Outer Hebrides
Luskentyre is one of the biggest and most beautiful beaches in Scotland, famed for its acres of low-tide white sands and turquoise waters. A minor road…
Must-see attractions in Northern Highlands & Islands
Trotternish
Staffin Bay is dominated by the dramatic basalt escarpment of the Quiraing: its impressive land-slipped cliffs and pinnacles constitute one of Skye’s most…
North & West Coast
As you head south from Durness, heather gradually gives way to a rockier landscape of Lewisian gneiss pockmarked with hundreds of small lochans. This is…
North & West Coast
South of Cape Wrath, Sandwood Bay boasts one of Scotland’s best and most isolated beaches, guarded at one end by the spectacular rock pinnacle Am…
Outer Hebrides
One of Scotland’s most evocative historic buildings, the Arnol Blackhouse is not so much a museum as a perfectly preserved fragment of a lost world. Built…
North & West Coast
Photogenically sited at the entrance to Loch Duich, Eilean Donan is one of Scotland’s most evocative castles and must now be represented in millions of…
Outer Hebrides
The Callanish Standing Stones, 15 miles west of Stornoway on the A858 road, form one of the most complete stone circles in Britain. It is one of the most…
Skye
Skye’s most famous historic building, and one of its most popular tourist attractions, Dunvegan Castle is the seat of the chief of Clan MacLeod. In…
Outer Hebrides
The Butt of Lewis – the extreme northern tip of the Hebrides – is windswept and rugged, with a very imposing lighthouse, pounding surf and large colonies…
Outer Hebrides
The Baronial mansion across the harbour from Stornoway town centre was built in the 1840s for the Matheson family, then owners of Lewis; it was gifted to…
Forsinard Flows Visitor Centre
North & West Coast
On the platform at Forsinard railway station is the RSPB's Forsinard Flows Visitor Centre, an exhibition dedicated to the neighbouring nature reserve…
Skye
The community-run visitor centre serves as a base for tours of Eilean Ban – the island used as a stepping stone by the Skye Bridge – where Gavin Maxwell …
Outer Hebrides
Castlebay takes its name from the island fortress of Kisimul Castle, first built by the MacNeil clan in the 11th century. A short boat trip (weather…
Outer Hebrides
The 'Museum of the Isles' opened in 2017, occupying a modern extension built onto the side of Lews Castle. Artefacts, photos and videos celebrate the…
Skye
Just along the road from Armadale pier is the part-ruined Armadale Castle, former seat of Lord MacDonald of Sleat. The neighbouring museum will tell you…
Outer Hebrides
At the southernmost tip of the east coast of Harris stands the impressive 16th-century St Clement’s Church, built by Alexander MacLeod of Dunvegan between…
Outer Hebrides
In 1996 archaeologists excavated an entire Iron Age village at the head of Bosta beach. Afterwards, the village was reburied for protection, but a…
North & West Coast
Housed in an old church, this museum tells the sad story of the Strathnaver Clearances through posters created by local kids. The museum contains…
Outer Hebrides
Six miles north of Lochboisdale, Kildonan Museum explores the lives of local crofters through its collection of artefacts, an absorbing exhibition of B&W…
Skye
Just east of Elgol is the Spar Cave, famously visited by Sir Walter Scott in 1814 and mentioned in his poem 'Lord of the Isles'. The 80m-deep cave is wild…
North & West Coast
A few miles north of Scourie Bay lies this nature reserve run by the Scottish Wildlife Trust. The island's western sea cliffs provide nesting sites for…
Outer Hebrides
Dun Carloway is a 2000-year-old, dry-stone broch, perched defiantly above a beautiful loch with views to the mountains of North Harris. The site is…
Outer Hebrides
This distillery started production in 2015, so its first batch of single malt whisky will be ready in 2019; meanwhile, it's producing Isle of Harris gin,…
Trotternish
The peat-reek of crofting life in the 18th and 19th centuries is preserved in the thatched cottages, croft houses, barns and farm implements of the Skye…
Outer Hebrides
This vast expanse of firm golden sand (the name means ‘Big Strand’) serves as Barra’s airport (a mile across at low tide, and big enough for three …
Trotternish
The 50m-high, pot-bellied pinnacle of crumbling basalt known as the Old Man of Storr is prominent above the road 6 miles north of Portree. Walk up to its…
Portree (Port Righ)
On the southern edge of Portree, the Aros Centre is a combined visitor centre, book and gift shop, restaurant, theatre and cinema. The St Kilda Exhibition…
North & West Coast
Five miles southeast of Kylesku, in wild, remote country, lies 213m-high Eas a’Chual Aluinn, Britain’s highest waterfall. You can hike to the top of the…
North & West Coast
A mile east of the centre of Durness is a path down to Smoo Cave. From the vast main chamber, you can head through to a smaller flooded cavern where a…
Outer Hebrides
Birdwatchers flock to this Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) nature reserve, 18 miles west of Lochmaddy, in the hope of spotting the rare…
Outer Hebrides
The Campbell family has been making Harris tweed for 90 years, and this exhibition (behind the family shop) celebrates the history of the fabric known in…
Outer Hebrides
A waymarked path from a car park off the A867, 6 miles southwest of Lochmaddy, leads to the chambered Neolithic burial tomb of Bharpa Langass and the…
Ullapool
Housed in a converted Telford church, this museum relates the prehistoric, natural and social history of the town and Lochbroom area, with a particular…
Outer Hebrides
Taigh Chearsabhagh is a museum and arts centre that preserves and displays the history and culture of the Uists, and is also a thriving community centre,…
Outer Hebrides
This visitor centre near the Callanish Standing Stones is a tour de force of discreet design. Inside is a small exhibition that speculates on the origins…
Outer Hebrides
The modern, purpose-built An Lanntair (Gaelic for 'lighthouse'), complete with art gallery, theatre, cinema and restaurant, is the centre of the town’s…
Skye
From the end of the minor road beyond Dunvegan Castle entrance, an easy 1-mile walk leads to the Coral Beaches – a pair of blindingly white beaches…
Outer Hebrides
On a sunny day, it’s worth making the long detour to Great Bernera's northern tip for a picnic at the perfect little sandy beach of Bosta. As an…
Outer Hebrides
From the westernmost point of the road that runs around North Uist, a minor, drivable track leads for 1.5 miles to the summit of Clettraval hill where a…
Trotternish
In an old stone barn by the roadside, this museum houses an interesting collection of dinosaur footprints, ammonites and other fossils discovered in the…
