Place of interest Archive

Dunfermline Abbey – a visit to Scotland’s kings

Dunfermline, near Edinburgh, was a centre of the Scottish kings in the Middle Ages – in life as in death. Today the abbey reveals to us a unique piece of medieval architecture. Today Dunfermline is a suburb of the Scottish capital, Edinburgh – some 20 kilometres separate the two. But once its abbey was an […]

Silver Sands of Morar – a deep loch and a silver beach

Fittingly, one of the most beautiful beaches in the Highlands lies right along the scenic Road to the Isles: the Silver Sands of Morar. Morar is a beach, a village and a loch. The village of Morar lies between Loch Morar, whose river, the Morar, forms the bay where the Silver Sands have gathered. Two […]

The Hill House – the architect’s dream

There’s no other house quite like it! The Hill House in Helensburgh is unique, not only in Scotland. And it showcases the style of one of Glasgow’s most important sons. The Hill House was designed by the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. For his client, he was allowed to design not just the house itself, but […]

Queen’s View near Pitlochry – a royal outlook

What a view! From the Queen’s View viewpoint you look out over Loch Tummel as it winds away through woods and hills into the distance. But why is the platform called the “Queen’s View”? Queen Victoria arrived at the Queen’s View viewpoint dressed entirely in black. Since the death of her husband five years earlier, […]

Braemar Castle – from Watchtower to Luxury Castle

In the middle of the Cairngorm mountains stands Braemar Castle. Small as it is, one of the most important uprisings in the Highlands set out from here. It certainly isn’t large. And yet it looks defensible with its star-shaped wall, its gun loops and its battlemented turrets. Braemar Castle sits in a valley of the […]

Bealach na Bà

The mountain pass of Bealach na Bà connects the Applecross peninsula with Lochcarron. It’s one of Scotland’s most beautiful, yet also most demanding, routes. The tarmac is already crumbling badly at the edges, cracks run across the road surface here and there, and in places there are even round, dark holes. And this is what […]

Inverlochy Castle – the old guardian of the Great Glen

Four walls, four towers, a ruin – Inverlochy Castle doesn’t look like much. But that’s exactly what makes it so worth seeing. Sounds odd, but it’s true. Its location was surely no accident: sitting on the River Lochy, Inverlochy Castle guards the crossing point between Loch Linnhe, the sea loch cutting deep inland, and the […]

Blackness Castle – a castle shaped like a ship

Blackness Castle’s shape is reminiscent of a sailing ship. Here’s why. The castle, incidentally, became famous through the TV series “Outlander”. A ship that never sailed the sea – a place that’s supposedly located somewhere else entirely. Blackness Castle has to put up with plenty of comparisons. And yet its history and architecture alone would […]

Corryvreckan – a boat trip into the world’s third-largest whirlpool

Between the islands of Scarba and Jura off the west coast of Scotland, ocean currents collide violently. Together they form the third-largest whirlpool in the world. And our boat sails right into the middle of it. It’s a place sailors avoided and feared for centuries. The British Navy marked this strait as impassable for generations: […]

Eilean na Mòine in Loch Eilt – the island with Dumbledore’s grave

A small island in Loch Eilt with trees on it. Thanks to the film “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, it achieved worldwide fame. Here’s what it really looks like. It’s a sad scene in the Harry Potter films: Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore is carried to his grave by the giant Hagrid. Fire envelops the […]