by Historic Environment Scotland.

After the Jacobite Rising of 1745, General Wade instigated a military road through Galloway, passing through Carlingwark. On the approach to Kircudbright is the village of Ringford. The settlement is situated on the Tarff Water, which enters the River Dee near Tongland. Tongland Abbey was built here by Premonstratensian monks in the Middle Ages.

At the mouth of the River Dee is Kirkcudbright, capital of the old Stewartry (a term applied to Crown property administered by a steward instead of a sheriff).

John Paul Jones, founder of the United States Navy, was born in the village of Kirkbean further west, where there is a memorial to him.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, Kirkbean was the departure point for thousands of Scots sailing to America and Australia.

On the Water of Fleet, close to where it enters Fleet Bay, an inlet of Wigtown Bay, is the appropriately named Gatehouse of Fleet.

Created in the late 18th century as a centre for cotton manufacturing, the town was laid out by the entrepreneur James Murray, for whom the gracious Cally House, now a hotel, was built in 1763 to designs by the famous architect Robert Mylne.

Newton Stewart sits on the River Cree and most of the town is situated to the west of the river. Sometimes called the ‘Gateway to the Galloway Hills’, it was created in the mid17th century by William Stewart, the youngest son of the 2nd Earl of Galloway. In the 18th century, the aforementioned Sir William Douglas created cotton mills here after setting up others in Castle Douglas.

Six miles to the south on the A714 is Wigtown, which has become Scotland’s National Book Town. Launched as a regeneration project in 1997, there are now over 20 bookshops, including Scotland’s largest secondhand bookstore, and every September Wigtown hosts a 10-day literary celebration that attracts Scotland’s Best 2020 29

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LEFT: St Ninian’s Chapel at the Isle of Whithorn BELOW: Caerlaverock Castle and the Solway Firth beyond

authors and readers from all over the world.

This is also the undisputed gateway to the Machars Peninsula and less than a mile away is the small village of Bladnoch, where a historic single malt whisky distillery has recently reopened to much acclaim.

Inland from Garlieston, just off the B7052, is Sorbie Tower – the ancient seat of Clan Hannay. The Christian missionary St Ninian came to the southern Machars long before Saint Columba reached Iona in AD563, and at Whithorn he raised a cathedral church of stone called Candida Casa (White House). When he died, his relics were preserved in a shrine and pilgrims, including several Scottish monarchs, made the journey from far and wide to pay their respects. Such was the traffic that in time Chapel Finian, on Luce Bay, and St Ninian’s Chapel, at the Isle of Whithorn, were built to accommodate them.

This was undoubtedly where Christianity began on the Scottish mainland. In the last century, stone crosses from the 8th century were discovered in a cave near Burrow Head.

From Glasserton, the A747 leads to Monreith and looks out onto the great and beautiful expanse of Luce Bay. From Glenluce, the A75 travels west towards the hammerhead peninsula of the Rhins of Galloway, which is sometimes known as the Rhins of Wigtownshire. Fronting onto the North Channel and stretching approximately 25 miles north to south, the southern tip of the Rhins is known as the Mull of Galloway and is Scotland’s southernmost point.

To the north of the village of Portpatrick begins the Southern Upland Way, a long-distance walking route leading to Cockburnspath on Scotland’s east coast. Portpatrick was traditionally protected by the 30 Scotland’s Best 2020

barons of Dunskey Castle. During the late 13th century, the lands of Dunskey were under the ownership of the King of England but by the 15th century had been acquired by the Adairs, who built the Castle of St John in Stranraer, then later the Kennedys.

Stranraer sits on the lower shores of Loch Ryan, on the northern side of the isthmus joining the Rhins of Galloway to the mainland. It is the adminsitrative centre of Western Galloway and the region’s second largest town. In recent memory, it was probably best known as a ferry port connecting with Belfast in Northern Ireland, though the service now runs from nearby Cairnryan. SB

WIGTOWN BOOK FESTIVAL V VAL 27 SEPTEMBER-6 OCTOBER 2019

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THIS PHOTO: Edinburgh Castle as seen from Calton Hill

REGIONS EDINBURGH & THE LOTHIANS

EDINBURGH & THE LOTHIANS The cultural cornerstone

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cotland’s capital sits proudly and defiantly on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth, affording it both a strategic position and, despite the haars (seasonal sea mists that envelop the streets in a delicate cloak of secrecy), shelter from the North Sea. Over 1,000 years ago, the region’s volcanic outcrops – North Berwick Law, Traprain Law, Arthur’s Seat, Salisbury Craggs and Edinburgh Rock – provided defensive outlooks against coastal invaders (the Vikings from the north, and the Saxon English from the south). In the Middle Ages, coastal settlements along the Firth of Forth – Leith, Portobello, Musselburgh, Prestonpans, Port Seton, Aberlady, North Berwick and Dunbar – became profitable trading ports with the Low Countries of mainland Europe.

The name Lothian is traditionally associated with King Loth, whose ancient kingdom was appropriated by the Angles in the seventh century.

In 1018, Lothian was annexed to the Kingdom of Scotland and in

the centuries thereafter it became a continual battleground between the English and the Scots, before, during and after the Scottish Wars of Independence.

Every August, Scotland’s capital city becomes an epicentre of world culture. There is the official (and original) Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Edinburgh Art Festival; the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the huge spectacle of pomp and ceremony that is the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. This is when this most glorious of medieval cities, dubbed ‘The Athens of the North’, springs to life.

For four frantic weeks, Edinburgh becomes a genuinely cosmopolitan and international destination. Of course, that’s not to say there is little on offer the rest of the year. Far from it.

For a start, there is the city itself and an awesome skyline that incorporates the castle, as well as numerous church spires and Scotland’s Best 2020 33

rocky protrusions; seven hills in total create a series of levels within the city, with the Old Town at its heart, dropping down to meet the lower New Town. Presiding over it all, the castle looms above the populated coastline of the Firth of Forth. On sunny days, residents and visitors alike are dazzled by glimpses into the distance – south onto the verdant Pentland Hills and north across the Port of Leith and to the Kingdom of Fife and beyond.

Edinburgh splits its personality between the Old and New Town.

The former is a warren of medieval cobbled streets structured upon a spine of volcanic rock that travels from the castle esplanade down to the Palace of Holyroodhouse and Holyrood Park.

The New Town, created in the 18th century to deal with the swelling population, lies below, between the Old Town and the Firth of Forth. This breathtaking area is made up of splendid Georgian and Victorian squares and terraces, built from the period of the Scottish Enlightenment onwards.

At the foot of the Royal Mile is the Queen’s Gallery, which displays treasures from royal residences. Here you have the choice of taking a tour of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Her Majesty the Queen’s Scottish residence, or the futuristic (and controversial) Scottish Parliament building opposite.

Alternatively, you might prefer to set off into the open spaces of Holyrood Park and climb Arthur’s Seat, the central

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The Royal Yacht Britannia proudly served the Royal Family for 44 years and is now open to the public

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ABOVE: Tantallon Castle looks out onto the Firth of Forth and Bass Rock LEFT: The Queen’s Gallery by the Palace of Holyroodhouse FAR LEFT: The rock garden and Victorian Caledonian House at the Royal Botanic Garden

hilltop, which provides glorious vistas over the city and surrounding countryside.

On Chambers Street, parallel to the Royal Mile, stands the National Museum of Scotland, an amazing interconnecting exhibition space shared between the merger of the Museum of Scotland, with its collections of Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the Royal Museum, its collections covering science, technology, natural history and world cultures. From the corner of Chambers Street and the elevated George IV Bridge, look out for the statue of Greyfriars Bobby, the loyal little Skye Terrier made famous in a Walt Disney film. But please don’t rub his nose ‘for luck’, this modern practice is damaging the much-loved sculpture.

From the Greyfriars Kirk, a one-time haunt of the grave-robbers Burke and Hare, there are daily ghost and Harry Potter tours and on the High Street, amid the tartan gift shops, is the entrance to The Real Mary King’s Close, a warren of underground streets boarded up in the 18th century, which remain preserved for visitors to explore today.

Edinburgh boasts a remarkable collection of international art accommodated in three splendid public galleries: the Scottish National Gallery, at the foot of The Mound, the refurbished Scottish National Portrait Gallery, on Queen Street; and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, a little further out of the city along the pretty Water of Leith walkway.

A unique opportunity for enjoying the skyscape of the city can Scotland’s Best 2020 35

RIGHT: Linlithgow Palace ruins, the birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots, in West Lothian FAR RIGHT: Arthur’s Seat and Calton Hill in the morning mist BELOW: Crichton Collegiate Church

be found at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Inverleith, with its rhododendron walks, glasshouses, Chinese garden and recently modernised restaurant. Another very special visitor attraction is the decommissioned Royal Yacht Britannia, anchored at the Ocean Terminal of the Port of Leith.

Launched at John Brown’s Shipyard in Clydebank in 1953, the yacht proudly served the Royal Family for 44 years and is now the public can step aboard.

However, no visit to Scotland’s capital is complete without a foray into the surrounding countryside. Towards South Queensferry, and the magnificent Forth road and rail bridges, you will find Dalmeny House, home of the Earls of Rosebery, and the magnificent Hopetoun House, ancestral home of the Marquesses of Linlithgow.

On Edinburgh’s western approach lie the satellite towns of Livingston, Linlithgow and Bathgate, with their complex mix of small industries. During the Industrial Revolution these districts flourished on the wealth of coal and shale mining.

At Wilkieston, in the grounds of Bonnington House, is Jupiter Artland, a spectacular and whimsical garden incorporating Charles Jencks’ Cells of Life and Jim Lambie’s A Forest.

At Linlithgow, the ruins of its eponymous palace date from the 15th century. Linlithgow Palace was a principal residence of the Royal Stuart dynasty and birthplace of both King James V and Mary, Queen of Scots, but it was abandoned after James VI moved his court to England. The palace was largely destroyed in 1746 by the Duke of Cumberland’s army as it marched north to confront the retreating Bonnie Prince Charlie at the Battle of Culloden.

Though it is little more than an empty shell, the palace remains a tranquil beauty spot.

In Midlothian there is an array of heritage buildings to explore.

Visit the largely 15th-century Crichton Castle, which was built as the Crichtons’ residence and later home to the Earls of Bothwell, including James, the 4th Earl, who married Mary, Queen of Scots in 1567. Another family residence, the wonderful William Adam country house at Arniston, by Gorebridge, has been home to the Dundas family for over 400 years.

Newbattle Abbey is one of Midlothian’s hidden treasures, which was originally the site of a medieval Cistercian Abbey, founded in 1140 by the monks of Melrose Abbey.

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© JAN MIRACKY/AWL IMAGES/SALLY ANDERSON/ALLAN MACDONALD/ALAMY /SHUTTERSTOCK/ENNY LAM/VISITSCOTLAND

REGIONS EDINBURGH & THE LOTHIANS

Linlithgow Palace was the “birthplace of both James V and Mary, Queen of Scots ”

Elsewhere, Penicuik House, damaged in a devastating fire in 1899, is a stunning focal point to the impressively designed landscape of Penicuik Estate, which covers 500 hectares. The house was built between 1761 and 1769, although the connection between the Clerk family and the Penicuik Estate stretches back to 1654.

Churches, too, play their part in showing Midlothian’s heritage.

Next to Crichton Castle is the picturesque Crichton Collegiate Church, founded by Sir William Crichton, Chancellor of Scotland, in 1440. From the same period, but different to any other church, is the renowned Rosslyn Chapel in the village of Roslin. Still family-owned, Rosslyn Chapel was built as a family chapel for Sir William St Clair, who lived in nearby Roslin Castle, next to the River North Esk. The name ‘Rosslyn’ is derived from ‘ross’, meaning a ‘rocky promontory’ and ‘lynn’, which means ‘waterfall’.

East Lothian has the best of everything: rich farmland ranging from the fertile arable yielding soil of the coastal plain to the sheep-filled slopes and grouse moors of the inland Lammermuir

Hills; picturesque coastal and inland towns detailed with buildings of historic interest; and large stretches of sandy beaches that hug little fishing villages and harbours.

East Lothian’s small towns – Tranent, East Linton, Morham, Gifford, Humbie, Garvald, Port Seton, Aberlady, Dirleton, Gullane, North Berwick and Dunbar – abound in history.

At Athelstaneford, you’ll find the Flag Heritage Centre, which celebrates the origins of the Scottish Saltire. The flag was adopted after the lucky omen of a white cross appeared against a blue sky before a battle between the Scots and Northumbrians in the 9th century.

These unassuming settlements have cultivated the imaginations of some surprisingly big names. John Mair, the philosopher whose teachings radicalised 16th-century Europe, was born at Glenhornie in 1467; John Muir, the Victorian naturalist and father of environmental movement, spent his first 11 years in Dunbar; and the writer Robert Louis Stevenson spent his childhood holidays at North Berwick, where the coastline features in several of his novels. SB Scotland’s Best 2020 37

GLASGOW & THE CLYDE A phoenix from the ashes

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or those of us who live in Scotland, Glasgow has always remained true to itself – gallous, cheery, brash, opinionated and welcoming.

It’s a multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-faith mix of decent, downto-earth, no-nonsense individuals who are proud of the lives they lead on the banks of the River Clyde. As Scotland’s largest urban conurbation, it is sometimes hard to imagine that as recently as three to four centuries ago, Glasgow hardly existed.

Mushrooming from a medieval bishopric and 15th-century university town, it changed dramatically in the 18th and 19th centuries from a small, rural, religious and academic settlement into a major seaport for the tobacco and cotton trades. By this point, Highland and Irish immigrants made up a third of Scotland’s total population.

With the Industrial Revolution came trade, chemicals, engineering and shipbuilding, and you only have to stroll along the city centre’s Sauchiehall Street into Buchanan Street or George Square to become aware of the wealth of period architecture this created, alongside a vibrant sense of achievement. That is part of Glasgow’s charm: observing the striking contrasts between the past and the present.

Towering over the Merchant City is the Necropolis, a sprawling city of the dead that was inaugurated in 1833. Within its slopes, under serried ranks of obelisks and monuments, lie the remains of two centuries of Glasgow’s great, good and Godly. On the lower ground sits Glasgow Cathedral, otherwise called the High Kirk of Glasgow, a supreme example of elegant Gothic architecture dating from the 12th century.

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Contemporary Glasgow, however, has distanced itself from its hardcore, commercially-driven Victorian past. Today, the Merchant City – its oldest surviving quarter – hums with eclectic bars, awardwinning restaurants, designer shops and art galleries, many of them housed in the former mansions of the trading elite. The splendid Mitchell Library, for example, was the gift of a tobacco lord.

George Square, laid out in 1781, boasts the superlative City Chambers, the headquarters of the city council. With its splendid marble interiors, it covers an area of 6,000 square yards and is made from 10 million bricks. The Victorian fathers of the city were determined to publicise their new-found riches.

Throughout the city there are numerous institutions holding treasures attesting to their wealth, such as Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the Hunterian Museum, the Riverside Museum of Transport and Travel and the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens.

Glasgow boasts more than 90 parks and green spaces. The most notable are both in the West End: Kelvingrove Park and Glasgow Botanic Gardens, with its spectacular glasshouse, the Kibble Palace.

There are two Glaswegians particularly renowned for the architecture that outlives them in their home town. Firstly, Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson is notable for the Caledonia Road and St Vincent Free churches and the elaborate villa of Holmwood House in the south of the city. Secondly, Charles Rennie Mackintosh is commemorated at the newly revived Mackintosh at the Willow and the 1901 House of an Art Lover in Bellahouston Park. Sadly his magnum opus, the Glasgow

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THIS PHOTO: Glasgow’s Riverside Museum and Glenlee, the Tall Ship

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RIGHT: Kibble Palace in Glasgow Botanic Gardens FAR RIGHT: Beaneath the cloisters at Glasgow University BELOW RIGHT: The Falls of Clyde in South Lanarkshire

School of Art, was destroyed by fire in 2018.

Elsewhere, cultural life is to be enjoyed at the city’s many venues including the Theatre Royal, King’s, Pavilion, Tron, Tramway and Citizen’s theatres, not to mention the Royal Concert Hall. Designated a UNESCO City of Music, Glasgow hosts more than 130 concerts per week in venues as varied as King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut and the Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre (SECC) on the River Clyde.

Glasgow straddles the waterway from which it made its fortune. Today there are 21 crossings, including the Clyde Tunnel, and the regeneration work that has taken place from Broomielaw to Finnieston over the past two decades is today complete and impressive.

Journeying over the Kingston Bridge on the M8 towards Glasgow Airport, the cityscape unfolds as a shimmering futuristic panorama, dominated by the irregular, pewter coloured, 3,000-seat Clyde Auditorium designed by Sir Norman Foster, widely known for its appearance as ‘The Armadillo’.

Indeed, Glasgow would not have existed without the River Clyde, which has been dredged and deepened over the past 200 years to accommodate its shipping needs. Between 1860 and 1870, over 800,000 tons of iron ships were built at Clydebank, Finnieston, Govan, Kelvinhaugh and Scotstoun. In 1969, the QE2 was launched from John Brown’s Shipyard on Clydebank. Now almost all of those great Clyde-built enterprises are a distant memory.

But, if there is one thing that Glasgwegians are good at, it is adapting to change. While its reputation as one of the world’s greatest shipping waterways is realistically a thing of the past, the River Clyde continues to be the focal point of the burgeoning City of Glasgow, not to disregard the many small towns and villages that sit along its length.

With its source deep in the Lowther Hills of Dumfries, it should not be overlooked that the river travels a distance of 109 miles to merge with the Firth of Clyde, just beyond the west coast sea ports of Gourock, Greenock and Dunbarton. Large areas of Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Stirlingshire and Dunbartonshire also owe much of their prosperity and survival to their proximity to the River Clyde.

Its influence on the central belt of Scotland has been immensely important. Following its course from the meeting of the Daer and Potrail Waters, west of Moffat, it reaches the spectacular Falls of

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A UNESCO City of Music, Glasgow hosts more than 130 concerts per week

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Clyde in South Lanarkshire. This great beauty spot was discovered in the late 18th century by David Dale, an Ayrshire-born cloth merchant, who instantly recognised the power of the waterfalls. It had long been his dream to create a model village and, by harnessing the waters to the spinning frame technology recently developed by the English inventor Richard Arkwright, he set up the New Lanark Mills and created jobs for 2,500 people. It was a revolutionary and benign concept of employment, inspiring generations to follow. Today, though the Lanarkshire cotton industry has also passed into history, New Lanark, including the mill buildings, has been lovingly restored. Meanwhile, the surrounding landscape, which includes the Falls of Clyde (Bonnington Linn, Corra Linn, Dundaff Linn and Stonebyres Linn), has been designated a World Heritage Site.

Much of the workforce of Lanarkshire, traditionally employed in coal mining, benefited significantly from steel production. The Ravenscraig plant near Motherwell, which operated one of the longest continuous casting, hot rolling production assemblies in the world, was at the centre of the industry at the time. Its closure in 1992 signalled the end of large-scale steel production in Scotland.

Further downriver, Chatelherault Country Park occupies the grounds of a former hunting lodge belonging to the powerful Hamilton family,

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Scotland’s premier dukes, and takes its name from one of the Hamilton’s French titles. The lodge, which today serves as a visitor centre and restaurant, was designed by William Adam and completed in 1734.

It is run by South Lanarkshire Council.

Continuing north-west, at Bothwell Brig on 22 June 1679 a conclusive battle took place between Government soldiers and militant Presbyterian Covenanters, signalling a temporary conclusion of their cause.

Today, the adjoining Strathclyde Country Park also occupies lands once owned by the Hamilton family, but was handed over to the nation in lieu of death duties. Centred on an artificial loch, created in 1975, there are amenities for coarse angling, woodland walks, water sports, a camping and caravanning site and a theme park.

Hamilton Palace, the largest and grandest of private houses ever to be built in Scotland, fell victim to subsidence brought about by underground mining activities and was totally demolished in the early 20th century. North of where it stood, however, is the remarkable Hamilton Mausoleum. At 40 yards high, it was begun by the architect David Hamilton in 1842, 10 years after the death of the 10th Duke of Hamilton, and completed in 1858.

From 1862, until his death 11 years later, the missionary and explorer David Livingstone owned a house in Burbank Road in Hamilton. His life and achievements are celebrated in the house in which he was born, now run by the National Trust for Scotland as The David Livingstone Centre, which is currently closed while it undergoes Scotland’s Best 2020 41

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stands Dumfries House, a splendid Palladian country house built for William Dalrymple, 5th Earl of Dumfries. Kilmarnock, which the River Irvine runs through, is the largest town in the region of Ayrshire and here the traditional industries were engineering and textiles.

Troon has a busy port with freight and passenger ferry services to Larne in Northern Ireland. The Troon Yacht Haven marina is one of the Firth of Clyde’s leading sailing centres. There are also six quality golf courses and the Royal Troon championship links last hosted The Open Championship in 2016.

Ayr has enjoyed Royal Burgh status since 1205 and is the administrative centre of South Ayrshire. It was here, in 1315, that Robert the Bruce held his first Parliament of Scotland, following his great victory the year before at Bannockburn. The north side of Ayr Harbour still operates as a commercial port, and the celebrated Ayr Racecourse hosts both National Hunt and flat racing.

On the outskirts of the town is the fishing village of Dunure with its ruined castle, which, prior to the building of Culzean, was the stronghold of the Kennedy family.

South Ayrshire is a golfer’s paradise. The Open was played at Prestwick Old Course between 1860 and 1972. The town has a mile-long esplanade alongside Prestwick Bay with expansive views across the water towards the isle of Arran, with the shores of Kintyre beyond.

The name that is so inextricably linked with this corner of Scotland is that of Robert Burns, whose mother Agnes Broun was born and brought up on a farm in the hill country above Kirkoswald. Burns himself was born at Alloway, three miles south of Ayr. The house that his father built has been transformed into the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum and forms part of the Burns Heritage Trail. Heading south, the road arrives at Maybole, which is centred on its ancient castle – the oldest inhabited house in the town.

This is very much Kennedy country, with Culzean Castle, the family’s clifftop fortress, at its heart. Culzean’s oval staircase and the saloon with windows 150 feet above the Firth of Clyde are numbered among the finest achievements of the Scottish architect Robert Adam.

Today, Culzean Castle is considered to be the jewel in the crown of the National Trust for Scotland’s portfolio. Paying guests are allowed to stay in the Eisenhower Apartment. After the Second World War, this area was opened up to America’s 34th President in grateful recognition of his role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. SB

This is very much “ Kennedy country, with their

a £6.3m redvelopment, known as the Birthplace Project.

At Bothwell, the river winds past Bothwell Castle, built in the 13th century for Walter de Moravia (or Moray) and intermittently garrisoned by both English and Scots armies. It was later passed on to the Douglases and the Homes. South of the river, the hopes of Mary, Queen of Scots regaining her Scottish throne were terminated at the Battle of Langside, which was fought within the boundaries of Glasgow in 1568.

Of course, though it may be easy to forget it when entering Glasgow on the motorway, expansive estates and swathes of woodland and farmland have long been an important feature of the countryside surrounding Glasgow. The Clyde Valley is even known locally as the ‘Garden of Scotland’. Six locations make up the Clyde Valley Woodlands National Nature Reserve, incorporating Cartland Crags, Chatelrehault, Gleghorn Glen, the Falls of Clyde, Mauldslie Woods and Lower Nethan Gorge. Five of these sites are designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest, with an abundance of native flora and fauna.

As an area rich in historical interest, ancient and modern, the Clyde Valley and the mighty City of Glasgow have a great deal to be proud of.

Heading south from Glasgow, the A77 leads to Kilmarnock, the A76 thereafter heading off to Cumnock and into the Galloway hills, a lesser-explored and largely uninhabited wilderness. At Cumnock

clifftop fortress, Culzean Castle, at its heart

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© JOHN CARROLL PHOTOGRAPHY/JOHN PETER PHOTOGRAPHY/IAIN MASTERTON/ALAMY/KENNY LAM/VISIT SCOTLAND

LEFT: Culzean Castle and Country Park

FIFE , KINROSS & CLACKMANNANSHIRE The Kingdom and the wee counties

THIS PHOTO The ruins of St Andrews Castle loom over Fife’s main town

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ccording to the Victorian Chronicles of William Forbes Skene, Fife’s famous title of ‘Kingdom’ originated because it was once a Pictish realm. A more recent attribution of the royal realm is that Dunfermline, being strategically situated near the northern shore of the Firth of Forth, was the principal seat of Scotland’s monarchy for 400 years.

The settlement at Dunfermline, originally home to Neolithic settlers, sprang up around the great abbey that was raised in the year 1128 by David I. The graveyard there contains the tombs of the Scottish kings and queens who once occupied the adjacent, now ruined, palace.

It was at nearby Kinghorn, on a stormy night in 1286, that King Alexander III, having crossed over the Forth to meet up with his second wife Yolande de Dreux, fell from his horse and was killed. This ignited a royal succession crisis that would last until 1292. Alas, all trace of the castle at Kinghorn had disappeared by the end of the 1700s, but there is a memorial to the king on the road to Burntisland.

One of Fife’s three largest settlements, Kirkcaldy, is tucked into a sheltered east coast bay and was originally a trading port servicing the Low Countries of mainland Europe. Known as the “Lang Toun” because of its mile-long main street, the town prospered through its salt panning,

coal mining and nail manufacturing activities, and more recently the production of linen and linoleum, which grew into a global industry.

Alongside the most northerly stretch of the Firth of Forth, beyond Kirkcaldy, lies a string of small seaports and fishing villages collectively referred to as the East Neuk of Fife: Elie, Lundin Links, Colinsburgh, St Monans, Lower and Upper Largo, Pittenweem, Anstruther, Cellardyke, Crail and Kingsbarns.

With narrow streets, pan-tiled dwellings and harbours, all of these hamlets provide first-rate holiday accommodation for the many visitors who attend its popular summer events, including the Crail Festival and the Pittenweem Arts Festival.

At Anstruther, take the opportunity to visit the 14th-century Kellie Castle, managed by the National Trust for Scotland. Once lived in by the youngest daughter of Robert the Bruce, it was saved from demolition in the 1950s by the sculptor Hew Lorimer. The Fife Folk Museum, on the High Street in the village of Ceres, celebrates this rich local history.

Christianity arrived in Fife as early as the 4th century when certain body parts belonging to St Andrew, who was martyred at Patras, were brought ashore by a fugitive Greek monk called St Rule. Other relics Scotland’s Best 2020 45

followed in the 7th century and by the 9th century the spot where St Rule landed had grown into a flourishing Culdee religious community named St Andrews.

The burgh rapidly emerged as the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland, with routes of pilgrimage threading through the coastal and inland landscape, north from the Firth of Forth and south from the Firth of Tay. All of this ended with the Reformation, when the vast and imposing St Andrews Cathedral was dismantled.

In addition to all of this, St Andrews is globally acknowledged as the home of golf. This is principally because the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, founded here in 1754, exercises legislative authority over the game worldwide – except in the United States and Mexico. Secondly, it is because the famous links, acquired by the town in 1894, has become the most frequent venue for the renowned Open Championships, the oldest of the game’s four major tournaments.

To exit Fife from St Andrews, the road travels north to Wormit and Newport-on-Tay, before connecting with the Tay Road Bridge which opened in 1966. To the west of St Andrews, the A91 swings towards the market town of Cupar and onwards to Auchtermuchty and Strathmiglo to connect with the M90 motorway near Milnathort.

A major visitor attraction at Cupar is the Scottish Deer Centre, which accommodates 14 species of deer, Fife’s resident wolf pack, plus a number of otters and wildcats.

Finally, on the outskirts of Newburgh are the remains of Lindores Abbey, which was founded in the late 12th century by David, Earl of Huntingdon. It is today recognised as the spiritual home of Scotch whisky; the first written record of ‘aqua vitae’ is noted in the Exchequer as an order relating to Friar John Cor, a Tironensian monk domiciled at the abbey. In late 2017, a new distillery was opened on the site in honour of this historic link, joining five other whisky distilleries in the region: Kingsbarns, Inchdairnie, Daftmill, Cameronbridge and Eden Mill.

Moving further west, we reach an area stuck between Stirlingshire and Perthshire to the west and north respectively, and Fife to the east.

Here one will find the old counties of Kinross and Clackmannanshire.

It was in the Douglas stronghold of Lochleven Castle, situated on an island in Loch Leven, Kinross, that Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned in 1567. Here, she was forced to abdicate the Scottish throne in favour of her infant son, James. From a window in the castle, Mary’s escape in a boat was abetted by the son of her captor. Since that time the water level of the loch has dropped considerably and the island is now considerably larger. The castle can be visited by a ferry operated

by Historic Environment Scotland.

Continuing further west, Clackmannanshire (with an area of just more than 60 square miles) is, amusingly, the smallest county in Scotland

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Lindores Abbey is recognised as the spiritual home of Scotch whisky

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TOP LEFT: Looking towards Largo and Largo Law from Ruddons Point on the Fife Coastal Path TOP RIGHT: Castle Campbell near Dollar, Clackmannanshire, RIGHT: Historic Dunfermline Abbey

© IAN PATERSON/SCOTTISH VIEWPOINT/DAVID ROBERTSON/ALAMY//KENNY LAM/ VISIT SCOTLAND

REGIONS FIFE, KINROSS & CLACKMANNANSHIRE

with the longest name. On account of this, it is affectionately referred to as the ‘Wee County’.

With the Ochil Hills in the north and the lowland plain of Strathdevon, south of the Hillfoot Villages of the Ochil Fault, there is much more to this central Scottish area than meets the eye.

The Crook of Devon, so named as it sits on a sudden angle in the river, is situated where Clackmannanshire meets Perthshire and Kinross, and was notable in the 17th century for the persecution of local witches, many of whom were burnt or strangled in the Lamblaires field.

The A91 is threaded through the quirkily named villages of Pool of Muckhart and Yetts o’Muckhart, with Rumbling Bridge and the Rumbling Bridge Gorge of the River Devon in Kinross-shire approximately 300 metres to the south of the Muckhart Golf Course.

Dollar, on the A91 road from Stirling to St Andrews, owes its prominence to the nearby location of Dollar Glen and Castle Campbell, making it popular with hill walkers and mountain bikers.

Tillicoultry stands on the southern slopes of the Ochil Hills with the River Devon to the south. Called ‘Tilly’ by locals, for over two centuries the textile industry flourished here, with water from the Ochils employed in the washing and dying of wool. Steam power and a rail connection had arrived by 1851 and by 1870 there were 12 mills employing more than 2,000 people. Coal and textiles remained the key industries here until the 1950s.

Alva developed as a textile manufacturing centre in the 19th century and it is home to some impressive historic mills, such as the Strude Mill and Glentana Mill. To the east of Alva Glen is the beautiful Silver Glen, where silver was successfully mined in the 18th century. This ore funded the 1745 Jacobite Rising, while Cobalt from the same shafts was used by Scottish porcelain manufacturers.

To the south, Alloa is on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth as it funnels into the River Forth, which then continues towards Stirling.

The lands of Alloa were granted to Sir Robert Erskine by David II in 1368 and passed to his descendants, the earls of Mar. In the early 18th century, the 6th Earl of Mar pioneered water supplies from the Gartmore Dam and expanded the harbour before becoming embroiled in the 1715 Jacobite Rising. As a result, he was forced into exile and his lands were forfeit. His brother, nevertheless, was allowed to buy back the estate and, in the century that followed, a glassworks, the Kilncraigs Mill (later to become Paton & Baldwins Ltd), the Carsebridge Distillery and the Alloa Brewery Company were created.

A few miles away, to the east, is the region’s namesake settlement of Clackmannan. The town itself takes its name from an ancient stone connected to the pre-Christian figure Manau or Mannan, and this object can be found beside the Tolbooth and Mercat Cross at the top of the town’s Main Street. Throughout its history, the town was closely associated with the Bruce relatives of King Robert I, who acquired the tower house on King’s Seat Hill from their relative David II. SB Scotland’s Best 2020 47

THIS PHOTO: Stob Dearg in Glencoe, one of Scotland’s most famous natural landscapes

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ARGYLL & LOMOND Western wonderland

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he vast landscape of Argyll is home to some of Scotland’s most spectacular scenery, abundant wildlife and impressive historic sites. Within its boundaries are a number of islands, which we cover separately (see page 72). The journey west is usually made by one of two approaches – a ‘northern’ or a ‘southern’ route – both of which initially take in parts of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.

The ‘northern’ route is ideal for those travelling from Edinburgh via Stirling and follows the A84 to the popular holiday town of Callander, on the outskirts of the national park, before heading north alongside Loch Lubnaig (where there is a campsite and café) and joining the A85 at Lochearnhead, on the western banks of Loch Earn. From there, the road takes in Glen Ogle, which has a picturesque viaduct, before looping west to Crianlarich.

To the northwest, the village of Tyndrum is an important transport staging post, where many will stop at the famous Green Welly Stop,

which includes a gift shop, whisky shop, outwear store, restaurant and motor services. It is here that the road splits. If time allows, you can extend your route to Oban by heading north to the Bridge of Orchy, then inching into Lochaber and through arguably Scotland’s most famous natural landmark – Glencoe. This geographically dramatic glen was the site of an infamous massacre in 1692; today it’s popular for outdoor pursuits. From there the road continues west to North Ballachulish, before swinging south toward Connel and, eventually, on to Oban.

Nearby is the romantic 14th-century Castle Stalker (from the Gaelic ‘Stalcaire’, meaning Hunter or Falconer), which sits alone on a tidal islet in Loch Laich. This romantic four-storey tower house began as a small fortress for the Clan MacDougall Lords of Lorne, before being acquired by the Stewarts and embellished when they took over the lordship in the following century. As it is privately owned, Castle Scotland’s Best 2020 49

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Stalker is not generally open to the public but a limited number of tours take place each year.

The more direct ‘northern’ route takes the A85 west from Tyndrum to the village of Dalmally, which was once part of the vast Campbell of Breadalbane estates. From there, the A85 runs along the top shore of Loch Awe and passes the ruins of Kilchurn Castle, the 15th-century headquarters of the Campbells of Glenorchy. This branch of the family eventually became the Earls of Breadalbane.

Taynuilt, at the western entrance to the Pass of Brander, is where the River Nant flows into Loch Etive at Airds Bay. In the 13th century, a small hill here accommodated the seat of the Bishop of Argyll.

Not far away is the Bonawe Historic Iron Furnace, constructed in 1753, which once employed 600 charcoal burners and in 1781 manufactured 42,000 canon balls. It now features a visitor centre that gives insight into this fascinating site of historic industry.

The A85 continues southwest from Connel, passing the turn-off for the Isle of Eriska (a luxury resort on a private island) and the imposing 13th-century Dunstaffnage Castle, which is one of Scotland’s oldest stone castles, before heading south to Oban.

The alternative ‘southern’ route is best accessed from Glasgow and takes the A82 from Dumbarton, heading north along the western bank of Loch Lomond, before turning west at Arrochar, which is found at the northernmost tip of Loch Long. A detour into the park itself is worth a day or two of your time and boat trips to islands on Loch Lomond, such as the nature reserve of Inchcailloch, make for peaceful excursions. From Arrochar the A83 passes under the shadow of Beinn Ime and Beinn an Lochain and the beauty spot known as the ‘Rest and Be Thankful’. The site is 803 feet above sea level and divides Glen Kinglas and Glen Croe, making it an ideal photo opportunity.

As the road continues it follows the banks of the northern tip of Loch Fyne past the famous Loch Fyne Oyster Bar, tables at which should be booked in advance. Nearby is also the respected Fyne Ales brewery, which has both a shop and brewery tap (tours are available by appointment). Turning south, the A83 leads to Inveraray, which is well known for its eponymous castle that is the ancestral home of the Duke of Argyll, Chief of Clan Campbell. It is open to the public for tours from April to October.

From Inveraray, the road follows the western bank of Loch Fyne southward to Lochgilphead, which is found at the head of a short loch called Loch Gilp, itself an offshoot of Loch Fyne. Much like Inveraray, 50 Scotland’s Best 2020

ABOVE: The Oban Distillery and McCaig’s Tower RIGHT: Inveraray Castle, the seat of the Chief of Clan Campbell BELOW LEFT: The harbour at Tarbert on the Kintyre peninsula BELOW RIGHT: Arduaine Garden, near Loch Melfort, is a delight

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The King’s longship was “ carried across the isthmus to claim the Western Isles ”

Lochgilphead was a planned town built in the late 18th century, following the creation of the road from Inveraray to Campbeltown, which is the primary settlement at the southern tip of Argyll, on the Kintyre Peninsula. Lochgilphead developed significantly following the opening of the Crinan Canal, which acts as a shortcut across the Kintyre peninsula to the west coast of Scotland and the open ocean.

Heading south down the Kintyre Peninsula, we reach Tarbert, which is built on an inlet of Loch Fyne and extends over the isthmus linking Knapdale to Kintyre. In the late 11th century, Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, had his longship carried across the isthmus to claim possession of the Western Isles. On the hill above the village, on the southern shore of East Loch Tarbert, are the remains of Tarbert Castle, fortified by Robert the Bruce in the 14th century and rebuilt by King James IV in 1494.

Further south is Kennacraig, on West Loch Tarbert, from where the Caledonain MacBrayne ferries sail to Port Ellen and Port Askaig on Islay. Meanwhile the coastal A83 continues south, providing spectacular views out to sea. At Tayinloan there is a ferry service to the small island of Gigha, where the impressive gardens of Achamore House sprawl.

Soon the road bypasses the popular Machrihanish Golf Club, whose clubhouse was gutted by fire in late 2018 though the links golf course was saved, before swinging east to reach Campbeltown, which once boasted 28 Scotch whisky distilleries. Though only three remain – Springbank, Glengyle and Glen Scotia – they are all impressive.

Back at Lochgilphead, head north to reach Kilmartin Glen, one of the most significant archaeological landscapes in the world. In the village of Kilmartin you’ll find the small but satisfactory Kilmartin Museum, set to undergo a £6.8m revamp, and the Kilmartin Parish Church, which features a series of remarkable carvings and interpretations of the many stone circles, rock carvings and standing stones in the region.

Continuing north, on the final stretch to Oban, worthwhile stop -offs include the purpose-built sailing port and holiday resort of

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THIS PHOTO: A carpet of bluebells covers Inchcailloch Island on Loch Lomond

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Boat trips to some of Loch Lomond’s islands make for peaceful excursions

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To the north, overlooking the main entrance to the bay, is Dunollie Castle, the ruins of which date from the ancient kingdom of Dalriada. In the 13th century, the fortification was reinstated by Duncan MacDougall, a great grandson of the warrior-king Somerled. Powerful for generations, the MacDougalls sided with their kinsfolk, the Comyns, against the royal ambitions of Robert the Bruce. Following Bruce’s victory at the Battle of the Pass of Brander, c.1308, the MacDougall lands of Lorne were forfeited and handed over to Clan Campbell. Thereafter, Dunollie Castle changed hands, but was recovered by the MacDougalls in 1661. It was abandoned in 1746 in favour of Dunollie House, just downhill of the castle ruins.

At Battery Hill on the southern side of the town, visit McCaig’s Tower.

Modelled on the Colosseum in Rome, with a public garden inside, the folly overlooks the town with sea views over to Kerrera in the horseshoe bay and the Isle of Mull beyond. Built by local businessman John Stuart McCaig, it was originally intended for statues of members of his family to be placed within the 600-foot arena. Sadly he died in 1902 before he could complete the project.

The traditional Oban Games and Argyllshire Gathering, one of the largest of its kind in Scotland, takes place annually at Mossfield Park on the fourth Thursday in August. It commences with a march of Campbell chieftains led by the Duke of Argyll and it is customary for all neighbouring clansfolk to attend. SB

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© ROBERT HARDING/ URBANMYTH/ALAMY/KENNY LAM/PAUL TOMKINS/ VISIT SCOTLAND/NATIONAL TRUST FOR SCOTLAND

Craobh Haven, the beautiful National Trust for Scotland gardens of Arduaine, and the quaint, sheltered anchorage by Kilmelford, on Loch Melfort. At Kilninver you can turn off the main A816 road to reach Ellenabeich where you can take the small local ferry to the Slate Isle of Easdale, or head to Cuan Ferry if you’d like to cross over to the larger isle of Luing. Both isles are picturesque hideaways, rich in history and well worth a visit.

Finally, two miles south of Oban is the turn-off for the ferry to the small island of Kerrera, which is four miles long and located across the Sound of Kerrera in the Firth of Lorne. The island is divided into small communities north and south, and its main historical attraction is the ruin of Gylen Castle, where King Alexander II of Scotland died in 1249. There is a tea garden and bunkhouse by the castle, open from Easter until October.

At last we reach the town of Oban, capital of the ancient district of Lorne. The town came into its own with the arrival of the railway in 1880 and, to some extent, with the tourism that followed. As the gateway to the islands of the Inner Hebrides and a terminal for steamboats and ferries, hotels and boarding houses sprang up along the waterfront. Arguably, however, the Oban of today grew up around the Scotch whisky distillery founded in 1794 by brothers John and Hugh Stevenson. This distillery, which is open for tours and tastings of its single malt, is still active and is now part of the Diageo portfolio.

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ANGUS , MORAY & ABERDEENSHIRE On the castle and whisky trail

THIS PHOTO: The medieval fortress of Dunnottar Castle on the northeast coast

54 Scotland’s Best 2020

REGIONS ANGUS, MORAY & ABERDEENSHIRE

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rom the city of Perth, the A90 runs alongside the northern banks of the River Tay towards Dundee and into the region of Angus, which is historic Forfarshire. This is rich farmland and seasonal berry-picking country. Like the extended fingers of a hand, Glen Isla, Glen Prosen, Glen Clova, Glen Lethnot and Glen Esk make up the southern foothills of the Grampians. Glen Isla is the most westerly of these glens and the only one where the road exits to the north through the Grampian hills to Braemar and Deeside.

Glen Prosen, a gentle wilderness, lies next to Glen Clova, a glen of spectacular vistas, with the scenery becoming more dramatic as it travels towards Glen Doll. Close by is Cortachy Castle, the seat of the Ogilvies of Airlie since 1625; it remains the home of the Earl of Airlie. Next is Glen Lethnot and the 15-mile-long Glen Esk, and both comprise beautiful countryside.

Not far away, the market town of Forfar dates back to the Roman occupation of Battledykes, three miles to the north. During the Wars of Independence, the castle here was held by the English, and thereafter dismantled by Robert the Bruce.

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, was born Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the youngest daughter of the 14th Earl and Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, whose ancestral home, nearby Glamis

Castle, is still occupied by their descendants. A turreted red-sandstone castle that dates from the 17th century, it is often cited as the most haunted house in Scotland, however its interiors are surprisingly welcoming and open to the public.

The nearby town of Kirriemuir is best known as the birthplace of J M Barrie. A statue of his most famous character, Peter Pan, stands in the town square and the cottage where he was born is now a museum.

The city of Dundee, which sits at the mouth of the River Tay, promotes itself with the motto: ‘One city, many discoveries’. The phrase takes inspiration from one of the city’s most popular attractions, the RRS Discovery, Robert Falcon Scott’s Dundee-built Antarctic exploration vessel is anchored at the riverside. But that key visitor attraction status has now been eclipsed thanks to the opening of the V&A Dundee, a world centre for design excellence, built right next door, which is the crowning glory of a huge £1bn overhaul of the city’s once downtrodden waterfront.

Now Scotland’s fourth largest city, in the 13th century Dundee was simply a small seaport. Although it was thereafter renowned for its primary exports of ‘jute, jam and journalism’, the Dundee of the 21st century has harnessed a booming digital entertainment industry and seeded two universities.

Scotland’s Best 2020 55

CLOCKWISE FROM BELOW: Scottish massed pipe bands playing at the Braemar Gathering; the Strathisla Distillery in Keith; Balmoral Castle and Gardens; the Rock of Dunbuy, near the Bullers of Buchan, in Aberdeenshire

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North of Dundee, the A90 continues its In more recent times, Arbroath prospered The Balmoral Estate, path towards the Granite City of Aberdeen as a centre for the North Sea fishing industry, in the Cairngorms, remains through Forfar and Brechin, while the River Tay and visitors come from all over to try the the holiday home of the coastal road, the A92, travels on to Broughty famous Arbroath Smokie – haddock smoked British Royal Family Ferry, Carnoustie, Arbroath and Montrose. in barrels using 19th century methods.

The small seaside town of Carnoustie is In 1715, James Francis Stuart, known as synonymous with golf, which has been played The Old Pretender, landed in Montrose to on the Barry Links since the 16th century. A 10-hole course was laid support the second Jacobite rising, before rapidly retreating to France.

The town was later held for his son, Bonnie Prince Charlie, and in out in 1850 and, 17 years later, it was improved by Thomas Mitchell Morris – otherwise known as Old Tom Morris. Since 1931, Carnoustie 1746, the largest naval battle of that conflict was fought in its harbour.

Golf Links has been one of the chosen venues of the rotating Open Travelling north by car on the A92 from Dundee, and officially entering Aberdeenshire above Montrose, the coastal road is profoundly Championship in Britain.

Arbroath Abbey was founded by William the Lion in 1178, dramatic. At Stonehaven, the conspicuous ruins of Dunnottar Castle, dedicated to St Thomas Becket. King William was buried here in 1214, ancient stronghold of Clan Keith, hover dramatically over the North Sea. but the abbey is more famous for hosting a meeting of the Scottish Situated within the Cairngorms National Park is the Balmoral Estate, Parliament in 1320 and the subsequent proclamation sent to Pope which remains the holiday home of the British Royal Family. It is John XXII known as the Declaration of Arbroath. This details the partly located within the Deeside and Lochnagar National Scenic Area, various services that their “lord and sovereign” Robert the Bruce had a glorious area of dark wooded forests and inspirational mountain rendered to Scotland and the resolute decision that all Scots should be slopes. The gardens of Balmoral were first opened to the general public free from the domination of England. With 2020 marking the 700th in 1931 and are now open daily between April and the end of July, after which the Queen arrives for her annual holiday. The interiors of anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath, there will Balmoral are private (though you can visit the ballroom on a guided be huge celebrations in the town in the lead up to and around the tour), but visitors to the region will not be bereft of grand houses and anniversary on 6 April.

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REGIONS ANGUS, MORAY & ABERDEENSHIRE

fortifications to explore as Aberdeenshire is a land of such castles.

Drum, Crathes, Craigievar, Castle Fraser and Fyvie – to name only a few – are enduring symbols of the families of the region: the Irvines, Burnetts, Forbes, Setons, Sempills, and, of course, the Gordons.

Generally better preserved than their southern counterparts, these clan keeps, fortresses and tower houses survive not simply as a reminder of the wealth and privilege, but also of a time when survival depended upon force of arms.

Braemar Castle, which dates from 1628, passed from the Erskine Earls of Mar to the Farquharsons of Invercauld. It is currently owned by the Braemar Community who acquired it in 2007. Another popular feature to be enjoyed by visitors and locals alike is the annual Braemar Gathering, a traditional Highland games that takes place on the first Saturday in September.

The City of Aberdeen, which hugs the northeast coast of the Grampian region, is the third largest metropolis in Scotland and an independently minded, economically thriving hub of culture and business fuelled by its harbour, international trade and the oil industry of the North Sea. The city’s two universities, The University of Aberdeen, founded in 1495, and The Robert Gordon University, awarded its status in 1992, make Aberdeen the educational centre of the northeast. Aberdeen’s seaport is the largest in the region and Aberdeen Heliport is one of the busiest commercial helicopter bases in the world.

Scotland’s Best 2020 57

From the mid 18th century, the international demand for granite quarried at Rubislaw became Aberdeen’s leading industry. Both London Bridge and Waterloo Bridge are made from it. The impressive solidity and grandeur of the natural material can be witnessed in the buildings in the centre of Aberdeen itself. Over the centuries, shipbuilding developed alongside a fishing industry and Aberdeen became famous for its sharp-bowed ‘clipper’ ships, which were designed for crossing the China Seas and for the transportation of emigrants to Australia.

In the latter part of 20th century, the discovery of substantial oil deposits lying deep in the cold waters of the North Sea completely regenerated the city and brought enormous prosperity to the region.

But Aberdeen is not all business and commerce. There is a busy night-life, excellent restaurants and a colourful output of theatre and culture. The Aberdeen Art Gallery, for example, houses a superb collection of 19th-century French and Scottish paintings, alongside 20th-century British art and collections of silver and glass. The Aberdeen Maritime Museum, at Shiprow, tells the story of the city’s links with the sea.

Other visitor attractions include Provost Created by Sir Alexander Fraser of Philorth, The Strathdon and Ross’s House, The Gordon Highlanders who dissipated his fortune in the process, Glenbuchat area has Museum and The King’s Museum, which is Fraserburgh was intended as a university town easy access to the until its founder’s funding collapsed. Today, one of Scotland’s newer museums, but with it remains the largest shellfish port in Europe. origins in a museum collection established in moors for walkers King’s College in 1727. The city also hosts The Fraserburgh Heritage Centre in Quarry annual festivals such as the Aberdeen Jazz Road is well worth a visit. On its outskirts Festival and the University of Aberdeen’s May Festival. For golfers is Cairnbulg Castle, seat of Sir Alexander’s descendant Lady Saltoun, there is the Royal Aberdeen Golf Club, founded in 1780. the present-day Chief of Clan Fraser. In the vicinity is the Macduff To the west and south, the wide-banked rivers of Don and Dee Distillery, built in 1962 and now owned by John Dewar & Sons. flow swiftly to the sea. The Don passes through Alford, Kemnay, Northeast of Aberdeen, at Tarves, is Haddo House, built in the Inverurie, Kintore and Dyce, to Inverurie. The latter originates from 1730s by William Adam for William Gordon, 2nd Earl of Aberdeen. the Grampian Mountains and forest of Balmoral.

Also nearby is the Glen Garioch Distillery at Old Meldrum, owned Heading north along the coast, travellers will find the towns by drinks conglomorate Beam Suntory. of Peterhead, sometimes referred to as The Blue Toon (the nickname To the west of Aberdeen City, the Strathdon and Glenbuchat area supposedly comes from the blue stockings traditionally worn by consists of quiet roads and forest trails, with easy access to the moors local fishermen), and Fraserburgh, which juts boldly into the North for walkers seeking to explore the eastern Cairngorms, following old drovers’ trails and smugglers’ routes. The Lecht Ski Centre is nearby and Sea. On the southern side of Peterhead is Sandford Bay, a popular, albeit chilly, destination for wind surfers. Here can also be found the ruins of Kildrummy Castle, a 13th-century stronghold of the Earls the Bullers of Buchan, a vast rock cauldron into which seawater of Mar, and the picturesque Corgarff Castle are worth visiting, too. spills through a narrow archway creating a boiling effect with the The River Don, north of the city, rises in the Grampians and travels incoming tide. through the small towns and villages of Alford, Kemnay, Inverurie,

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© PAUL MOGFORD/PAUL GLENDELL/PAUL MARSHALL/ALAMY/KENNY LAM/PAUL TOMKINS/ NORTH EAST 250/DAMIAN SHIELDS/VISITSCOTLAND

RIGHT: Corgarff Castle in the Cairngorms National Park FAR RIGHT: Covesea Lighthouse at Lossiemouth on the Moray coastline

REGIONS ANGUS, MORAY & ABERDEENSHIRE

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Kintore and Dyce, which is where you will of Elgin and the family-run Scotch whisky Speyside is the beating retailers and bottlers, Gordon & MacPhail. find Aberdeen Airport. heart of Scotland’s Donside also embraces the towns of Huntly, Travelling up from Elgin to the northeast whisky industry with Keith and Rothiemay. The former was originally Moray Firth Coast, the BA941 leads known as Strathbogie and was the ancestral to Lossiemouth, known locally as the ‘Jewel 50 distilleries seat of Clan Gordon. One hugely popular event of the Moray Firth’. Originally Elgin’s port, in August is the Lonach Highland Gathering it was once an important fishing town and, and Games – one of the oldest in Scotland – which includes the March in 1866, was the birthplace of James Ramsay MacDonald, Britain’s of the Lonach Highlanders. first Labour Prime Minister. In more recent years it has been the base From Huntly, the A96 and A920 take travellers to Keith (home of RAF Lossiemouth, one of the main operating bases of the Royal of the Strathisla and Strathmill distilleries) and Dufftown (home of Air Force.

Glenfiddich, The Balvenie and several other working distilleries). This Back on the A96, the road travels eastwards into Banffshire towards area, known as Speyside, represents the beating heart of Scotland’s the North Sea coastal fishing towns of Buckie, Cullen and Portsoy.

Cullen, of course, is celebrated worldwide for its traditional soup, whisky industry as the region is home to more than 50 distilleries in Cullen Skink. Cullen House, the former mansion house of the Earls total and there are lots of companies offering memorable tours.

Elgin, south of the River Lossie, is the administrative centre for of Seafield, has been converted into residential apartments.

Moray and first appears in a Charter from King David I in 1151, To the south, from Elgin, the A68 runs to Fochabers and the Baxters becoming a Royal Burgh in 1130. Dominican and Franciscan monks Highland Village, a popular retail park centred on the celebrated Baxters soup company. established communities here and Elgin Cathedral was established in The Fochabers Folk Museum, which opened in 1984, houses a 1224. Abandoned after the Scottish Reformation of 1560, it fell into disrepair. In the 21st century, Elgin has become home to some of Scotland’s collection of gigs and carriages, and an exhibition celebrating RAF most iconic brand names, notably the cashmere retailers Johnstons Dallachy, the nearby Second World War fighting station. SB

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60 Scotland’s Best 2020

REGIONS PERTHSHIRE & STIRLINGSHIRE

THIS PHOTO: The National Wallace Monument and the statue of King Robert the Bruce in Stirling

PERTHSHIRE & STIRLINGSHIRE The heart of Scotland

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or centuries, the city of Perth served as a frontier town between the Scottish Lowlands and Highlands and was a flourishing marketplace for cattle drovers from all over the country. Overlooked by Kinnoull Hill, the River Tay is divided by Moncreiffe Island at Perth before passing under the Friarton bridge at West Kinfauns in the east.

With its pretty riverside location, historic green spaces and burgeoning food and drink scene, Perth is a fantastic urban base for anyone wanting to explore the obvious attractions of rural Perthshire.

There are plenty of cultural attractions to choose from too, from the Perth Museum & Art Gallery to the Fergusson Gallery, home to works by Scottish colourist JD Fergusson (1874-1961).

The Royal Scottish Geographical Society has transformed Fair Maid’s House, known for featuring in Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Fair Maid of Perth (1828), into an education centre. Visitors to the house can learn about cartography and geographical sciences.

Enthusiasts of military history will want to visit Balhousie Castle on Hay Street, as it contains the regimental museum of the Black Watch, a regiment that was famously raised by the British Government in 1739 to police the Highlands. Horticulturists will favour the Branklyn Garden on Dundee Road, managed by the National Trust for Scotland.

On the northern side of the River Tay is the Gothic-style Scone Palace, extended around 1803 and situated in close proximity to Scotland’s Best 2020 61

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Birnam, a beloved holiday escape of the children’s writer, Beatrix Potter, is nearby

Moot Hill and Scone Chapel, which occupies the remains of Scone Abbey. A replica of the Stone of Destiny, the legendary stone used over the centuries for coronations of Scottish kings, is on display here.

From Perth, the A9 travels west into the Ochil Hills through Aberuthven to Auchterarder, which features a 1.5-mile-long high street, and the prestigious Gleneagles hotel, known as a ‘riviera in the Highlands’ with its three legendary golf courses. Since opening in 1924, this splendid country estate has been considered one of Scotland’s best luxury hotels and today its restaurant is the only one in Scotland to hold two Michelin stars, though sadly its namesake chef, Andrew Fairlie, died in 2019.

Also in Strathearn is Dunning where, legend has it, the 8th century St Serf killed a dragon. The village was burned during the 1715 Jacobite Rising and the austere St Serf’s Church, which dates from around AD 1200, contains a Pictish monument from around AD 800 that is known as the Dupplin Cross.

Back in Perth, leaving the city centre via a bridge across the Tay, there is the option of joining the A85 and then the A90, or the A93 travelling north to Blairgowrie and Rattray. The latter passes the world’s largest beech hedge, on the Marquess of Lansdowne’s Meikleour estate, while the former journeys east to Inchture, Invergowrie, and Dundee.

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Just past Blairgowrie and Rattray, which straddle the Ericht River, you can see Craighall Castle, the dramatically situated ancestral fortress of the Rattray Clan from the road.

Meanwhile, the A9 heads north, skirting alongside the banks of the River Tay. Worthwhile stop-offs include the charming small towns of Stanley, Murthly and Dunkeld, home to Dunkeld Cathedral, which allegedly once contained the relics of St Columba.

The little village of Birnam, a beloved holiday escape of the children’s writer, Beatrix Potter, is also nearby. The Hermitage, a beautiful woodland accessed on the western side of the A9 is worth an hour or two of your time. Created by successive Dukes of Atholl as a tribute to the mythical blind poet Ossian, this landscaped woodland park contains Ossian’s cave, a hall of mirrors and some of the tallest trees in Britain.

At Ballinluig, the A827 leads to Aberfeldy, an attractive and busy market town, which is home to Dewar’s Aberfeldy Distillery. The Birks of Aberfeldy, celebrated by the poet Robert Burns, consists of a gorge that is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and provides an enjoyable, scenic walk. From Aberfeldy, the B846 crosses to the north bank of the River Tay and swings past Castle Menzies, the hereditary home of Clan Menzies, which is open to the public.

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REGIONS PERTHSHIRE & STIRLINGSHIRE

LEFT: The River Tay flows through the centre of Perth BELOW: Robert Burns wrote about the Falls of Bruar

In the 19th century, the picturesque town of Pitlochry became a popular holiday resort. In 1947, a dam was built here as part of the Tummel Hydro Electric Power Scheme and since then a fish ladder and plant hunters’ garden have been introduced. Both are popular visitor attractions. The Pitlochry Festival is an annual highlight, while many people also pay a visit to the nearby Falls of Bruar, immortalised by Robert Burns. Meanwhile, there’s some debate as to whether Queen’s View, which overlooks Loch Tummel is named after Queen Victoria or Queen Isabella, Robert the Bruce’s wife.

There are also two distilleries to be found here: Blair Atholl, owned by the global drinks corporation Diageo, and the picturesque, independently owned Edradour, which is one of Scotland’s smallest distilleries. Both are open to the public. On the slopes of the Grampian Mountains you can see the Murray stronghold of Blair Castle. Built in the 13th century, it was the last castle in Britain to come under siege.

For those choosing to motor west on the A85 from Perth, the road leads through Methven to Crieff, Comrie and Loch Earn. Crieff is the principle town of Strathearn and has been a popular holiday resort since the Victorian era. Situated in 900 acres, Crieff Hydro is one of Scotland’s most celebrated health spas and dates from 1868.

Just outside the town is the Glenturret Distillery, which houses the Famous Grouse Experience.

Next stop is Comrie, which lies astride a geological fault line. But – don’t panic – tremors are very unlikely. Nevertheless, the ‘Shaky Toun’, as it is sometimes known, boasts an Earthquake House that contains records from 1597. Loch Earn and Lochearnhead village are superb destinations for angling and water sports enthusiasts and mark the point where Perthshire spills into Stirlingshire.

Stirling’s location on the River Forth, inland from its confluence with the North Sea, and sheltered under the foothills of the Scottish Highlands, gave it a strategic advantage in the past.

Central and far enough north of the border with England to feel safe, there was the added advantage of access in all directions, which enabled the control of family and clan rivalries of north, south, east and west. Not without reason was Stirling, with its sturdy fortress on a rock, described as “the brooch which clasps the Highlands and Lowlands together”.

With its medieval old town and castle rock sited against a backdrop of the Ochil Hills, 21st-century Stirling readily embraces the best of the old and new with a fine array of hotels, restaurants and its Thistles Shopping Centre, which has over 80 stores and big name retail brands.

Stirling Castle’s golden age came about during the reigns of James IV and James V. Virtually all of the existing buildings we see today were built between 1488 and 1513 – the grander works such as the Royal Palace and the King’s Presence Chamber, now so splendidly restored, were personally supervised by the two enlightened monarchs. Although both reigns ended badly, Scotland was undergoing a transformation in terms of education and taste.

There are several unique buildings on the approach to Stirling Castle, all open to Scotland’s Best 2020 63

visitors. Argyll’s Lodgings is a town residence built c.1600 for Sir William Alexander, founder of Nova Scotia who, shortly before his death, was created Viscount Canada. The house was later acquired by the Earls of Argyll, and it is where King Charles II stayed the night before being crowned King of Scots at Scone Palace in 1651. Just short of a century later, the Duke of Cumberland took up residence here on his way north to confront the Jacobite Army at the Battle of Culloden.

At the summit of Broad Street is Mar’s Wark, commissioned around 1569 by John Erskine, Earl of Mar, who became regent of Scotland during the minority of James IV. It was later damaged by canon fire and allowed to fall into ruin.

Unfortunately, those in search of the original wooden bridge, from which William Wallace and Andrew Moray repelled the English in 1297, will be disappointed. Today’s Stirling Bridge was completed around the year 1500. Stirling’s New Bridge, which opened in 1833, was designed by the engineer Robert Stevenson, grandfather of the author Robert Louis Stevenson.

Overlooking the town on Abbey Craig, the hill from which William Wallace watched the English army assemble on the south side of Stirling Bridge, is the impressive 220-foot-high Wallace Monument, erected by public subscription in 1869. Two miles south of the town on the Glasgow Road is the Bannockburn Heritage Centre, which features exhibitions and Charles d’Orville Pilkington Jackson’s magnificent bronze statue of King Robert the Bruce seated on his war horse.

In 2002, the woodland glen known as the Trossachs was absorbed into the 720-square-mile Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. Sandwiched between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde, the scenery is woven together by a succession of rivers, canals and lochs to create a landscape of sometimes astonishing and unparalleled beauty.

West of Stirling is Gargunnock House, the centrepiece of 2,000 acres of park and moorland. Situated on the old military road between the Gargunnock Hills and the Fintry hills is the village of Kippen. Such was the climate in 1859 that a vineyard opened here, and one of its vines grew to become the largest in the world, spreading across three greenhouses.

Before Doune, on the A84, the B826 forks left to Thornhill and Flanders Moss, the largest surviving area of wilderness bog in Scotland.

A Site of Special Scientific Interest, it was designated a conservation area in 2005. From here, the A84 continues across to Callander, but turn left and the A81 leads to the Port of Menteith, which is the only settlement of any size on the Lake of Menteith – Scotland’s one and only lake.

Over the summer months, a ferry makes regular trips to the island of Inchmahome, site of the historic Augustinian priory visited by Robert the Bruce and where the infant Mary, Queen of Scots was sent for safety during the period known as the Rough Wooing.

Returning once again to the A84 past Blair Drummond, the small town of Doune is surrounded by the River Teith and Ardock Burn. The medieval stronghold of Doune Castle has become an epic location for films such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail (occupied 64 Scotland’s Best 2020

RIGHT: Loch Tummel, as seen from Queen’s View BELOW: The Queen Anne Gardens and Royal Palace at Stiriling Castle

REGIONS PERTHSHIRE & STIRLINGSHIRE

© DAVID ROBERTSON/ALAMY/ESPY 3008/ ASTALOR/ISTOCK/JUERGEN_WALLSTABE /NAVIN MISTRY/SHUTTERSTOCK

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There’s some debate as to whether Queen’s View is named after Victoria or Queen Isabella

by the taunting French) and TV shows such as Game of Thrones (to depict Winterfell) and Outlander (standing in for Castle Leoch).

Doune Castle was occupied by the Duke of Albany, Queen Mary of Guelders, Queen Margaret of Denmark and Margaret Tudor.

Mary, Queen of Scots, King James VI and Bonnie Prince Charlie also regularly visited.

Nearby, on the banks of the River Teith at Doune, is the Deanston Distillery, which began life as a cotton mill in 1785. Formally transformed into a distillery in 1967, in 2012 it featured in the Ken Loach film The Angel’s Share.

From Doune, the A84 continues north to Callander and Kilmahog, heading north through Laggan into west Perthshire. The town of Callander, also on the River Teith, has an attractive and welcoming centre. In 1645, a battle was fought at Callander between the Campbells of Argyll and the Men of Atholl, partly made up of McGregors and McNabs who were supporting the 1st Marquis of Montrose. The former St Kessog’s Church has been adapted into The Clanranald Trust for Scotland, which supports Scottish culture and education.

To the north are the Callander Crags, a visible section of the Highland Boundary Fault, with the heights of Ben Ledi to the west. At the junction of the Trossachs and Lochearnhead roads lies the hamlet of Kilmahog, a popular tourist destination renowned for its Trossachs

Woollen Mill, Kilmahog Woollen Mill and Scottish Real Ale Shop. Remains of a first century Roman rampart, from the campaigns of Agricola, can be seen east of the village.

Looking south from Stirling, we enter canal country. Specifically, the town of Falkirk is located at the junction of the Forth & Clyde and the Union canals, which led to its growth as a trading hub during the Industrial Revolution. However, the area’s history stretches back much further and visitors have the chance to view well-preserved portions of the Antonine Wall. The lesser known of the two Roman walls (the other being Hadrian’s), this turf wall and ditch stretches for 37 miles (60km) from Old Kilpatrick on the River Clyde to Bo’ness on the Forth. Built around AD 142, the wall was manned by thousands of soldiers across a number of forts. A great place to view the wall is near Watling Lodge in Falkirk.

The region is also home to The Helix, a green space connecting 16 communities in the Falkirk area that’s home to a play area, lagoon, café and the 100ft (30m) tall Kelpies – huge equine sculptures that stand guard over both the park and the Forth & Clyde Canal. Sticking with the transport theme, nearby you can also find the Falkirk Wheel, a 115ft (35m) tall rotating boat lift that has welcomed more than 5.5 million visitors since it opened in 2002, and also the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway, near to James Watt’s cottage workshop. SB

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INVERNESS & THE HIGHLANDS From bustling city to wild hinterland

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he Highlands of Scotland are generally defined as the territory lying north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, an ancient geological aberration that bisects mainland Scotland from Dunbartonshire on the southwest coast to Stonehaven on the northeast coast. It embraces a vast area of glens, lochs and mountain ranges, the content of a million picture postcards and historical romances.

Traditionally, therefore, the Highlands begin above the Campsie Fells and the Ochils, which stretch from north of the Firth of Clyde to north of the Firth of Tay, but it is perhaps easier in this instance to leave Perthshire, Stirlingshire and Argyll out of the equation. That was certainly the decision taken when organising the modern Highland Council area, which encompasses Caithness, Sutherland, Ross-shire, Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch, Strathspey, Lochaber, and Skye – although we will cover the famous ‘misty isle’ separately (see page 72).

Exploring the Highlands of today, you are never far from visitor attractions that pay tribute to the devastating Clearances, historic clan strongholds or a long-ago battlefield. Yet, the region's cities and towns are as modern as anywhere in the United Kingdom. From Ballachulish, Fort William and Ullapool on the west coast, to Inverness, Dingwall, Cromarty, Golspie, Dornoch, Helmsdale, Wick and Thurso on the east, local communities enjoy an enviable quality of life.

It is the A9 road that links Perth to Inverness and the far north.

From the Perth bypass, the road sweeps past Dunkeld, Pitlochry, Blair Atholl and through the Pass of Drumochter.

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Beside the distillery at Dalwhinnie, the A889 turns west to meet the A86 to travel past Loch Laggan to Spean Bridge. Here, before travelling west, the road connects with the A82 and the Great Glen, skirting Loch Linnhe and the Caledonian Canal, where the eight locks of Neptune’s Staircase raise the canal by over 19 metres. From Fort Augustus, the route takes travellers up the western bank of Loch Ness, eventually reaching Drumnadrochit, Castle Urquhart and Inverness.

The southern route takes travellers to Fort William, the largest town in the Western Highlands. Starting life as just a few houses huddled next to a military outpost on Loch Linnhe, the fort was named after William of Orange. Together with Fort Augustus and Fort George, Fort William was the lowest outpost of a chain of Government defences intended to suppress the clans during the 17th and 18th centuries.

The remains of the fort are often missed by visitors, but can be found a few yards from the main road passing along the shores of the loch.

Today, Fort William is a major base for tourism – particularly of the outdoorsy kind: Ben Nevis dominates the skyline from the town, rising 4,406 feet (1,344 metres).

From there, the route continues south to Ballachulish and the famous Glencoe. However, heading west the A830 runs through Glenfinnan – famous for its monument, which commemorates those lost in the Jacobite Rising, and its viaduct, which featured in the Harry Potter films. Further on is Lochailort, Arisaig and Morar, the latter of which is known for its spectacular white sandy beaches. The road ends at the ferry terminal at Mallaig, a settlement that was created in the 1840s

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THIS PHOTO: A red deer stag overlooks Loch Torridon and the Torridon mountains in Wester Ross

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This route takes in the best views of the Five Sisters of Kintail

by the 12th Lord Lovat, 21st MacShimidh of Clan Fraser and former owner of the North Morar Estate.

Another route, if heading north from Spean Bridge, takes the turn-off at Invergarry. Until the 19th century, Invergarry Castle was the seat of the MacDonnells of Glengarry. It was in the 1960s that Invergarry House became the award-winning and delightfully traditional Glengarry Castle Hotel. Continuing west past Loch Garry, the road continues north then west along Loch Cluanie, through Glen Shiel to Invershiel, around the north shore of Loch Duich, past Eilean Donan Castle, and along the northern shore of Loch Alsh to Kyle of Lochalsh and the Skye Bridge.

Eilean Donan Castle, which is situated on a small tidal island at Dornie, will no doubt be familiar, as the edifice is one of Scotland’s most iconic fortresses. Founded in the 13th century, it was held by Clan Mackenzie along with their allies, Clan Macrae.

Sharing the initial approach through Glen Shiel, an alternative route to Skye is via the MV Glenachulish, a picturesque six-car turntable ferry that operates from Glenelg to Kylerhea from Easter until October.

This involves following 10 miles of the Old Military Road from the A87 at Shiel Bridge over the Mam Ratagan Pass to Glenelg, but is well worth the effort if you have the time and enthusiasm. This route takes in the best views of the Five Sisters of Kintail, a spectacular mountain 68 Scotland’s Best 2020

range with three full munros (mountains over 3,000 feet high) and two subsidiary munros.

However, if the capital of the Highlands is your goal, sticking to the A9 is undoubtedly the quickest route. A settlement was established here on the Moray Firth by the Picts as early as the 6th century, and Inverness is still considered to be the administrative centre of the Highlands. Straddling the River Ness as it flows from Loch Ness into the Beauly Firth, Inverness city centre is a popular destination that houses a first-rate museum and gallery, varied retailers and docks for cruises on Loch Ness – perfect for those in search of the elusive Nessie.

From Inverness, tourists can journey east to the Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre, to Brodie Castle at Forres and to Cawdor Castle at Nairn. Continuing east will take travellers into the region of Moray, home to the heart of Scotland’s important Speyside whisky region.

North from Inverness, across the Kessock Bridge and the Black Isle, the road travels the length of the Cromarty Firth, past Invergordon and Tain to Bonar Bridge. In 1900, a priceless collection of early Bronze Age jewellery known as the Migdale Hoard was discovered here by workmen blasting a granite knoll. It can now be seen on display in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

This route north takes in a pleasant coastline and has a distinctly mild climate. The Black Isle, 20 miles long and eight miles wide, was

”

REGIONS INVERNESS & THE HIGHLANDS

LEFT: The ruins of Urquhart Castle on the banks of Loch Ness BELOW: Duncansby stacks near Duncansby Head, John O’Groats

anciently known as ‘Ardmeanach’ meaning ‘the height between’.

Records show that it was once covered by black peat, but the name may also derive from the ‘Black Danes’ – Viking invaders of long ago.

Cromarty, a delightful Georgian town on the north of the Black Isle, remains untouched by the passage of time. There were two previous towns here, but the third town prospered when George Ross, a local entrepreneur, built the sandstone pier and opened flax, flour and hemp factories, along with a brewery.

Across the Cromarty Bridge, the A9 travels into Easter Ross, generally considered to be the stretch of land encompassing the iconic Ben Wyvis, which from Gaelic translates as ‘hill of terror’. From its summit on a clear day it is possible to see half of the Highlands, coast to coast from the North Sea to the Atlantic. Clan Munro emerged in the 12th century holding the lands of Ferindonald that stretched from the Alness Water to Dingwall, dependant upon their “furnishing a snowball if required to do so, at Midsummer” to the earldom of Ross.

Since the northwest corries of Ben Wyvis are rarely free from snow, this was not considered to be an unreasonable demand.

The name of the market town of Dingwall is derived from the Norse ‘thing vollr’, meaning ‘place of the parliament’, and it was from here that the Vikings ruled the north in the 11th century.

The Victorian spa town of Strathpeffer was built below Ben Wyvis and is where the Earl of Cromartie, Chief of Clan Mackenzie, has his headquarters at Castle Leod. Strathpeffer gained its Victorian spa status following the discovery of health-invigorating sulphurous springs that very quickly began to draw visitors.

North of the Black Isle is the Tarbat Peninsula, where a string of seaboard villages can be found: Balintore, Hilton of Cadboll and Shandwick. Portmahomack, meaning ‘haven of Saint Colmac’, is situated on the Dornoch Firth and has a harbour that was improved

by Thomas Telford and became important for grain export.

Inland is Tain, Scotland’s oldest Royal Burgh. In 1066, Tain was confirmed as a sanctuary by Malcolm III, allowing resident merchants and traders exemption from paying certain taxes. In 1966 its 900-year anniversary was commemorated with a rose garden, opened by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Just north of Tain is the famous Glenmorangie Distillery.

Returning once more to Strathpeffer and setting off to travel on the A835 into Wester Ross along Loch Broom, visitors will find that the scenery becomes increasingly dramatic.

This is the Northwest Highlands of Scotland at its very best. The North Atlantic Drift passes Ullapool on the shores of Loch Broom and brings a moderate temperature. Ullapool was founded as a herring port in 1788 and from the harbour a ferry service sails to Stornoway on the Outer Hebridean island of Lewis and Harris. To the south, the Torridon peaks of Wester Ross are by any standards impressive, particularly around Loch Torridon. Loch Maree, a little further north, is framed to the west by the peaks of Beinn Eighe and to the east by Slioch and is named after St Maelrubha, a Celtic missionary said to have lived on one of the loch’s islands. From Achnasheen Scotland’s Best 2020 69

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(‘The Field of Storms’), inland of Torridon and Loch Maree, the A832 climbs past Loch a’Chroisg and down through Glen Docherty to Kinlochewe. The name seems odd, being at the head of Loch Maree, but possibly suggests that at one time Loch Maree and Loch Ewe were thought of as being one and the same. Loch Ewe’s most famous beauty spot is the garden at Inverewe, created by the horticulturalist and botanist Osgood Mackenzie between 1864 and 1922.

Inland and to the southeast for a distance of over 20 miles lies the Great Wilderness, a loch-punctuated landscape that is made up of some of the most ragged and spectacularly remote mountains in the United Kingdom. Only a few bothies remain here for the use of determined walkers and fishermen.

Meanwhile, to the north of Ullapool, the Scottish scenery is at its glorious best around the fishing port of Lochinver, with white sands and clear blue water to the west. The mountains of Suilven, Quinag and Ben Stack dominate the horizons.

From Inverkirkaig the road runs to the Coigach Peninsula with its superb sea views of the Summer Isles, for which it is well worth the journey.

Back on the east coast, we cross the Dornoch Firth and enter Sutherland, which is capped by Caithness. The two regions occupy the top section of Scotland and includes four coasts extending from Lochinver to Cape Wrath on the Atlantic, from Golspie to Wick on the North Sea, from Durness to John O’Groats on the Pentland Firth and from Lybster to Bonar Bridge on the Dornoch Firth.

Although the interior land to the north and west is wild, mountainous and largely uninhabited, this is a mild and gentle coastline with wonderful sandy beaches to be enjoyed.

The imposing Dornoch Cathedral was built in 1239 and at nearby Skibo Castle the Scottish-born industrialist and steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie created his ‘earthly paradise’, which is today run as a prestigious private club. The town is also home to the world-famous Royal Dornoch Golf Club.

Nearby stands Carbisdale Castle, which dominates the landscape.

Built between 1905 and 1917 by the estranged Dowager Duchess of Sutherland, it has 365 windows. The positioning of her Scottish home, known as the ‘Castle of Spite’, was a deliberate snub to her stepson, the 4th Duke of Sutherland. The castle’s square clock tower features only three clocks, the side facing Sutherland being blank.

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To the north of Ullapool, the Highlands scenery is at its best

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The Sutherland family rose to wealth and political prominence in the Middle Ages but the fairytale Dunrobin Castle, with its 189 rooms, at Golspie was largely the creation of the Victorian architect Sir Charles Barry, who was also involved in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster.

Like so many locations on this coastline, Wick began its existence as a Viking settlement, its name taken from the Norse word for ‘Bay’, and south of the town can be seen the ruins of the Castle of Old Wick, with the ruins of other Clan Sinclair strongholds such as Castle Sinclair Girnigoe. During the 1800s, Wick developed as a major herring port.

It is also the home of the Pulteney Distillery (producer of Old Pulteney single malt), which is open to the public. A visit to the nearby Wick Heritage Centre is also recommended.

With great excitement, you finally arrive at John O’Groats, the northeastern tip of mainland Britain, where a seasonal passenger ferry sails to Orkney, located 10 miles from the mainland.

John O’Groats is named after Dutchman, Jan de Groot, who owned the original ferry franchise and built the first houses here. Two miles to the east is Duncansby Head and its celebrated lighthouse. SB

”

© S-F/MATTHEW DIXON/SHUTTERSTOCK/HENK MEIJER/RACHEL HUSBAND/ALAMY

RIGHT: Inverness sits pretty on the banks of the River Ness

THE DECLARATION OF ARBROATH DECLARATION OF SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE 1320 Awarded UNESCO World Status 2016

OWN A PIECE OF SCOTTISH HISTORY

DECLARATION OF SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE THE DECLARATION OF ARBROATH The print is supplied unframed The dimensions are “Scotland’s most precious and treasured historical document” 23.5 inches x 15.5 inches 59.5cm x 39cm The Declaration of Arbroath is without doubt the most precious and treasured historical document in the National Archives of Scotland.

Price - £64.95 Scotia Fine Art are proud to own what is believed to be the finest existing example of an engraving + Postage & Packaging of the original mediaeval manuscript, produced in 1815 by William Home Lizars (1788 - 1859) The Declaration was written on behalf of the Community of the Realm of Scotland at Arbroath, by Bernard de Linton, Abbot of Arbroath, Chancellor of Scotland, 6th April 1320 to Pope John XXII, at Avignon, France, as International Arbitrator. It was a direct result of the solemn considerations of a Great Council of Earls, Barons and Freeholders, who had foregathered at Newbattle Abbey, near Edinburgh, in March of that year.

For as long as but one hundred of us remain alive, we will never on any conditions submit to the domination of the English. It is not for glory nor riches, nor honours that we fight, but for freedom alone, which no good man gives up expect with his life.

TRADE ENQUIRIES WELCOME Scotia Fine Art, The Haymarket Gallery Ltd, 110B Gorgie Road, Edinburgh EH11 2NP T: 0131 623 6363 • E: info@scotiafineart.com • www.scotiafineart.com

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Five outstanding tours which showcase the cultural and natural heritage of Scotland info@hikescotland.co.uk 598 925 +44 ((0)7791 ) www.hikescotland.co.uk

& St Kilda

SCOTLAND’S ISLANDS Wild beauty and Viking legacies

F

or lovers of island hopping, Scotland provides unending opportunities.

It would be impossible to list each individual landmass on these pages, but hopefully this selection will inspire a journey from the mainland to one of Scotland’s enchanting island jewels.

THE HEBRIDES Forming a bracelet of gem-like anchorages, each island of the Hebrides has its own incomparable magic. There are no words to fully describe the appeal of the Scottish Hebrides, with their sea-bird-circled harbours, gneiss mountains, dark interior landscapes and white sand beaches.

Skye is the main island of the Inner Hebrides. To the south lie the Small Isles – Canna, Rùm, Eigg and Muck. Further south, off the coast of Argyll, are Lismore, Coll, Tiree, Mull, Iona and Staffa, the Treshnish Isles, Kerrera, Seil, Easdale, Luing, Shuna, Torsay, Colonsay, Oronsay, Jura, Islay and Gigha.

The Outer Hebrides, also known as the Western Isles, is comprised of a 130-mile chain from Lewis, in the far north, to Barra, in the south.

In between, Harris, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Eriskay 72 Scotland’s Best 2020

are linked by the threads of various ferry crossings and causeways. In total, the Hebrides comprise more than 40 islands, plus innumerable barren islets, meaning that only around one fifth are inhabited.

Mentioned by the Roman astronomer, geographer and writer Claudius Ptolemy in the 5th century, the existence of the Hebrides was referred to marginally earlier by his fellow countryman, Gaius Pliny. Although he had certainly never visited them, he had heard reports from seafarers and originally named them The Hebudes.

Norse invaders came in the 6th century, bringing northern idolatry and a taste for plunder. More Vikings arrived in the centuries that followed. Around the year 1095, Godfrad Crovan, King of Dublin, Man and the Hebrides, died on Islay. Eight years later his son Olaf the Red of Norway succeeded him, and Olaf’s daughter Ragnhild married Somerled, an Ulster-Scots prince, who founded the mighty dynasty of the Macdonald Lords of the Isles.

Repeated efforts were made over the centuries by mainland-based Scottish kings to displace the Norsemen. In 1263, Haakon IV of Norway sailed with a great fleet to enforce his territorial rule by invading

REGIONS THE ISLANDS

THIS PHOTO: You’re spoiled for choice for beautiful beaches on the Isle of Harris

Scotland, but was driven back at Largs on the Ayrshire coast. Three years later, a peace between Norway and Scotland was concluded with the Norwegian king renouncing his claim to the Hebrides and other islands – with the exception of Orkney and Shetland, which remained politically and culturally distinct until becoming part of Scotland in 1468.

For much of history, the governance of these territories was dominated by the great Clan Donald, controlling their kingdom from the island of Islay. Nowadays, a visit to Islay, with its nine operational Scotch whisky distilleries, is an adventure in itself. However, a brief diversion should be made to the ruins of Finlaggan, close to Ballygrant, where the Lords of the Isles held court until this seat of power was dismantled by the Scottish Crown in 1493.

Just off the northeast coast of Islay (and a short ferry hop away) is Jura, celebrated for its association with George Orwell, who wrote his masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four while living in a farmhouse cottage at Barnhill. Jura is also home to its eponymous distillery, which was revived in the 1960s and has been operational ever since. Jura is one of

the best places in Scotland to spot red deer – they outnumber humans by around 40 to one. Between Jura’s most northerly point and the little island of Scarba lies Corryvreckan, a whirlpool, whose roaring sound can sometimes be heard from as far as 20 miles (32km) away.

North across the Firth of Lorne, offshore from Oban and beyond Kerrera, is the Isle of Mull, where the ferry from Oban enters the Sound of Mull, under the watch of the formidable Duart Castle.

This striking sentinel dates from the 13th century and is today the home of Sir Lachlan Maclean of Duart, 28th chief of Clan Maclean.

A short distance from here is Craignure, the first port-of-call on the ferry’s tour of the island, and close by is a memorial to Major General Lachlan Macquarrie, the last governor of New South Wales, who is acclaimed by many as the founder of modern Australia. In the north of Mull, the picturesque, multi-coloured town of Tobermory was the site of the sinking of a Spanish galleon in 1588 and is one of the most convivial island towns you could hope to visit.

Off the southwestern toe of Mull lies Iona, where the Christian missionary St Columba founded an abbey in AD 563.

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Early Scottish kings were laid to rest here including Macbeth and his adversary Duncan I. In 1938, a Church of Scotland minister founded the Iona Community. The sanctuary, with the restored abbey at its heart, remains a renowned retreat for worship to this day and the island is a serene place to stay overnight as it becomes virtually deserted once the last day trippers leave.

Skye is sometimes known as the ‘Misty Isle’ and its landscape is one of the most the most dramatic of all the isles, where strange stone spheres poke at the sky and the mighty mountains of the Cuillin attract only the bravest and most experienced of climbers.

Two powerful clans have dominated the territory for centuries: Clan Donald, whose visitor centre can be found at Armadale Castle, in the south, and Clan Macleod in the north and west. It was to the island’s capital, Portree, that the fugitive Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped from South Uist disguised as ‘Betty Burke’, the servant of Flora Macdonald, in 1746. Clan Macleod’s elegant stronghold is Dunvegan Castle, which sits in the north of the island and is today home of Hugh MacLeod of MacLeod, the 30th clan chief.

From the small town of Uig on the Trotternish Peninsula, in northeast Skye, Caledonian MacBrayne ferries come and go between Lochmaddy on North Uist and Tarbert on Harris. Tarbert is the gateway to the diverging landscapes of two very distinct islands linked by a causeway: Harris, with its striking hills and spectacular white sand beaches, and Lewis, an unrelenting terrain of peat bogs, mountain slopes and treeless, windswept moors.

A visit to the standing stones of Callanish, on Lewis, which date from before 2500 BC, is highly recommended. Sunday remains a religious day on the dual islands and the majority of the population observes strict compliance to the Free Church’s traditional values. The inhabitants of Stornoway, the capital, represent around a third of the entire Western Isles population.

The economy of Lewis and Harris, as with the majority of Hebridean islands, mostly relies on a mix of fishing and farming, with more recent influences such as tourism, the oil industry, wind farms, commerce, and, of course, the relatively new Isle of Harris Distillery in Tarbert, creating more jobs.

Arran is like Scotland in “ miniature, with both Highland and Lowland areas ”

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Although the industry has consistently suffered at the hands of local politics and worldwide competition, the staple craft of weaving Harris Tweed is making a steady comeback. This extraordinarily enduring fabric with its subtle colours has won worldwide renown. As a brand name, Harris Tweed can only originate from Lewis and Harris, the Uists and Barra, and only genuine Harris Tweed that has been inspected and approved by the Harris Tweed Authority can carry the Harris Tweed ‘Orb’ logo. One of the best ways to buy this unique fabric is to visit the workshop of one of the isle’s many weavers.

FAR LEFT: The Butt of Lewis lighthouse LEFT: The gardens of Brodick Castle on the Isle of Arran BELOW: The distinctive colourful houses of Tobermory on the Isle of Mull

ARRAN Arran, the largest island in the Firth of Clyde, is reached by ferry from Ardrossan, which is around half way down the Ayrshire coast.

Between the 8th and 11th centuries, Arran was ruled by Norsemen and was only absorbed by the Scottish Crown in the 13th century.

The Ardrossan ferry lands at Brodick, which in the Norse language means ‘Broad Bay’, and a major visitor attraction here is Brodick Castle, a former seat of the Dukes of Hamilton that passed through marriage to the Dukes of Montrose. The castle and gardens are now in the hands of the National Trust for Scotland.

Arran is often spoken of as ‘Scotland in miniature’, since there are definable Highland and Lowland areas, divided by a boundary fault.

As a result, its scenic hills, parks and gardens provide opportunities for walking, climbing, hiking, biking, bird-watching, riding, fishing and pony-trekking.

The largest village on the island is Lamlash. Island businesses include the Arran Distillery, which opened in 1995 at Lochranza, the Arran Brewery at Cladach and Arran Aromatics. Such is the success of the first distillery that a second distillery opened in Lagg, on the southern coast of Arran, in 2019.

BUTE You can take a short ferry ride from Colintraive on the Cowal Peninsula on the mainland to Rhubodach on the Isle of Bute, just a short drive from the island’s capital of Rothesay. Here you will find the ruins

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REGIONS THE ISLANDS

RIGHT: The natural arch of Gaada Stack in the Shetland Isles

of Rothesay Castle, a late 12th-century stronghold, extended in the 16th century, which was a favourite residence of the Stuart Kings of Scotland and, after their deposition, of the Earls and Marquesses of Bute. The fortification, which is open year round, was also occupied by the Vikings on their way to the Battle of Largs in 1263.

The main attraction on Bute, however, has to be Mount Stuart. You may not be a devotee of Victorian Gothic Revivalist architecture, but the sheer scale of the opulence and extravagance of this building is overwhelming. The house and its 300 acres of landscaped garden is a must-see.

The reconstruction of Mount Stuart was the work of the 3rd Marquess of Bute, a man whose classical learning was overshadowed by his much-disapproved-of conversion to Catholicism.

ORKNEY & SHETLAND There is a world of difference between mainland Scotland and its Northern Isles, the archipelagos of Orkney and Shetland, located across the Pentland Firth. These wild islands were occupied by Mesolithic and Neolithic people long before the arrival of the Picts, who were in turn supplanted

by Norsemen in the 9th century. Hungry for land and greedy for conquest, for centuries Norsemen in their galleys ravaged the coastlines of Britain, Ireland and beyond.

During this period of relentless conquest on the northern Scottish coastline, the Hebrides, as well as expeditions into the North Atlantic, the Vikings governed Orkney and Shetland for over half a millennium.

But, like all great colonial forces, they eventually over-extended themselves. In 1472, King Christian I of Norway failed to pay the dowry of King James III of Scotland’s bride, Princess Margaret of Denmark, and the Northern Isles were seceded to the Scottish Crown as recompense. Though that was over half a millennia ago, it still goes without saying that the people of Orkney and Shetland are strikingly unique: enterprising and generous, conscientious and creative, they have a decidedly more Scandinavian outlook on life.

Only 15 of Shetland’s approximate 100 islands are populated. From Unst, the most northern of the inhabited isles, to Sumburgh, on the south of Mainland, you are never more than three miles from the sea.

Yell, Bressay, Unst and Fetlar, Whalsay and Old Skerries, Scalloway and Foula: the place names found here conjure up romantic feelings of a very different side of Scotland.

One third of the islands’ population, however, are located in Lerwick, which in Old Norse translates as ‘Bay of Clay’.This settlement on the Bressay Sound is a natural harbour and prospered with the discovery

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It is only when exploring such places that we become aware of our own mortality

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of North Sea Oil in the 1970s.

Orkney, to the south of Shetland, is made up of 70 islands, 17 of which are inhabited.

Kirkwall, on Mainland (the principal island), is the capital and it remains one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Scotland. It is dominated by the red sandstone bulk of St Magnus Cathedral, which was founded in 1137 in memory of St Magnus, Earl of Orkney (1108-1117) by Ronald, another Earl of Orkney, who was later also beatified by the church.

Following their defeat in the First World War, 74 ships of the German High Seas Fleet were scuttled in Orkney’s Scapa Flow. Then, in 1939, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak was sunk in Scapa Flow following a devastating U-Boat attack. In response, Winston Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, ordered the construction of permanent defences.

The Churchill Barriers are a series of causeways linking Mainland Orkney to the islands of South Ronaldsay, Lamb Holm and Glims Holm. Another landmark from that era is the Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm, built by the Italian POWs, who also built the causeways.

No visit to Orkney’s Mainland, however, would be complete without a trip to Skara Brae, the large Neolithic settlement on the Bay of Skaill, and the neighbouring Maes Howe, a Neolithic chambered tomb.

Further, the Ring of Brodgar and Stones of Stenness, which bookend the Ness of Brodgar archaeological dig site, are lasting monuments to the communities that lived here long ago.

It is only when exploring such places that we become genuinely aware of our own mortality and the challenges that were endured long ago by our ancestors. SB

© PAUL TOMKINS/KENNY LAM/VISITSCOTLAND

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Kames Castle Cottages are nestled between Kames Bay and beautiful Scottish countryside on the Isle of Bute. Once the seat of the Bannatyne family, and with the 14th century Keep at its centre, Kames Estate provides a picturesque and unique setting for a peaceful Scottish holiday. Seven self-catering cottages sleep from 2 to 9 guests and can be rented individually or as a multiple booking. Larger groups seeking exclusive use of the grounds can also rent the estate in its entirety.

Our comfortable cottages have all necessary amenities, including free Wifi and cosy log burners. Dogs are welcome in four of the cottages. With croquet in the walled garden,

putting on the lawn, and tennis on the all-weather court, Kames Castle Cottages provide the perfect destination for a relaxing getaway with friends or family.

The Isle of Bute is an ideal setting for walkers, golfers and cyclists. WildBute.com provide tours on the history and nature of the island at special rates for Kames guests.

Tranquility Rose holistic treatments are also offered at discounted rates. Long weekends combining individual treatments and group sessions of yoga, reiki and meditation can be arranged. Kames Estate also offers seasonal art lessons with Scottish artist Ruth Slater.

For more information visit our website or call www.kamescastlecottages.co.uk • info@kamescastlecottages.co.uk • Tel: 01700 504886 / 07900 681401

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SCOTLAND'S BEST

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DIRECTORY VISITOR ATTRACTIONS 1.

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Mackintosh at the Willow, Glasgow Callanish Standing Stones, Lewis Glenfinnan Monument & Viaduct The Kelpies, Flakirk Cairngorms Reindeer Centre, Aviemore Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow V&A Dundee, Dundee Blair Drummond Safari & Adventure Park, Stirling New Lanark World Heritage Site, Lanark The Royal Yacht Britannia, Edinburgh Rosslyn Chapel, near Edinburgh Skara Brae, Orkney

CASTLES & STATELY HOMES

© CHRIS JONES/ALAMY

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Eilean Donan Castle, Kyle of Lochalsh Balmoral Castle, Aberdeenshire Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh Duart Castle, Mull Stirling Castle, Stirling Traquair House, the Borders Scone Palace, Perthshire Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh Falkland Palace, Fife Castle of Mey, Caithness

TOURS & CRUISES 1.

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Caledonian Discovery Red Moon Cruises Celtic Journeys North Coast Explorer Tours Hebridean Island Cruises Rabbie’s Britain by Choice Rowan Tree Travel

SHOPS 1.

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Dunmore Scotland, Peeblesshire Harris Tweed Hebrides, Lewis The House of Bruar, Perthshire

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Dewar’s Aberfeldy Distillery, Perthshire Macallan Distillery, Speyside Glenfiddich Distillery, Speyside Ardbeg Distillery, Islay Talisker Distillery, Skye Isle of Raasay, Inner Hebrides Isle of Harris Distillery, Outer Hebrides Kingsbarns Distillery, Fife Glen Moray Distillery, Speyside Highland Park Distillery, Orkney

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Dornoch Castle Hotel Links House at Royal Dornoch The Dunstane Houses Bunchrew House Hotel Carnoustie Golf Hotel & Spa Atholl Arms Hotel The Old Manor Hotel Garvock House Hotel Fenton Tower Bonham Hotel The Scotsman Hotel Trump Turnberry Cross Keys Hotel Douneside House The Border Hotel Dryburgh Abbey Hotel Auchrannie Resort Glenisle House The Machrie Hotel & Golf Links Kildrummy Inn Seamill Hydro Hotel Holiday Inn Glasgow Theatreland The Pipers’ Tryst Hotel Hilton Garden Inn Glasgow City Centre DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel Gleddoch Hotel, Spa & Golf The Lodge On Loch Lomond Ardanaiseig Hotel The George Hotel Balbirnie House The Pierhouse Hotel Western Isles Hotel Hotel Eilean Iarmain Scotland’s Best 2020 79

DAYS TO REMEMBER Our pick of the best attractions in Scotland for unforgettable days out

1

GLENFINNAN MONUMENT & VIADUCT

This spectacular 21-arch railway viaduct carries trains to Glenfinnan Station across a span of 1,000 feet at 100 feet above the ground. Throughout the summer months, the Jacobite steam train runs from here to Fort William and Mallaig, and there are regular trains the remainder of the year. Originally opened in 1901, the viaduct has had a resurgence of interest since appearing in the Harry Potter films.

The Jacobite steam train stops at the village of Glenfinnan, where there is the Glenfinnan Station 80 Scotland’s Best 2020

Museum. Nearby is the Glenfinnan Monument, built in 1815 to honour those who lost their lives to support the Jacobites. It was here, less than a year before the Battle of Culloden, that Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his father’s standard. A visitor centre tells the story of the ill-fated uprising, or you can climb the monument for far-reaching vistas.

WHERE Glenfinnan, Lochaber, PH37 4LT CONTACT +44 (0)1397 722 250 nts.org.uk

12 BEST VISITOR ATTRACTIONS

2

MACKINTOSH AT THE WILLOW

Though his most celebrated work in his alma mater, the Glasgow School of Art, was destroyed by fire for a second time in 2018, fans of Charles Rennie Mackintosh can visit another of Glasgow’s most revered architect’s creations, the newly restored Willow Tea Rooms. First opened in 1904, the tearooms that Mackintosh built in his unique Art Nouveau style for his friend, tearoom entrepreneur Miss Cranston, fell into disrepair many years ago. However, thanks to a tireless campaign by the Willow Tea Rooms Trust, the tea rooms have been carefully restored and re-opened. The 200-seater tearoom is the epitome of Edwardian elegance. The superbly decadent Salon de Luxe does incur an extra fee but it’s worth it to see the beautiful Mackintosh stained glass doors and beadwork panels.

WHERE Glasgow, G41 5BW CONTACT +44 (0)1412 041 903 mackintoshatthewillow.com

3

THE KELPIES, FALKIRK

Travelling between Edinburgh and Stirling along the M9, you might wonder what those giant horse heads rearing up over the road are.

Since their installation in 2013, The Kelpies, a pair of 30-metre-tall equine heads made by sculptor Andy Scott, have become (literally) a huge Scottish landmark. In Scotland, Kelpies are mythological shape-shifting water spirits that are said to possess the strength and endurance of 100 horses, a quality that is thought to be analogous to Scotland’s dynamic landscapes, the endurance of the country’s inland waterways and the strength of its communities. Visitors can get up close to The Kelpies for free or pay to go on a tour, which will take you inside the steel heads to truly appreciate the complexity of the engineering concealed within these marvellous pieces of art.

WHERE The Helix, Falkirk, FK2 7ZT CONTACT +44 (0)1324 590 600 thehelix.co.uk Scotland’s Best 2020 81

4

SKARA BRAE, ORKNEY

Long before Stonehenge or even the Egyptian pyramids were built, Skara Brae was a thriving village. Visitors to this prehistoric site on Mainland, Orkney, can step back 5,000 years in time at the best-preserved Neolithic settlement in Western Europe. First uncovered by a storm in 1850, Skara Brae is part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site. Its structures survive in impressive condition – as does, incredibly, the furniture in the village houses. Explore the nine surviving Neolithic homes, step inside a replica house and view artefacts, including gaming dice, in the visitor centre.

WHERE Sandwick, Orkney, KW16 3LR CONTACT +44 (0)1856 841 815 historicenvironment.scot

5

ROSSLYN CHAPEL, NEAR EDINBURGH

Founded by Sir William St Clair in the mid-15th century, Rosslyn Chapel, on a small hill above Roslin Glen, was intended to be part of a cathedral, but work was discontinued after Sir William’s death. Prior to that, masons from all over Europe had created exquisite carvings inside. The chapel was closed to the public following the Scottish Reformation in 1560 and its interiors deteriorated.

However, following a visit from Queen Victoria, it re-opened in 1861. Since, a number of myths have evolved regarding hidden treasure, culminating in the publication of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, filmed here some years later. To cope with its popularity, a visitor centre and café was erected in 2011.

WHERE Chapel Loan, Roslin, EH25 9PU CONTACT +44 (0)131 440 2159 rosslynchapel.com 82 Scotland’s Best 2020

12 BEST VISITOR ATTRACTIONS

6

KELVINGROVE ART GALLERY & MUSEUM, GLASGOW

This spectacular gallery in the heart of Glasgow’s West End contains extensive and wide-ranging art collections, with 22 themed galleries displaying over 8,000 objects. Works on display include those by Salvador Dali, Old Masters including Rembrandt, and French impressionists such as Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh. There is a Spitfire plane hanging from the ceiling in the West Court and a fine collection of arms and armour. Don’t miss works by the Glasgow Boys and try to time your visit so you can listen to one of the organ recitals in the afternoon (1pm Mon-Sat, 3pm Sun).

WHERE Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8AG CONTACT +44 (0)1412 769 599 glasgowmuseums.com

7

CAIRNGORMS REINDEER CENTRE, AVIEMORE

There are lots of wonderful wildlife experiences to be had in Scotland but perhaps one of the most unexpected is coming faceto-face with a reindeer. Each day in the Cairngorms National Park there are guided trips up onto the mountainside to see Britain’s only free-ranging herd of reindeer. Introduced in 1952

by Swede Mikel Utsi and his wife, Dr Ethel Lindgren, they have thrived here, roaming freely over an area of more than 10,000 acres. Arrive early to book on to a trip, which are weather dependent. You’ll never forget the feeling of the reindeers’ soft velvet noses nuzzling into your hand as you feed them.

WHERE Glenmore, Aviemore, PH22 1QU CONTACT +44 (0)1479 861 228 cairngormreindeer.co.uk

8

CALLANISH STANDING STONES, ISLE OF LEWIS

The magnificent Standing Stones of Callanish (or Calanais, in the Gaelic language) are among the great wonders of the world.

Erected close to the sea shore in the Neolithic era, they were a focus for ritual activity in the Bronze Age. The Callanish Stones comprise 13 standing stones with a monolith near the centre.

Two long rows of stones running almost parallel to each other from the stone circle to the north-northeast form an avenue.

To the west-southwest, south and east-northeast there are shorter avenues. Mystery surrounds how and why so many exceedingly large stones (they have an average height of three metres) of Lewisian gneiss were transported here. A visitor centre features an interactive ‘Story of the Stones’ exhibition, café and gift shop.

WHERE Isle of Lewis, HS2 9DY CONTACT +44 (0)1851 621 422 callanishvisitorcentre.co.uk Scotland’s Best 2020 83

9

NEW LANARK WORLD HERITAGE SITE, LANARK

10

V&A DUNDEE, DUNDEE

Opening to critical acclaim in September 2018, this brand-new museum on Dundee’s shore-front is the first V&A outside London.

The building itself, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, is a masterpiece that is said to evoke the northeast coast of Scotland and the prow that juts out over the water is a reminder of Dundee’s shipbuilding past. Inside, you’ll find a celebration of the best of Scottish design, from Star Wars costumes to a diamondwinged Cartier tiara commissioned by Mary Crewe-Milnes, Duchess of Roxburghe.

Permanent exhibits are free and highlights include a pair of 18th-century Jacobite pistols and a 15th-century prayer book. Just outside, board RRS Discovery, that was built right here in Dundee.

WHERE Dundee, DD1 4EZ CONTACT +44 (0)1382 411 611 vam.ac.uk 84 Scotland’s Best 2020

© RACHEL KEENAN/PHIL WILKINSON/KENNY LAM/PAUL TOMKINS/VISITSCOTLAND/JAN SCHOUTEN/STEPHEN BENNETT PHOTOGRAPHY/SHUTTERSTOCK/WWW.AIRBORNELENS.COM

This UNESCO World Heritage Site on the River Clyde is a great day trip option from Glasgow. Founded in 1786 by David Dale, the cotton mills were built in partnership with Richard Arkwright, an English inventor and entrepreneur, to take advantage of the proximity to the Falls of Clyde. New Lanark rapidly became a successful business as well as an early example of a planned settlement.

Today, the New Lanark Visitor Centre allows visitors to travel back in time. Attractions include a roof garden, Robert Owen’s School for Children, the millworkers’ houses of the 1820s and 1930s, Robert Owen’s House, and working textile machinery. A woodland trail leads to the waterfalls themselves.

WHERE New Lanark Road, ML11 9DB CONTACT +44 (0)1555 661 345 newlanark.org

12 BEST VISITOR ATTRACTIONS

11

THE ROYAL YACHT BRITANNIA, EDINBURGH

The Royal Yacht Britannia was launched from the John Brown & Co shipyard in Clydebank on 16 April 1953.

For over 44 years she served the Royal Family, travelling over one million miles to become the most famous ship in the world. To Her Majesty The Queen, Britannia proved to be the perfect royal residence for glittering state visits, official receptions, royal honeymoons and relaxing family holidays. For Britain, she was a majestic symbol of the Commonwealth and a proud ambassador.

For the Royal Family and dedicated crew of Royal Yachtsmen, she was home. Nowhere on her side will you see her name, yet she is recognised around the world.

Today, the ship is berthed at Leith, Edinburgh, and is a five-star attraction. The yacht’s audio tour allows visitors to discover what a typical day aboard the Royal Yacht was like for The Queen.

WHERE Ocean Drive, Leith, Edinburgh, EH6 6JJ CONTACT +44 (0)1315 555 566 royalyachtbritannia.co.uk

12

BLAIR DRUMMOND SAFARI PARK, STIRLING

Spread over 120 acres and just a few miles outside Stirling, this animal park features drive-through reserves, a boat safari, amusements, children’s play areas and a petting zoo. The estate, which once belonged to the Scottish Enlightenment thinker and judge Lord Kames, was purchased in 1916 by Sir John Kay, a wealthy Glasgow-based tea merchant. It was then inherited by his nephew, the father of the current owner. The house, which dates from 1715, remained a family home until 1977 when it was sold to the Camphill Movement, a charity that cares for people with special needs. Blair Drummond Safari Park was opened in 1970 with the help of Jimmy Chipperfield. Visitors are invited to drive through areas in their own cars or as passengers on a Safari bus to view the array of free-roaming animals. There is an African Reserve, a Lion Reserve, a Barbary Macaque Reserve and an Asian Reserve. The park also features Lemur Land, Chimp Island, African elephants, bird of prey displays and a Pets’ Farm.

WHERE Blair Drummond, Stirling, FK9 4UR CONTACT +44 (0)1786 841456 blairdrummond.com Scotland’s Best 2020 85

FOR CLANS AND KINGS With buildings steeped in history, your imagination will go into overdrive on a visit to these historic castles and palaces

1

SCONE PALACE, PERTHSHIRE

The name of Scone resonates in Scotland’s history, associated as it is with the Stone of Destiny upon which monarchs in Scotland and England have been crowned for more than 1,000 years. Indeed, it was to Scone that the stone was brought in the 9th century by King Kenneth McAlpin, who had conquered the Pictish nation. As early as the 6th century there were holy men living on Scone’s Moot Hill and there is evidence that before AD 843 the area had a history of being a royal residence. In the early 12th century, an ancient group of monks known as the Culdees founded a monastery on the site, which later became an Augustinian priory. However, it was sacked and burned in 1559 after John Knox preached a sermon in nearby Perth. In 1803, William Atkinson was commissioned by the 3rd Earl of Mansfield to design and build the Gothic palace that can be seen today, which incorporates parts of the old palace and other buildings from the 16th century and earlier.

WHERE Perth, PH2 6BD CONTACT +44 (0)1738 552 300 scone-palace.co.uk 86 Scotland’s Best 2020

10 BEST CASTLES & STATELY HOMES

2

PALACE OF HOLYROODHOUSE, EDINBURGH

The Stuart kings favoured Holyroodhouse as a royal residence, its proximity to Edinburgh’s Flodden Wall and the gates of the city being of strategic importance. King James II was born here in 1430 and extensions to the domestic accommodation were well underway by the time of his marriage in 1449.

Between 1529 and 1532, King James V built the tower-like residence that stands at the northwestern corner. The range on the west, which completed the palace, came later. However, it was King Charles II who truly established Holyroodhouse as Scotland’s royal residence. On his authority, major reconstruction work was undertaken by Sir William Bruce. However, it was under King George V that the palace once again became a regularly used royal family home. Subsequently, a large area of the palace was opened to the public.

WHERE Canongate, Edinburgh, EH8 8DX CONTACT +44 (0)3031 237 306 royalcollection.org.uk

3

DUART CASTLE, MULL

The fortress looms, dark and formidable, a sentinel guarding the waterways between the Hebridean island of Mull, mainland Scotland, and the neck of the Firth of Lorne. The location for Duart Castle was well chosen. Strategically sited on a high crag at the end of an island peninsula, Dubh Ard in Gaelic, meaning “black point”, guards the entrances of both Loch Linnhe and Loch Etive. Times were tough in days gone by and Duart Castle, with its walls varying between three to seven metres in thickness, saw more than its fair share of bloodshed, as confrontation between the two great Highland clans (the Macleans, who occupied Duart, and the Campbells) went on for many generations. Do not expect to see great treasures or fine furniture here. Instead, you will find yourself at the very heart of Hebridean history, surrounded by an atmosphere that could never be replicated anywhere else.

WHERE Duart Castle, Isle of Mull, PA64 6AP CONTACT +44(0)1680 812309 duartcastle.com Scotland’s Best 2020 87

4

STIRLING CASTLE, STIRLING

Flanked on three sides by steep cliffs, Stirling Castle occupies an uncompromising and dramatic site close to the source of the River Forth in central Scotland, serving as a watch tower between the Scottish Lowlands and Highlands. Not much is known about its earliest existence, but the oldest credible documents record that King Alexander I built a chapel here in 1110.

On 24 June 1314, its occupants were forced to become spectators at the most significant altercation in Scotland’s history – the Battle of Bannockburn.

Thereafter, it was during the reigns of the early Stuart kings that the surviving parts of the castle that we see today were built. King James III was likely born at Stirling Castle in 1452 but it was his son and grandson who deserve the credit for the embellishment and transformation of its interiors into their present glorious state. After a 35-year restoration programme, it is now one of the most incredible castles to visit.

WHERE Castle Esplanade, Stirling, FK8 1EJ CONTACT +44 (0)1786 450 000 stirlingcastle.gov.uk

5

BALMORAL CASTLE, ABERDEENSHIRE

Queen Victoria’s love affair with Scotland is no secret and it was here, at Balmoral Castle, nestled in the Highlands in Aberdeenshire that she spent many of her happiest times. Bought for her by her beloved Albert, Victoria and her family would often arrive at their Scottish hideaway by overnight train from London. Today Balmoral is where the Queen holidays each summer, joined at times by other members of the Royal Family and dignitaries. As it is an official royal residence, much of Balmoral is out of bounds for visitors but guided tours will take you around the grounds, into the game larder and ice house and into the ballroom, where items that are normally kept private are displayed. The best part of a visit is standing on the lawn and taking in the full majesty of the castle while imagining what goes on within.

WHERE Ballater, Aberdeenshire, AB35 5TB CONTACT +44 (0)13397 42534 balmoralcastle.com 88 Scotland’s Best 2020

10 BEST CASTLES & STATELY HOMES

6

CASTLE OF MEY, CAITHNESS

Although the Castle of Mey on Scotland’s northern coast will forever be associated with Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, its provenance reaches far back into the past. Built between 1566 and 1572, it was erected as a stronghold for George Sinclair, 4th Earl of Caithness, as just one of a string of castles he held to protect his interests. Six miles from John O’Groats and nine miles from the town of Thurso, the castle occupies a prime strategic position overlooking the Pentland Firth and offers distant glimpses of the Orkney Islands.

As one might expect, there are numerous gun slits throughout the ground floor, several in the angles of the tower and more at first-floor level. The round, arched entrance to the courtyard on the north aspect remains unaltered but the castle itself was extended in the 18th century and again in 1819.

WHERE Thurso, Caithness, KW14 8XH CONTACT +44 (0)1847 851 473 castleofmey.org.uk

7

FALKLAND PALACE, FIFE

In 1451, James II conducted a significant extension and renovation of Falkland Castle, as it was then known, and eight years later he gifted it to his queen, Mary of Guelders. Seven years later, the town was made a Royal Burgh and the castle was given palace status. Subsequently, James III spent much of his childhood here, but it was his son, James IV, who improved the facilities and built the south range. Up to that point the style was very much rudimentary Gothic, but then along came King James V. Having recently returned from a visit to the French Court in 1537, he had seen just how successfully Italian Renaissance style could be blended with French castellated Gothic. His architect, Sir James Hamilton of Finnart, was ordered to employ only craftsmen that were French or French-trained. The result was the exquisite Renaissance ornament on the courtyard facade of the south range.

WHERE Falkland, Cupar, Fife, KY15 7BU CONTACT +44 (0)1337 857 397 nts.org.uk

Scotland’s Best 2020 89

8

EILEAN DONAN CASTLE, KYLE OF LOCHALSH

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TRAQUAIR HOUSE, THE BORDERS

The lands of Traquair were once part of a royal hunting forest and, over the centuries, Traquair House has played host to 27 kings on sporting excursions. Although no written confirmation exists, it can be assumed that a house of sorts existed long before King Alexander I stayed here in 1107 and granted Traquair a Royal Charter. In 1599, Sir William Stuart created the main house as we see it today. A number of 17th-century additions are still evident in the main house. Traquair’s front door has an elaborate wrought-iron knocker, dated to 1705, which incorporates the reverse monograms of the 4th Earl and his wife, Lady Mary Maxwell. At the foot of the main stair is a carved oak door dating from 1630 and brought here from Terregles House in Dumfriesshire. The design incorporates two animals locked in combat: the Scottish unicorn and the English lion.

WHERE Traquair, Innerleithen, EH44 6PW CONTACT +44 (0)1896 830 323 traquair.co.uk 90 Scotland’s Best 2020

© STEVE LINDRIDGE/ALAMY/CHRIS JONES/ANDREW WILSON/ALLAN WRIGHT/IAIN MASTERTON/BRIAN JANNSEN/WORLDWIDE PICTURE LIBRARY/FRANCESCO DAZZI/SHUTTERSTOCK/BENNY MARTY/STEFANO VALERI

In all probability taking its name from Bishop Donan, an Irish missionary saint of the 6th century, the earliest part of the castle that we see today dates from the 13th century. Perched on a rocky islet in the confluence of three great lochs – Loch Duich, Loch Alsh and Loch Long – the location could not have been more strategic. In time, Eilean Donan passed to the Mackenzies of Kintail. These Mackenzies were descendants of the Royal House of Dalriada, connected with both Clan Matheson and Clan Anrias, and they would become the all-powerful earls of Seaforth and Cromartie. However, after being destroyed during the Jacobite Risings, Eilean Donan was abandoned until, in 1912, it was purchased by a wealthy Macrae clansman, Lieutenant Colonel John MacRae-Gilstrap. Although reconstruction followed the extant plan, changes were made that mean the castle you see today is not an exact recreation of the original fortress. It is, nevertheless, incredibly beautiful and makes for quite the first impression when seen from the road. Rugged and romantic, it is the stuff of legends.

WHERE Dornie, Kyle of Lochalsh, IV40 8DX CONTACT +44 (0)1599 555 202 eileandonancastle.com

10 BEST CASTLES & STATELY HOMES

10

EDINBURGH CASTLE, EDINBURGH

From its dominant position on the summit of a volcanic plug, Edinburgh Castle has witnessed many of the most pivotal moments in Scottish history over its thousand years. In fact, recent excavations have unearthed evidence of an Iron Age fort. Today it is one of the most popular visitor attractions in the Scottish capital and without its grand silhouette, the skyline of Edinburgh would be unrecognisable.

Highlights of a visit include the 13th-century palace where Mary, Queen of Scots, gave birth to the future James VI and which also houses the Honours of Scotland, the Scottish crown jewels, which pre-date the British Crown Jewels. Across the courtyard from the old palace, you’ll find the grand Great Hall with its impressive hammerbeam roof, completed in 1511 for King James IV, while the tiny St Margaret’s Chapel is believed to be the oldest surviving building in the whole of the city.

WHERE Castlehill, Edinburgh, EH1 2NG CONTACT +44 (0)1316 688 831 edinburghcastle.gov.uk

Scotland’s Best 2020 91

CASKS AND DRAMS What better way to taste the spirit of Scotland than on a visit to one of its whisky or gin distilleries?

1

DEWAR’S ABERFELDY DISTILLERY, PERTHSHIRE

In the heart of Highland Perthshire, Aberfeldy Distillery was founded in 1896 by the Scotch whisky empire John Dewar & Sons, during the great distillery-building boom. The distillery’s water source is the Pitilie Burn, which runs alongside the site and is famously rich in mineral deposits – including gold, supposedly.

Nevertheless, it’s liquid gold that Aberfeldy Distillery’s founders were after and its heatherhoney style of whisky is still popular today, not least for use in the company’s blends. In fact, although John Dewar & Sons remains one of the world’s largest whisky companies, the majority of its sales are of blends, such as Dewar’s White Label. That’s not to say that

92 Scotland’s Best 2020

the single malt isn’t good, quite the opposite is true. Its survival over the years is undoubtedly a testament to the quality of its products, which is hardly surprising as Sir Thomas ‘Tommy’ Dewar, son of the founder John Dewar Senior, was a known stickler for standards and once remarked that “nothing deflates so fast as a punctured reputation”. Visitors to this well-oiled distillery can enjoy guided tours, where they will learn about how the distillery double ages its whisky for smoothness, and afterwards try a very welcome dram of its delicious tipple.

WHERE Aberfeldy, Perthshire, PH15 2EB CONTACT +44 (0)1887 822 010 aberfeldy.com

10 BEST DISTILLERIES

4

GLENFIDDICH DISTILLERY, SPEYSIDE

2

ISLE OF RAASAY, INNER HEBRIDES

Located just off the east coast of Skye on the small isle of Raasay, this new distillery opened its doors in 2018 and its first single-malt whisky will launch in 2020 (the distillery had the foresight to distil elsewhere before opening so the wait isn’t too long). In the meantime, visitors can sample its Hebridean gin – the first legal spirit to come out of an isle rooted in centuries of illicit distilling. Handcrafted right here, it’s distilled using a blend of 10 botanicals, including rhubarb root, citrus fruit peel and water from its well. Visitors can sample the gin with views across to the Red Cuillin. Plus, boutique bedrooms mean you can have more than a nip or two before settling in for the night.

WHERE Isle of Raasay, IV40 8PB CONTACT +44 (0)1478 470 178 raasaydistillery.com

For 20 years William Grant nurtured a dream to make the ‘best dram in the valley’. With the help of his family, he finally achieved that vision. In the summer of 1886, with his seven sons and two daughters by his side, William set out to fulfil a lifelong ambition. Together they began building his distillery by hand, stone by stone. After a single year of work it was ready and William named it Glenfiddich, Gaelic for ‘Valley of the Deer’.

In 1969, Glenfiddich became the very first distillery to open a visitor centre in Scotland. Distillery tours begin with a short film recounting five generations of family ownership, followed by an on-foot tour of the distillery that explains how the whiskies are created by craftsmen with generations of understanding. The tour includes a visit to the still house, where you can see how stillmen capture the sweetest part of the distillate from the unusually sized copper stills. The much-anticipated conclusion to the visit is a tutored nosing and tasting of four of Glenfiddich’s world-renowned single malts.

WHERE Dufftown, Moray, AB55 4DH CONTACT + 44 (0)1340 820 373 glenfiddich.com

3

KINGSBARNS DISTILLERY, FIFE

Just a few miles outside St Andrews, this relatively new distillery, which opened in 2014 is fast gaining a reputation for its Lowland single malt.

It was while working as a golf caddie at neighbouring Kingsbarns Golf Links that founder Douglas Clement came up with the idea of turning the semi-derelict farm steading of Kingsbarns into a distillery.

Before long he’d convinced the Wemyss family, who have long-standing whisky connections, to get on board, and so the distillery was born.

Today, Kingsbarns offers a superb distillery visitor experience leading it to be highly commended in the Best Newcomer category at the first annual Scottish Whisky Awards. We must say, we do love the sound of the early evening one-hour ‘19th Hole’ tour – the perfect end to a day teeing off.

WHERE Kingsbarns, Fife, KY16 8QE CONTACT +44 (0)1333 451 300 kingsbarnsdistillery.com Scotland’s Best 2020 93

5

GLEN MORAY DISTILLERY, SPEYSIDE

Glen Moray single malt has been distilled on the banks of the River Lossie since 1897. In over a century of distilling at Glen Moray, much has changed. However, the ingredients, processes and the skills of those responsible for producing this high-quality single malt whisky remain constant. A small, friendly and informal distillery, Glen Moray can be found in the heart of Elgin, the historic capital of Speyside. Since the first drops of spirit ran from its copper pot stills on the 13 September 1897, just five men have had the honour of holding the title ‘master distiller’. The know-how and craftsmanship built up through years of experience has been passed down the generations to ensure every new drop has the same quality as the last. The area around Elgin is known as the Laich of Moray and Glen Moray is a partner member of the world famous Malt Whisky Trail. Along with a very good coffee shop, visitors are encouraged to take part in the tastings, which range from £5 through to £35. Intermediate tours are more in-depth and led by one of the distillery’s managers.

WHERE Elgin, IV30 1YE CONTACT +44 (0)1343 550 900 glenmoray.com

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MACALLAN DISTILLERY, SPEYSIDE

Some might argue that Speyside, home to the highest concentration of single malt whisky distilleries in the world, didn’t need another visitor experience.

They would be wrong. Established distiller Macallan – making whisky since 1824 – opened its brand-new visitor experience in 2018. Developed by renowned architects, Rogers, Stirk, Harbour + Partners, its rolling roof is an architectural wonder. The Six Pillars Experience tour will teach you about the principles that underpin the making of whisky here, while the Macallan Heritage Experience offers a guided tasting in the Cave Privée. Afterwards, head to the bar for panoramic views of the surrounding countryside.

WHERE Craigellachie, AB38 9RX CONTACT +44 (0)1340 318 000 themacallan.com

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TALISKER DISTILLERY, SKYE

The oldest working distillery on Skye and certainly its best located, Talisker boasts dramatic views of Skye’s mighty Cuillin. A huge operation and one of the busiest stop-offs for visitors to Skye, book ahead to avoid disappointment. Opt for a classic tour in which you’ll get the customary wee dram at the end, or go for the whisky and chocolate tour in which you’ll get to try an additional three single malts, each paired with a locally handmade chocolate.

If you do turn up and tours are all booked up, fear not, you can still have a tasting in the bar. Since 2018, visitors to Talisker can also combine a visit here with one to the Isle of Harris Distillery, the Isle of Raasay Distillery and Skye’s newest distillery, Torabhaig, to complete the Hebridean Whisky Trail. A great excuse to venture to some of the lesser-visited parts of the Hebrides.

WHERE Carbost, Skye, IV47 8SR CONTACT +44 (0)1478 614 308 malts.com 94 Scotland’s Best 2020

10 BEST DISTILLERIES

10

© CALLUM BENNETTS - MAVERICK PHOTO AGENCY/VISIT SCOTLAND/NORTH EAST 250/DAMIAN SHIELDS/STEPHEN BENNETT PHOTOGRAPHY/ LAURENCE WINRAM

HIGHLAND PARK DISTILLERY, ORKNEY

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ARDBEG DISTILLERY, ISLAY

It would be criminal to not include a distillery from Islay in a round-up of Scotland’s best. The Queen of the Hebrides is home to no fewer than nine working distilleries and is known the world over for its distinct smoky whiskies, particularly those made on the south of this peat-rich isle.

Laphroaig is no doubt the most famous, but nearby Ardbeg is a close second.

Despite being forced to close twice in the past, Ardbeg has risen from the ashes as one of the most celebrated Islay whiskies. Energetic tour guides bring the distillery’s unsettled history to life, with tales of smugglers and illicit goings on. Afterwards, have a fresh seafood lunch in the Old Kiln Café.

WHERE Port Ellen, Islay, PA42 7EA CONTACT +44 (0)1496 302 244 ardbeg.com

Highland Park Distillery has its roots in illicit distillation dating all the way back to the late 18th century when Magnus Eunson, an infamous priest turned smuggler who supposedly ran rings around the authorities for many years, made whisky on site. The official founding date of the distillery, as attested by the wroughtiron gates that welcome visitors, is 1798 – although this date is a couple of decades before its first official license to legally distil was granted. Highland Park is famous for its consistency and has been valued as a base spirit in quality blends since the turn of the 20th century. Today, it continues to produce a distinct style of whisky that, for the most part, utilises full sherry-cask maturation and always includes barley, smoked using local peat from the nearby Hobbister moor, in its mash. The distillery is one of Scotland’s most characterful, on account of its wild island home of Orkney, which still bears the hallmarks of its Viking settlers 1,000 years ago. At Highland Park you can go on a historic Viking Soul tour to learn more (alongside a dram or two).

WHERE Kirkwall, KW15 1SU CONTACT +44 (0)1856 874 619 highlandparkwhisky.com

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ISLE OF HARRIS DISTILLERY, OUTER HEBRIDES

When it opened in 2015, the Isle of Harris Distillery (the island is officially called Lewis & Harris), became the first gin distillery in the remote Outer Hebrides. That’s not the only first the distillery can lay claim to either: it’s also the first distillery to use sugar kelp seaweed as its defining botanical, harvesting it by hand from local sea lochs to give the gin an authentic taste of its elemental location. Tours begin in a small, charred-oak-lined tasting room on Harris Tweed chairs. You’ll be taken through a guided sampling of Isle of Harris Gin and Sugar Kelp Aromatic Water (a seaweed tincture that lets you customise your pour to your taste). Plus, visitors can taste the distillery’s new-make whisky – having only opened in 2015 its Hearach (the Gaelic name for a person from Harris) single malt whisky isn’t quite ready.

WHERE Tarbert, Harris, HS3 3DJ CONTACT +44 (0)1859 502 212 harrisdistillery.com Scotland’s Best 2020 95

True to its roots and to the typically smooth and fruity Speyside style, Glen Moray boasts an extensive core whisky portfolio with a versatile range of expressions that make it accessible in both style and price.

Creating whisky of outstanding quality and taste is at the heart of production and has been for more than 120 years.

Traditions laid down by the distillery’s forefathers take precedence, but there’s always room to embrace innovation.

Some of Glen Moray’s most popular and exciting new expressions have been born of experimenting with groundbreaking new maturation techniques and exploring the flavour possibilities of using different casks.

Wick

Elgin

Inverness

SPEYSIDE

Aberdeen

THE HIGHLANDS Dundee Perth

Glasgow

Edinburgh

THE LOWLANDS Dumfries

THE LOCAL TEAM AT THE VISITOR CENTER WELCOMES YOU TO THE WORLD OF GLEN MORAY Take a tour of the distillery and discover the whisky making processes or enjoy the end results with a tasting from the bar.

DISTILLERY TOUR Explore the distillery with one of our guides and see how we make our award winning single malt. Visit the warehouse to learn about our cask selection process and the variety of whiskies we produce. Finish off with a complimentary tasting of two drams.

Approx. 1 hour. Admission £5

TASTINGS Relax and enjoy a tasting flight at the VisitorCentre. Each tasting includes 4 different whiskies allowing you to explore a range of expressions for yourself.

These can be enjoyed separately or added to a tour reservation for a more in-depth Glen Moray experience.

www.glenmoray.com

Bruceland Road • Elgin • Moray • IV30 1YE • 01343 550900

PROMOTION

GLEN MORAY - The Gateway to Flavour Embrace the imagination of Speyside with Glen Moray’s diverse whisky collections

G

len Moray, nestled in the rich agricultural plain of the Laich O’Moray in Elgin, Moray, is the most northerly of the Speyside distilleries, benefitting from the region’s warmer microclimate. By storing everything on site, the Master Distiller can keep a watchful eye over their whiskies, ensuring it develops the smoothest and most well-rounded taste possible.

THE CLASSIC COLLECTION A traditional yet innovative range designed for multiple taste experiences, the Classic Collection offers the ultimate experience of Speyside.

The Elgin Classic is at the heart of each expression, an exceptional yet accessible whisky aged in ex-Bourbon barrels. To create each new variant, the spirit is taken on a different journey and allowed to interact with different barrels to reveal a new and unique personality.

Glen Moray’s other wine cask expression, the Chardonnay Cask Finish, is lightly drying with warming malty notes, while the Port Cask Finish nurtures subtle spice and caramelised flavours that only originate from a Port

finishing pipe. The new Cabernet Sauvignon Cask Finish expression is the sixth exquisite whisky in the Glen Moray Classic Collection.

Glen Moray Peated offers a more intense experience while the Sherry Finish, which spends its final months in Oloroso casks, packs a Spanish firebrand punch.

The Glen Moray Classic collection is the perfect marriage between ingenuity and heritage, employing traditional techniques while challenging the boundaries of flavour by embracing new ideas.

GLEN MORAY IN A NUTSHELL n A 120-year-old distillery run by a dedicated

and humble team proud of their work. n An imagination fuelled by Speyside ensures that taste and flavour is always at the heart of the production process. n Strong expertise in cask marriage formulates unique flavours and one of the largest whisky portfolios in Scotland.

THE HERITAGE COLLECTION Aged to perfection in the highest quality casks, the Heritage Collection is the natural reflection of Speyside providing an authentic connection with the region.

The Glen Moray 12 Year Old is the signature malt expression from the Elgin Heritage single malt range.

It is aged in ex-bourbon casks to produce a wonderfully balanced whisky.

For a richer and more intense flavour profile, the Glen Moray 15 Year Old is aged in Oloroso sherry and American oak casks to deliver a rich whisky.

Complexity and elegance characterise the Glen Moray 18 Year Old, which is carefully matured in first fill ex-bourbon casks for the optimum time.

Glen Moray 21 Year Old is the newest addition to the collection: a perfectly executed Port-finished whisky that combines the spicy sweetness from the ex-Bourbon casks with the rich wine flavours of Portuguese Port casks.

For whiskies of even greater distinction, explore the Reserve and Prestige Collections – superb limited editions of outstanding vintages.

Scotland’s Best 2020 97

IN GOOD COMPANY Travelling in a group or with a guide can help you get more from your trip

1

CRUISE THE GREAT GLEN

Slicing through Scotland all the way from Inverness to Fort William via a series of inter-connecting waterways, the Great Glen is the perfect setting for a spot of slow travel. You can cruise it aboard one of two colourful and homely barges offered

by Caledonian Discovery, Fingal and Ros Crana. The boats don’t exactly go fast, but that is somewhat the point, leaving plenty of time to hop off and take a hike or bike ride along the towpath or through pretty woodland trails before getting back on board. There are also kayaks available, if you’d like to explore the waterways and tributaries in peace, or even venture out on the immense Loch Ness in search of a certain somebody.

On board, you’ll be well fed by the resident chef, eating huge home-cooked meals round a communal table. There are plenty of board games and books to keep you entertained and each barge has six snug but comfortable en-suite cabins.

COST Cruises with Caledonian Discovery start from £515 per person for a four-day cruise or £975 per person for seven days.

CONTACT +44 (0)1397 772 167 caledonian-discovery.co.uk 98 Scotland’s Best 2020

8 BEST TOURS & CRUISES

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SMALL SHIP CRUISING

The small and exclusive Hebridean Princess, purpose-built to cruise Scotland’s Western Isles and launched by Hebridean Island Cruises as a cruise ship in 1989, sails mainly from her home port of Oban. Perfectly complementing the wildly beautiful Scottish scenery through which she cruises, Hebridean Princess offers the unrivalled comfort and refined service of a floating country house, with a maximum of 50 guests, in the tradition of the halcyon days of cruising. The on-board welcome is always warm, channelling the congenial atmosphere of a country house party, where old friends meet up, new acquaintances are quickly made and the unaccompanied need never feel alone. At the same time, guests are free to enjoy the luxury of their own private space whenever they choose.

The epitome of good taste, an understated elegance pervades the whole ship. The crew-toguest ratio, which is almost one-to-one, ensures exceptionally high standards and a five-star experience from start to finish.

COST Four-night cruises from £1,490 per person.

CONTACT +44 (0)1756 704 704 hebridean.co.uk

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HIDDEN HERITAGE

Rowan Tree Travel provides small group escorted tours for individuals who share a curious mind and a love of travel. Each tour provides insight into the local traditions at the heart of their destination’s community; whether that’s traditional knitting patterns, mythology or a local brewery giving new life to an old recipe. The company’s signature tour is its Wool and Whisky Tour, but each year it also offers a tour that focuses on the myths and legends of the destinations, including a night of storytelling or performances by local folk musicians. Rowan Tree Travel helps its guests discover the treasure trove of stories and sagas behind each castle, scenic spot and ancient site – stories that might be passed over if visiting alone. The company also offers bespoke tours.

COST Wool and Whisky Tour $3,700 (£2,995) per person, based on two people sharing.

CONTACT info@rowantreetravel.com rowantreetravel.com Scotland’s Best 2020 99

4

OUTLANDER ADVENTURE

Retrace Jamie and Claire’s love story on an epic adventure with Rabbie’s. Visit real-life locations that inspired and feature in the series, and learn about the history that underpins the story.

On the one-day Outlander Adventure tour, you’ll depart Edinburgh in the morning and visit three castles, one palace, plus the perfectly preserved 16th-century village of Culross (pictured), which stars in many episodes of the show, before returning to your hotel.

Avid fans should consider the four-day Outlander Trail, which takes in some of Scotland’s most ancient and iconic sites.

You’ll visit Doune Castle, which stars in the fantasy programme as Castle Leoch, as well as the battlefield of Culloden where Jacobite dreams came crashing down.

You’ll also get to wander amid the pine forests of Glen Affric, where Jamie hides out, and visit his family home of Lallybroch, the real-life Midhope Castle.

COST The one-day tour, departing from Edinburgh, starts at £42 per person, while the four-day tour starts at £189 per person (accommodation not included).

CONTACT +44 (0)131 226 3133 rabbies.com

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SCENIC GOLF GETAWAYS

Scotland and golf go together like cheese and wine, and in this 10-night tour of Ayrshire and Arran, you’ll have 28 golf courses to choose from. Spend four nights on the beautiful isle of Arran (right) taking in some of the glorious sights between rounds, before heading to Burns’ country on the Ayrshire coast for four nights. End your trip with a two-night stay at the splendid Gleddoch House Golf Resort & Spa. Britain by Choice, founded

by Charlie Newton, specialises in turning holiday dreams into a reality for US travellers and can help organise everything, from five-star hotels to transport.

COST The 10-night Ayrshire & Arran tour costs from £1,685 per person.

CONTACT +1 (0)972 395 0545 britainbychoice.com 100 Scotland’s Best 2020

8 BEST TOURS & CRUISES

6

ORIGINAL OUTLANDER

Judy Corby-Lowstuter, owner of US-based tour company Celtic Journeys, was running tours based on Diana Gabaldon’s awardwinning Outlander novels way before the programme first aired, and in 2020 her Outlander Tour® (the first of its kind) will mark its 17th year. Guests on Judy’s Outlander tours will be able to see Jamie and Claire’s story come to life in the very places that inspired its conception. Visit Clava Cairns (right), for instance, which is surely the basis for Craigh na Dun, or the ruined cottage where the lovers say goodbye before Jamie goes off to fight in the Battle of Culloden. You can choose between the original seven-night Outlander tour or book onto the extended 11-night version. As a ScotsMaster Destination Specialist (VisitScotland), Judy launched Celtic Journeys in 2004 with the aim of introducing visitors to the very best of Scotland, from its scenery, culture, traditions, history, and, most of all, its wonderful people. In 2020, Celtic Journeys will also venture to some of the farthest reaches of Scotland on a 15-night Western and Northern Isles tour.

COST Tours are available from US$3,750 or £2,970 per person for seven nights, based on double occupancy.

CONTACT: +1 (0)703 941 6455 celticjourneys.us

Scotland’s Best 2020 101

8 BEST TOURS & CRUISES

7

TAKE THE HIGH ROAD

Robert and Sally-Ann James’s love and passion for the North Highlands pulled them back year after year until they moved here in 2013, setting up North Coast Explorer Tours, rated five stars

by VisitScotland. Covering the North Highlands and North Coast 500 in a premium 4X4, their accredited guides bring the region to life with bespoke tours combining history and culture, as well as food and drink. In 2020, their History Explorer and West Highlands Explorer Tours launch for those who have less time but still wish to experience some the vast Scottish wilderness of lochs, mountains, castles, beaches and wildlife.

Also new is the Sky Explorer – their flying camera. This technology enables you to climb a virtual mountain or discover a hidden ravine.

COST The seven-day Grand NC500 Explorer Tour is from £2,975 per couple. The four-day History Explorer or West Highlands Explorer Tours are from £1,700 per couple. Prices exclude accommodation and meals.

CONTACT +44 (0)1847 851 852 northcoast.scot

8

If you want to visit Skye but are put off by reports of over tourism then this could be the solution.

On a cruise aboard Red Moon, you will be able to take in the enigmatic isle of Skye without fighting your way past selfie sticks. This former Admiralty fishing vessel can be exclusively yours. You’ll be in the very safe hands of husband-and-wife team Scott and Mary, who will plan your bespoke itinerary and make sure you are exceedingly well fed, too. On the company’s sample six-night East of Skye Explorer Cruise, for instance, you’ll skirt up the east coast of Skye to anchor off the lesser-known isles of Raasay and Rona before popping into Portree. This route will also take you to Loch Torridon, where you can take in the majestic mountains and then spend the night in a secret bay off the Applecross peninsula.

You may even be joined by local otters, too.

COST The six-night East of Skye Explorer Cruise starts from £4,800 per couple.

CONTACT +44 (0)7768 101 667 redmooncruises.co.uk

102 Scotland’s Best 2020

© KENNY LAM/ VISITSCOTLAND/ PHIL SEALE/ALAMY/TAMMO ZELLE/ROBERT HARDING

OVER THE SEA TO SKYE

At Turas we craft award-winning bespoke self-drive itineraries, with accommodation, which take you off the beaten track to explore Scotland’s rugged mountains, windswept islands, vibrant cities and picturesque villages.

For 2020 trips booked by 31 Jan 2020, Turas is delighted to offer a 10% discount – please quote ‘Scotland Magazine’.

Based on holidays of 7- 10 days.

T: +44 (0) 1463 239944 | W: www.turas.life

Your resource for customized travel to Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales

Lochranza, Isle of Arran (Visit Scotland)

Britain By Choice

Choice http://www.britainbychoice.com

Britain by 1 (800) 410 5110

reservations@britainbychoice.com 1 (972) 395 0545

MADE IN SCOTLAND You might want to bring a spare suitcase to cart some of these authentic goods home

1

DUNMORE SCOTLAND, PEEBLESSHIRE

Saddened by the news of the closure of yet another textile mill in the Scottish Borders, Diane Ness was inspired to do something to support the textile industry in Scotland. She decided to set up a company that would combine her love of handbags with the long-celebrated history of Scottish textiles and manufacturing. Five years on, that idea is now Dunmore Scotland, a thriving luxury goods business that celebrates all that is great about Scottish style. Each piece in the Dunmore Scotland collections is inspired by Scotland and designed and made here too. Classic Harris Tweed tones fit happily alongside brighter modern colours to create fashionable handbags, satchels and accessories with a Scottish twist. What’s more, Dunmore uses only authentic Harris Tweed bought directly from weavers and their tartans are sourced from established companies within Scotland.

WHERE West Linton, Peeblesshire, EH46 7HA CONTACT +44 (0)1968 660 078 dunmorescotland.com 104 Scotland’s Best 2020

3 BEST SHOPS

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HARRIS TWEED HEBRIDES, LEWIS

For more than 100 years, the skills used to create Harris Tweed have been passed down through the generations. Founded in late 2007, Harris Tweed Hebrides has revitalised the Harris Tweed industry by working with prominent fashion houses to create new designs, and with customers, to develop new applications for this traditional fabric. Harris Tweed is handwoven in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland from pure virgin wool and is the fabric of choice wherever quality and provenance are valued. Governed by the 1993 Harris Tweed Act, which safeguards the fabric, it can be recognised by its distinctive Orb trademark stamp. Harris Tweed Hebrides has a retail outlet in Stornoway and though the mill is not currently open for tours, visitors can see a short film at the shop to learn about the mill processes.

WHERE Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, HS1 2XQ CONTACT +44 (0) 1851 700 046 harristweedhebrides.com

3

© 2016 CHARLIE FRASER-HOPEWELL

HOUSE OF BRUAR, PERTHSHIRE

Known as the ‘Harrods of the North’, the House of Bruar showcases the very best of luxury Scottish country clothing, fresh produce, fine art and homewares at its 11-acre site just off the A9, north of Pitlochry. The company is a unique retail destination that encompasses expansive ladieswear and menswear halls, a food hall complete with a 600-seat restaurant, delicatessen and awardwinning butchery. There’s also a rural art gallery and a fishing department staffed by knowledgeable angling experts. Since opening 25 years ago the store has gone from strength to strength, with more than 30 extensions to its grand Victorian sporting lodge-style main building in this time. The company continues to welcome more visitors each year, from passing tourists picking up toffee to country sports fans preparing for the shooting or fishing season.

WHERE Blair Atholl, Perthshire, PH18 5TW CONTACT +44 (0)1796 483 236 houseofbruar.com Scotland’s Best 2020 105

WHERE TO STAY

Where to Stay Our Guide to Scotland’s very best hotels and accommodation Everyone’s Scottish adventure is unique, with some determined to brave the landscapes on foot, and others preferring a slower pace and more pampered stay.

Whatever your reason for visiting, Scotland’s hotels, lodges and country houses are sure to welcome you with open arms. Fiercely proud of their heritage and traditions yet famous for their warm hospitality, we’ve selected the best Scottish home from homes for you to frequent throughout what we hope will be a lifetime of Scottish holidays.

LEISURE BREAKS

Coastal getaways with fun for all the family.

REST AND REJUVENATION

Relaxing spa days from only £99.

DELECTABLE DINING

From Sunday Brunch to Afternoon Tea.

GOLF ACADEMY

Memberships from £395 per person.

T R U M P T U R N B E R RY L U X U R Y B R E A K S | S P A D AY S | G O L F | A F T E R N O O N T E A

CO N TAC T O U R T E A M

Call: 01655 331 000

106 Scotland’s Best 2020

Email: turnberry@trumpturnberry.com

All of these hotels are members of the prestigious Scottish Hotel Awards scheme, for whom we are the official media partner. This means that they are consistently reviewed and assessed, and only those that can prove their exceptional worth win our awards. You can rely on them to not just provide accommodation, but experiences in their own right. From a cosy fireside dram with a mountain view, to a grand four-poster bed to rest your head, we are immensely proud to recommend such a diverse but outstanding set of places to stay.

WHERE TO STAY

A stunning country house hotel, situated within 11 acres of private grounds on the banks of the River Tweed.

The hotel offers comfortable accommodation in the heart of the Scottish Borders and is a perfect venue for walking, fishing, weddings, business and leisure breaks.

enquiries@dryburgh.co.uk | 01835 822261 | www.dryburgh.co.uk

079-Group-AD-SM103.indd 79

07/02/2019 11:30

Dating from 1750 this former coaching inn, with its thatched roof, sits at the head of Kirk Yetholm’s village green.

This small, family-run hotel marks the end of the Pennine Way, the start of the National Trail and is on the St Cuthbert’s Way making it popular with walkers looking for a break in their journey.

Our great food is recognised throughout the Borders, priding itself on locally-sourced produce expertly prepared by our experienced head chef. Delicious offerings, a large selection of gins, whisky and real ales offer something for everyone.

borderhotel.co.uk T. 01573 420237 • E. info@borderhotel.co.uk The Border Hotel • The Green • Kirk Yetholm • Kelso • TD5 8PQ

Scotland’s Best 2020 107

WHERE TO STAY

DoubleTree

by Hilton

Glasgow Westerwood Spa & Golf Resort

Our DoubleTree by Hilton hotel offers stylish guest rooms and comforting amenities. Enjoy our signature chocolate chip cookie, and know that this welcoming gift is only a taste of the warm, personal service you will experience

1 St Andrews Drive, Cumbernauld, Glasgow, G68 0EW Tel: +44 01236 457171

www.thewesterwoodhotel.co.uk

Holiday Inn Glasgow Theatreland & La Bonne Auberge If you’re looking for somewhere to stay in the heart of Glasgow’s city centre, then look no further.

With the highest levels of customer service and friendliness you expect from a Holiday Inn with a touch of glamour and boutique styling, you get the best of both worlds.

The hotel boasts a range of room types from standard, executive and feature rooms to penthouse suites! Our ideally located hotel is only a 2-minute walk to either Buchanan Bus Station or Glasgow Queen Street Train Station. If travelling by car, there is discounted public car parking available right across the road at Concert Square.

We also have the stunning AA Rosette restaurant, La Bonne Auberge Brasserie, on site where you can enjoy modern French cuisine with a Scottish twist.

161 West Nile Street, Glasgow, G1 2RL T: 0141 352 8300 W: www.higlasgow.com

108 Scotland’s Best 2020

- 164 bedrooms - 3 conference and meeting rooms - Capacity for up to 100 delegates - Recess, the Pavilion Pantry and room service - Glasgow's largest Riverside terrace - Fitness Room - Adjacent to the SEC and SSE Hydro - 9 miles from Glasgow Airport HGI Glasgow Finnieston Quay G3 8HN www.glasgowcitycentre.hgi.com

WHERE TO STAY

&

Meetings Events

O EDINBURGH HOTEL RECEIVES MULTI-MILLION POUND MAKEOVER One of Edinburgh’s best-loved boutique hotels, The Bonham Hotel, has been refurbished from head-to-toe, courtesy of a multi-million pound investment.

Following the refurbishment of all 49 bedrooms last year, the public areas of the hotel have also had a makeover with a new bar and the launch of a brand new restaurant – No. 35 at The Bonham.

No.35 at The Bonham, under the guidance of Head Chef, Marco Drumond Nobrega, offers an eclectic menu of European-inspired food with a Scottish twist, using the best of local suppliers and ingredients.

ur Meetings & Event spaces combine a sense of occasion with all the flexibility and state of the art facilities that you would expect from one of Scotland’s most historic Hotels.

With a range of spaces to suit all requirements and budgets, our experienced events team will provide seamless support before and during your event. With capacities of between 12-230 people, and truly show stopping unique features like your own private outdoor terrace, we can help your event stand out from the crowd.

We invite you to step inside the Scotsman, and enjoy a whole new experience for your next event.

To make an enquiry or arrange a show round, call 0131 556 5565

Located at 35 Drumsheugh Gardens, just a short walk from Princes Street and George Street, The Bonham Hotel is ideally placed for both leisure and business guests.

www.thebonham.com • 0131 226 6050

20 NORTH BRIDGE, EDINBURGH, EH1 1TR WWW.SCOTSMANHOTEL.CO.UK | T: 0131 556 5565 THESCOTSMANHOTEL

Luxurious, relaxed and unlike anywhere you’ve ever stayed before, the Dunstane relaxed Houses form two parts of a family-run boutique hotel that Luxurious, and unlike anywhere you’ve ever stayed before, brings a breath of fresh Orkney air boutique to the heart of Edinburgh. the Dunstane Houses is a family-run hotel that brings a breath of fresh Orkney air to the heart of Edinburgh.

In a peaceful corner of Edinburgh’s West End, a short walk from Haymarket and 15 minutes’ from Edinburgh the Dunstane 35-bedroom In a peaceful cornerdrive of Edinburgh’s Westairport, End, The boutique is spread over two statelyboutique Victorian hotel townhouses Houses is anhotel independent, 35-bedroom spreadon over opposite sides Victorian of the road: Dunstane House and Hampton The two stately townhouses.

The bedrooms andHouse. interiors bedrooms and interiors House in both and Dunstane Hampton House House throughout Dunstane publicHouse areas and of Hampton have been redesigned stylishly redesigned to pay have all been stylishly and refurbished to tribute pay tribute to the to theneoclassical building’s neoclassical and the owners’ building’s character andcharacter the owners’ Orcadian heritage, Orcadian heritage, without compromising modern comfort. without compromising on modernon comfort.

When seasons shifting,Edinburgh’s Edinburgh’s trees red and gold, The the seasons areare shifting, treesare areturning turning red and and the Ba’ BarBa’ fireside has never so been appealing.

To mark the gold, and the Bar fireside hasbeen never so appealing.

Toonset mark ofthe autumn offeringwe’re one night free one whennight you book a three-night stay onsetwe’re of autumn offering free when you book a three-night stay or more.

So, sit back, andrelax cosyand up cosy for the or more from September to November.

So,relax sit back, up evening – that’s whatwhat autumn’s made for,for, after for the evening – that’s autumn’s made afterall.all. book your stay one or or Orkney Suites To To book your stay in in one ofour ourLuxury Luxuryrooms rooms Orkney Suites call 01313 376 169 or email reserve@thedunstane.com Call 0131 337 6169 or email reserve@thedunstane.com

Scotland’s Venue of Excellence Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel Beardmore Street, Clydebank, Glasgow, G81 4SA 0141 951 6000 goldenjubileehotel.com Scotland’s Best 2020 109

WHERE TO STAY

Discover the best hotel in scotland PRESTIGE HOTEL AWARDS 2019

Carnousite including 86 86 luxury luxury CarnoustieGolf GolfHotel Hoteloffers offersextensive extensive facilities, including enen suite bedrooms overthe the suite bedroomsand and10 10suites suiteswith withamazing amazing views views over Championship and the thetown. town.

Championshipcourse, course,Carnousite Carnoustie Bay Bay and Spaand andhealth healthfacilities facilitiesinclude includeaalarge large heated heated swimming swimming pool, Spa pool, sauna, whirlpool,steam steamroom roomand and aa fully fully equipped equipped gymnasium. sauna, whirlpool, gymnasium.

Followininthe thefootsteps footstepsofofsome someof of history’s history’s greatest greatest golfers Follow golfers with withaa roundon onthe theinspiring inspiring Carnoustie Carnoustie course be hosting the round coursewhich whichwill hosted the 2018 2018 Open Championship.

Open Championship.

With1212event eventrooms roomsaccommodation accommodating up up to to 700 700 delegates, delegates, this With this oneofofScotland’s Scotland’sforemost foremostconference conference venues, venues, ideally in is one ideally located located milesfrom fromDundee, Dundee,‘City “Cityof ofDiscovery’ Discovery”,, and and 60 60 miles miles from from 1010miles Aberdeen, Scotland’s Aberdeen, Scotland’s “oil ‘oil capital”. capital’.

The newly refurbished Calders Bistro offers delicious fare, much of Calders Bar & Bistro has some fantastic views of the course and it from local Scottish produce. offers delicious fare, much of it from local Scottish produce.

discover luxury from £85 per night b o o k at g l e d d o ch .co m

Carnoustie Golf Hotel & Spa, Links Parade, Carnoustie, DD7 7JE Telephone: 01241 411999 email: reservations.carnoustie@bespoke-hotels.com

#DISCOVERGLEDDOCH

gleddoch Scotland Magazine.indd 2

23/09/2019 11:48

A warm welcome awaits you at the Kildrummy Inn, a family run establishment located in the beautiful Aberdeenshire countryside.

2 AA Rosette restaurant showcasing the best of Scotland’s rich and diverse larder by Alexandria Hay. AA 4 star accommodation.

Salmon and trout fishing on the River Don.

Autumn Break Autumn Break Autumn £299 for two nights in a Break classic room or one Autumn Break

£299 for twobedroom nights inapartment. a classic room or one £299 for twobedroom nights inapartment. a classic room or one Full Scottish breakfast on both mornings £299 for two nights in a classic room or one bedroom apartment. andbedroom dinner on one evening Full Scottish breakfast on both mornings apartment.

Full Scottish breakfast onevening both mornings and dinner on one Full Scottish breakfast on both mornings and2019 dinner on one evening *Available 1st October - 1st Marchon 2020.one Certainevening dates are excluded and this offer and dinner

cannot be used in conjunction with any other special offer. Based on double occupancy. A *Available 1st October 2019 1st March 2020. Certain are excluded and this offer charge of £50 per day- applies to reservations fordates a Friday and Saturday. cannot be used in conjunction any other offer.

Based doubleand occupancy. *Available 1st October 2019 - with 1st March 2020.special Certain dates are on excluded this offerA *Available 1st October 2019 1st March 2020.special Certain are on excluded and this offerA of conjunction £50 per day- with applies reservations fordates a Based Friday and Saturday. cannot becharge used in anytoother offer. double occupancy. cannot becharge used in anytoother special offer. double occupancy. A of conjunction £50 per day with applies reservations for a Based Fridayon and Saturday. charge of £50 per day applies to reservations for a Friday and Saturday.

D OUNESIDE HOUSE, TARL AND, ABERDEENSHIRE AB34 4UL SCOTL AND WWW.D OUNESIDEHOUSE.CO.UK +44 (0)13398 81230 D OUNESIDE HOUSE, TARL AND, ABERDEENSHIRE AB34 4UL SCOTL AND MANAGER@D OUNESIDEHOUSE.CO.UK WWW.D OUNESIDEHOUSE.CO.UK +44 (0)13398 81230 D OUNESIDE HOUSE, TARL AND, ABERDEENSHIRE AB34 4UL SCOTL AND D OUNESIDE HOUSE, TARL AND, ABERDEENSHIRE AB34 4UL SCOTL AND MANAGER@D OUNESIDEHOUSE.CO.UK 110 Scotland’s Best 2020 WWW.D OUNESIDEHOUSE.CO.UK +44 (0)13398 81230 WWW.DMANAGER@D OUNESIDEHOUSE.CO.UK +44 (0)13398 81230 OUNESIDEHOUSE.CO.UK MANAGER@D OUNESIDEHOUSE.CO.UK

Bespoke, tailored packaged for weddings, functions and events.

Private meeting & dining room.

Caravan and motor home pitches.

Kildrummy, Alford, Aberdeenshire AB33 8QS T: 019755 71227 E: enquiries@kildrummyinn.co.uk www.kindrummyinn.co.uk

WHERE TO STAY

MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS! Via Haute Grandeur – World’s Best Destination Wedding Retreat Weddings & Private Special Events in the heart of The Kingdom of Fife Whatever your occasion, please do get in touch via:

www.balbirnie.co.uk

With new restaurant, Seafood House now open

The Old Manor Hotel

Seasonal, stylish & simply delicious from afternoon tea to romantic candle lit dinners. The perfect place to drift off and dream surrounded by peaceful gardens.

The Old Manor Hotel is the perfect spot for you to catch a breath and unwind whether you’re looking for a coffee break with a view, or somewhere for a few days of rest, relaxation and exploration…

Ideally located in Lundin Links, our first class hotel offers you a perfect base to explore the pretty coastal villages, harbours and inland towns of Fife yet is just a short distance to our capital city for the bright lights and entertainment.

Whether you’re visiting solo, with friends, family or looking for a wedding venue, we are on hand to help with every aspect of your time here.

E: sales@garvock.co.uk

T: 01383 621067

www.garvock.co.uk

T: 01333 320368 | E: reception@theoldmanorhotel.co.uk

www.theoldmanorhotel.co.uk

Scotland’s Best 2020 111

WHERE TO STAY

At the heart of the beautiful Isle of Arran lies the multi-award winning Auchrannie Resort.

2 hotels, 30 luxury lodges and 7 retreats. Auchrannie is ideal for families, couples and solo travellers.

3 distinct dining experiences, 2 swimming pools, gym, spa and adventure centre.

To find out more visit www.auchrannie.co.uk or call us on 01770 302234

Scotland Magazine Quarter Page Advert 90x130.indd 1

14/03/2019 09:53

SCOTTISH ISLANDS ROMANTIC HOTEL OF THE YEAR 2018 & 2019

LAMLASH | ISLE OF ARRAN 01770 600559 | ENQUIRIES@GLENISLEHOTEL.COM

WWW.GLENISLEHOTEL.COM WWW.GLENISLEHOTEL .COM 112 Scotland’s Best 2020

WHERE TO STAY

Winter Luxury Highland Break

from £99 per person In an age of standardisation and uniformity, The Western Isles stands out as an individual, a grand old lady looking out imperiously from her headland over Tobermory village, harbour and bay to the Sound of Mull and mainland Scotland beyond, as she has done for nearly 150 years.

For those seeking a hotel of real character with spacious rooms, world-class views, elegance, comfort, and the best food that our amazing local larder can provide, The Western Isles offers the warmest of welcomes.

Tobermory, Isle Of Mull, Scotland, PA75 6PR Tel: 01688 302012 • Fax: 01688 302297 E-mail: reservations@westernisleshotel.com Web: westernisleshotel.com

Overnight accommodation Highland Afternoon Tea in the Drawing Room Evening Dinner in the Restaurant Full Highland Breakfast for two Bottle of Prosecco in your room on arrival

www.bunchrewhousehotel.com

ADD A LITTLE INTRO

Add your Hogmanay 2019 key point here Hogmanay at Dornoch Castle Arrival 30th/31st December

Two Night Break - £399 pp staying in a garden standard or £430 pp in a castle superior room Three Night break - £565 pp staying in a garden standard, £599 pp in a castle superior room or Your Fax: 01688 302297PERFECT E-mail: reservations@westernisleshotel.com £659 pp in our Deluxe Tower room

Tobermory, Isle Of Mull, Scotland, PA75 6PR Tel: 01688 302012

HIGHLAND VAT No. 940RETREAT 4110 67 5 Star Luxury Accommodation & Fine Dining

Breakfast, lunch, evening meals and welcome drink each evening included.

Entertainment on the 30th December and 1st January Additional night offer - £79.00 pp includes full Scottish breakfast & dinner (£35.00 pp allowance)

For bookings call: 01862 810 279 | email: info@linkshousedornoch.com www.linkshousedornoch.com

T: 01862 810216 E: enquiries@dornochcastlehotel.com

www.dornochcastlehotel.com Scotland’s Best 2020 113

WHERE TO STAY

The Lodge on Loch Lomond Hotel

The George

Newly Redesigned Restaurant Now Open

WINNER

•

Gastropu b of the Ye ar Family Pu b of the Ye ar Best Bar in Scotl Town Hote and l of the Year 20 18 Bar Dining of the ar 20Breakfast Stunning exposed wallstwo flagstoneadjacent to theYe 19 George. can be served in he presentoriginal George Hotel was originally

T

your room between 8 and 10 a.m, on request. private houses completed in 1776 and were part floors and antique furniture of a project by the 3rd Duke of Argyll to build • Four open fireplaces on the ground floor With its original solid stone flagstone floors and a new town in Inveraray. 17 bedrooms all sensitively roaring log and peat fires, the George is a lively haunt • Fabulous cocktail - a mix of olde re-styled in keeping with thebar building, its history and worlde for both local characters and visitors alike with a wide charm with the each demands of a modern its architecture, making one completely unique. bar choice of real ales, 100 malt whiskies and an extensive There are a further 8 rooms in The First House, - offering 3 real ales, a well-priced wine wine list list. It deservedly earns its place in the Good Pub and award-winning cocktails and food Guide and the Good Beer Guide.

Come and join us for an afternoon tea, lunch or dinner.

WINNER: • Two classically trained French chefs The emphasis on the menu is using the very best of Enjoy the magnificent panoramic views over Gastropub of the Year offering Scottish cuisine exhibiting their local quality, West Highland beef and lamb. Seafood Family Pub of the Year fish fishing and fi sh bought from the local fi shing port of Tarbert Scotland’s favourite loch from our fantastic awardwinning culinary skills Best Bar in Scotland • Individual, quirky luxury room some withand the famous Loch Fyne salmon. recently refurbished restaurant. whirlpool Victorian bath Main St, baths Eastalone Inveraray, PA32 8TT | www.thegeorgehotel.co.uk | info@thegeorgehotel.co.uk • The hotel boat, Rhiannon, fishes for local Book today for a great range of special offers. seafood including langoustine, squat lobster and crab

1Main St E, Inveraray PA32 8TT T. 01499 302111 E.info@thegeorgehotel.co.uk www.thegeorgehotel.co.uk

hotel & seafood restaurant

For more information or to book Visit www.loch-lomond.co.uk or Call 01436 860 201

Scottish Hotel Awards Romantic Hotel of the Y ear 2019

simply

heaven Built in 1834, Ardanaiseig stands on the shore of Loch Awe, nestled under the mighty Ben Cruachan. With a spirit and character unmatched in Scotland, antiques and objets d’art fill the hotel at every turn.

One of the hotel’s greatest strengths is the sublime tranquillity and breathtaking beauty of its surroundings, that lends itself so well to a romantic break.

Seafood heaven. The freshest of local produce, simply cooked to perfection, served with our stunning west coast view pierhousehotel.co.uk • Port Appin, Argyll • PA38 4DE • 01631 730 302

114 Scotland’s Best 2020

With 120 acres of land, full of gardens and paths, guests find themselves in an idyllic world of peace and quiet. Whether it is walking the grounds, enjoying an awardwinning meal, or snuggling by the fire together, romance and intimacy are celebrated and cherished at Ardanaiseig.

Weddings, families and corporate away days are all welcome too.

Discover us at ardanaiseig.com or call 01866 833337 and we’ll help you to arrange your unique experience.

SMOKEHOUSE THE ART OF SMOKED SALMON Enjoy a taste of The Hebrides at our new Smokehouse and Restaurant

Tel 01851 619238 Sandwick Road, Stornoway, HS1 2SL

www.harrisandlewis.co.uk

‘

THE GO-TO GUIDE FOR SCOTTISH TRAVEL

BEST 2020 From the Borders to the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland, Scotland’s Best is your trusted travel companion. Leaf through our region-by-region guide to learn more about the rich heritage of our historic counties and be inspired by stunning photos of our unique landscapes. And, when it comes to planning your next trip, turn to our curated directory for the best attractions, castles and stately homes, distilleries, tours and cruises, and places to stay.

ANGUS, MORAY & ABERDEENSHIRE

ARGYLL & LOMOND

THE BORDERS

DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY

EDINBURGH & THE LOTHIANS

FIFE, KINROSS & CLACKMANNANSHIRE

GLASGOW & THE CLYDE

INVERNESS & THE HIGHLANDS

THE ISLANDS

PERTHSHIRE & STIRLINGSHIRE

£9.95 SCOTLAND’S BEST 2020 WORLD’S BEST SERIES