Place of interest Archive

Viking Unst Project – Viking ship & longhouse on Shetland

The success story of the Vikings began on this island. The Viking Unst Project takes us back to the age of the Norsemen. The island of Unst lies at the very northern tip of the Shetland Islands. And Shetland itself sits at the very north of Scotland. So it’s no surprise that the Norsemen first […]

Highland Folk Museum – the life of ordinary people in Scotland

The Highland Folk Museum doesn’t show off the glitz and glamour of life in the Highlands. Instead, visitors learn about the everyday lives of ordinary people over the last 300 years. It’s a walk through time: across a length of a kilometre and a half, the Highland Folk Museum displays more than 30 historic buildings. […]

Dunnet Head – the northernmost point of Scotland

Eventually you find yourself standing at the very end. And if you’re lucky, you get a view like the one at Dunnet Head – the northernmost point of Scotland. The cliffs plunge steeply down here into the roaring sea – Scotland could hardly end more dramatically, since Dunnet Head marks the northernmost point of the […]

Inveraray Castle – splendid castle of the Campbells

Right in the middle of the wild Highlands stands a magnificent castle: Inveraray Castle. It shows off the full wealth of Clan Campbell and the Dukes of Argyll. It’s absolutely stunning – but also just plain decadent: laid out on the dining table in Inveraray Castle’s dining room sits a model ship, exquisitely crafted from […]

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh – a wonderful world of plants

100,000 exotic plants, a Victorian glasshouse and a turbulent history – the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh offers a very special encounter with nature in Scotland’s capital. At some point in the year 1670, two scientists planted the first plant from another continent near Holyrood Abbey. Their names: Robert Sibbald and Andrew Balfour. They laid the […]

Jedburgh Abbey – beauty under constant siege

Jedburgh Abbey is one of four great abbey churches in the Scottish Borders. And like the other three, it’s a ruin – there’s a reason for that. No roof, no windows – it looks like the proud skeleton of a once-mighty body. And that’s exactly what Jedburgh Abbey once was: a magnificent abbey church. It […]

Culzean Castle – an architect’s second spring

A proud, grand castle on a high clifftop, surrounded by wonderful gardens – that’s Culzean Castle in the west of Scotland. Visitors here can expect something special. It was time for a new masterpiece! In recent years, fortune had stopped smiling on the famous architect Robert Adam. He had already worked on so many houses, […]

National Wallace Monument – a monument to Braveheart

It’s a monument to a hero that didn’t even show the hero at first. It’s a monument to a nation, but built as far from the people as possible. And it’s a long climb to the top. I visit the National Wallace Monument. At first everything here seems clear enough: William Wallace, known since the […]

Scone Palace – crowning place of the Scottish kings

Scone was regarded as the centre of the Scottish kingdom. Scone Palace and the Stone of Destiny still stand here today. But what’s the story behind them? Two men met in the year 906 AD on a hill near what is now the town of Perth in Scotland. One was King Constantine II of Scotland, […]

St Andrews Cathedral – spiritual heart of the Scottish soul

It was the spiritual centre of Scotland in the late Middle Ages: St Andrews Cathedral drew pilgrims from across Europe. Today it draws awestruck visitors instead. A few bones. That alone was enough to turn a spot on Scotland’s east coast into a place of pilgrimage. A clergyman brought these bones here in the 8th […]