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Issue 13, the walk to the cabin

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The roads less travelled that take you to places that matter. The adventures that gather you up and sweep you away. The blend of the wild and the artistic that makes Scotland what it is. We'd love for you to join us.

Live from ScotlandGlen Coe Clear in Lochaber, and the sun sets at 18:15.Watch Scotland live
  1. Loch levelsLoch MareeLoch Maree, in Wester Ross, is 41 centimetres higher than it usually is in October.
  2. WildlifeCaithnessA common seal was seen in Caithness on Thursday.
  3. NewsOrkneyThe Pickaquoy Centre in Kirkwall is due to open its new mountain bike trails at the end of October or the start of November.
  4. Just openedCaithnessCastletown Mill in Caithness, built in 1818, is a whisky distillery now.
  5. WildlifeCaithnessPink-footed geese were seen in Caithness on Thursday.
Hidden Scotland

The places worth the journey, and the help to get there.

Twice a year, in printMagazine What to see, do and eatPlaces Cottages, bothies and hotelsAccommodation Ready-made daysDays out Region by regionDestinations From £30 a yearJoin
Did you know

On the island of Barra, in the Outer Hebrides, scheduled passenger planes land on a beach, and the flight times move with the tide.

Barra Airport's three runways are marked out on the sand of Tràigh Mhòr, the beach known in English as the Cockle Strand, with wooden poles at each end. At high tide all three are under the sea, so the times of the flights to Glasgow change with the tide. Because the runways point three different ways, the little Twin Otter planes can almost always land into the wind. The first official service touched down on the sands in August 1936, and Barra is still the only scheduled beach runway in the world.

See Barra Airport · Outer Hebrides
Weather for itFor today's weatherArgyll and ButeThe Old InnCafeGlasgowThe Auldhouse Arms BarCafeEdinburghThe Tolbooth TavernRestaurantAberdeenshireThe Kilmarnock ArmsBarEdinburghSheep Heid InnRestaurantLothianChampany InnRestaurant

A pint by the fire.

Cold and wet enough out there. The pubs with a fire lit and good food.

See all the pubs
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 04Issue 04Spring / Summer 2022

Johanna Basford, an illustrator in Aberdeenshire, panicked when 13,000 copies of her colouring book for adults were printed, and it went on to sell millions.

In 2011 a publisher asked her for a colouring book for children, but she wanted something beautiful and elegant, so she pitched one for adults. Adult colouring books were not yet a category, and the publishers were hesitant. When she heard 13,000 copies had been printed, she feared she might be asked to give back the advance she had already spent. 'I panicked and immediately called my mum, begging her and her friends to buy multiple copies,' she says. She needn't have worried. Secret Garden sold out within a few months, went on to sell millions worldwide, sparked a global trend and even caused shortages of colouring pencils.

Read the full story in Issue 04
WildlifeThis weekSeen 12 timesPink-footed gooseSeen 11 timesWhooper swanSeen 8 timesGrey sealSeen 8 times · ForsinardRed deerSeen 5 timesGannetSeen 5 timesCommon sealSeen 4 timesWhite-tailed eagleSeen 4 timesPine martenSeen 4 timesRed squirrelSeen 3 timesBarnacle gooseSeen 3 timesDipperSeen 3 timesOtterSeen oncePtarmiganSeen once · AngusRed kiteSeen once · Perthshire and KinrossBeaverSeen once · Endrick WaterAtlantic salmonSeen onceBadgerSeen onceRed grouse

The wildlife people spotted in Scotland this week.

Pink-footed geese arrive from Iceland and Greenland in their tens of thousands each autumn, and this week they were the animal reported most often in Scotland: 12 sightings. These are the animals people have reported most in the last seven days, the most seen first. Every sighting is logged with a photograph or a recording on iNaturalist, the wildlife recording site, and each card opens them on its map.

Where to see wildlife in Scotland
Did you know

Skara Brae, a stone village on the Bay of Skaill in Orkney, was a thriving community before Stonehenge or the Egyptian pyramids were built.

People lived in the village from roughly 3180 BC to about 2500 BC. That is earlier than the Great Pyramid, built around 2560 BC, and earlier than the main building at Stonehenge, begun around 3000 BC. Once its people had gone, the village was lost from sight until a storm uncovered it in 1850. The houses still have their stone dressers and box-beds, and Historic Environment Scotland calls it the best-preserved Neolithic, or New Stone Age, settlement in Western Europe. Today you can walk among ten of its buildings and four of its passageways, five thousand years after they were built.

See Skara Brae · Orkney
LochsToday

Loch Maree, in Wester Ross, is 41 centimetres higher than it usually is in October.

That is about 16 inches, against the loch's own average for the month over many years. It is on its way down. A gauge on the loch, kept by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, reads the level every quarter of an hour.

See Loch Maree
Did you know

Scotland's national animal is the unicorn, and on the old Scottish royal arms two crowned unicorns hold up the shield, bound in golden chains.

The oldest surviving version of the arms with unicorns is a weather-worn carving above the gateway of Rothesay Castle, on the Isle of Bute, made no later than the reign of Robert III, which ended in 1406. In about 1484 James III went further and issued gold coins called the unicorn and the half-unicorn. The chain is usually read as a sign of royal strength: the unicorn was thought too wild for anyone to tame, and only a Scottish king was strong enough to hold it. You can still spot unicorns across the country, from the top of the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh to the gate of the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

WeatherThis week

Tyndrum has had 76 millimetres of rain in the last seven days.

That is the most of any town we keep an eye on. Aberdeen has had 6 in the same week. It is why the west has the waterfalls and the east has the barley.

Watch Scotland live
Did you know

Loch Ness, in the Highlands near Inverness, holds more water than all the lakes of England and Wales put together.

Loch Ness isn't the biggest loch in Scotland by area: that is Loch Lomond, at 71 square kilometres. What Loch Ness has is depth. It runs for about 37 kilometres and reaches around 230 metres at its deepest, so it holds 7,452 million cubic metres of water, more than any other loch in Scotland. The water is murky too, because of the peat in the soil around it. And for all that depth, it is not the deepest loch in the country: that is Loch Morar, further west, at 310 metres.

See Loch Ness · Inverness-shire
Loch Morlich1 hour ago

This is Loch Morlich in autumn.

The highest beach in Britain, golden sand on a loch of the Glenmore pinewoods, with watersports and the Cairngorms beyond.

Read about Loch Morlich
From the magazineThe printed copy of Issue 11Issue 11Autumn / Winter 2025–26

Clare Coghill, who runs Café Cùil by Carbost on the Isle of Skye, sends her team out foraging every week, and her favourite autumn dish is chanterelles.

The café's menu follows the island's seasons, and each week the team gathers gorse flowers, wild garlic, meadowsweet or wild mushrooms. In autumn and winter Clare's favourite dish to cook is chanterelles with miso butter and hazelnut pesto. 'The mushrooms have an earthy flavour like no other, and can only be hand-foraged, which makes them extra special'. Her recipes are now in a book, the Café Cùil Cookbook: Recipes from the Isle of Skye, and the café is minutes from the Fairy Pools, the Cuillin mountains and Talisker Distillery. Back home on Skye, she says the community is very supportive of young people moving home to start businesses.

See Café Cùil · Isle of Skye
From the JournalThe journal1 hour agoSpeysideSpirit of Speyside Whisky Festival 2027EventMorayshireCardhu DistilleryAttractionMorayshireFindhornAttraction

Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival

The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival opens distilleries that are usually closed to visitors. The six-day programme runs from fireside tastings to barrel-making classes.

Read the story