Travel Guide

Places To See

Glasgow Cathedral

Glasgow Cathedral, a shining example of pre-Reformation Gothic architecture, is the only mainland Scottish cathedral to have survived the Reformation. Most of the current building dates from the 15th century, and only the western towers were destroyed in the turmoil. This has been hallowed ground for over 1500 years.

The site was blessed for Christian burial in 397 by St Ninian. In the following century Kentigern, also known as Saint Mungo, accompanied the body of a holy man from Stirlingshire to be buried here. He stayed to found a monastic community, and built a simple church. The first building was consecrated in 1136, in the presence of King David I, but it burned down in 1197 and was rebuilt as the lower church.

The entry is through a side door into the nave, which is hung with regimental colours. The wooden roof above has been restored many times since its original construction but some of the timber dates from the 14th century. The cathedral is divided by the late 15th-century stone choir screen, decorated with seven pairs of figures to represent the Seven Deadly Sins. The most interesting part of the cathedral, the lower church, is reached by a stairway. Its forest of pillars creates a powerful atmosphere around Saint Mungo's tomb, the focus of a famous medieval pilgrimage that was believed to be as meritorious as a visit to Rome. Edward I paid three visits to the shrine in 1301.

Ring of Brodgar

Close to Skara Brae stands the Ring of Brodgar, a wide circle of standing stones raised skyward some 4500 years ago. Tweny-two of the original 60 stones are still standing among the heather, and some of them are more than 5m (16ft) tall. These mysterious and curiously shaped giants fire the imagination - what were they for?

These old stones still attract elemental forces - on 5 June 1980, one of the stones was split in two by a bolt of lightning. It's a powerful place, with two lochs standing still and serene on either side. Legend has it that the stones are the petrified bodies of giants who danced here too long one night and were turned to stone by the setting sun.

Staffa Island

Owned by the National Trust for Scotland, uninhabited Staffa Island is one of Scotland's - and perhaps the world's - truly awesome natural phenomenons. Immense hexagonal basalt pillars loom out of the sea to form a series of cathedralesque caverns, the most notable of which is the stunning Fingal's Cave, which pushes up out of the sea like a grand pipe organ.

When composer Felix Mendelssohn visited the cave, the sound of waves crashing inside made such an impact on him that he composed his Hebridean Overture. This led to a series of other visitors - Turner who painted it, Wordsworth who eulogised it, and Queen Victoria, who brought the masses in her wake.

You can land on the island and walk into the cave via a causeway if the sea is calm, but if it's rough, the journey is still worth making - and some of the caves, such as Boat Cave, can't be reached on foot. Staffa also has a sizable puffin colony, north of the landing place.

Museum of Edinburgh

Built in 1570, Huntly House is home to the Museum of Edinburgh, which covers the city's history from prehistory to the present. Exhibits of national importance include an original copy of the National Covenant of 1638, but the big crowd-pleaser is the dog collar and feeding bowl that once belonged to Greyfriars Bobby, the city's most famous canine citizen.

Loch Ness

Loch Ness is Britain's largest body of fresh water, holding more water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined. Its rugged hills climb steeply from the loch's dark, bitterly cold 330m-deep waters. However, most visitors here are interested in one thing: Nessie-spotting. See if you can see the famous long-necked beastie for yourself.

The A82 running along the western side of the loch is choked with buses and hire-car traffic in summer, while on the southeastern shore the more tranquil, picturesque B862 is quiet (and agonisingly slow) year-round. A complete circuit of the loch covers about 113km (70mi) - travel anticlockwise for the best views.

Events

The highlight of Scotland's calendar is the Edinburgh Festival, held every August. This is one of the world's premier arts festivals, and its Fringe claims to be the largest in the world, with over 500 performers pushing the boundaries every year. The city's Military Tattoo is held in the same month, as is the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh Book Festival and Glasgow's World Pipe Band Championships.

September's Braemar Gathering is attended by the queen in Braemar, with other games held all over the country. All Scotland hits the streets for Hogmanay, the Scottish celebration of New Year, a riotous party indeeed. For some truly unruly rugby, try the Ba' in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands, which has been held Christmas Day and New Year's Day for centuries. It consists of two teams and some 400 alcohol-fuelled players, who turn the entire town into a giant rugby pitch for the day. The game starts at the cathedral and the harbour is one of the goals. Up in the Shetland Islands, the Up-Helly-Aa festival celebrates the islands' Viking heritage by burning a replica Viking longship in a dazzling spectacle; it's held on the last Tuesday in January.

Pre-Departure Information

When to go?

The main tourist period is April to September, and the height of the season is during the school holidays in July and August when accommodation, be it campsites, B&Bs or luxury hotels, is at a premium. Edinburgh in particular becomes impossibly crowded during the festival period in August, so book well ahead.

Statistically, your best chances of fine weather are in May, June and September; July and August are usually warm, but may be wet too. In summer, daylight hours are long; the midsummer sun sets around 23:00 in the Shetland Islands and even Edinburgh evenings seem to last forever in June and July. Conversely, in December the sun doesn't show its face for very long at all.

Travel Visa Overview

Citizens of the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa do not need a visa for stays in the UK up to 6 months, but they are prohibited from working. Citizens of the European Union (EU) don't need a visa to enter the country and may live and work here freely.

Most Commonwealth citizens aged under 31 are eligible for a Working Holidaymaker Visa. It's valid for two years, you can work for a total of 12 months, and it must be obtained in advance.

Electricity

240V

50Hz

Electrical Plugs

British-style plug with two flat blades and one flat grounding blade

Weather Information

'Varied' describes Scotland's climate perfectly. There are wide variations in climate over small distances, and a sunny day will often as not be followed by a rainy one. Although the country nudges the Arctic Circle, the Gulf Stream winds keep the temperature mild (well, relatively mild). The Highlands, however, can have extreme weather at any time. The east coast tends to be cool and dry, with winter temperatures rarely dropping below freezing (but watch out for the bone-chilling winds off the North Sea). The west coast is milder and wetter, with average summer highs of 19°C (66°F). May and June are the driest months; July and August the warmest. In the north the summer sun barely sets; the winter sun barely rises.

History and Culture

Culture

Scottish culture is a thriving beast, with a depth of hearty tradition and a solid footing on the world stage of literature and performing arts. Scotland has made its presence felt through its amazing festivals, actors and writers; James Kelman, Iain Banks and Irvine Welsh have made a heavy impact on the international literary scene and the prestigious Edinburgh Festival is a hotspot on international arts calendars.

Pre-20th Centure History

Scotland was first populated by hunter-gatherers who arrived from England, Ireland and Europe around 6000 years ago. They brought the Neolithic Age with them, introducing agriculture, stockbreeding, trade, an organised society and a thriving culture. The remains of elaborate passage tombs, stone monuments and domestic architecture, such as those found on the Orkneys, reveal that this was indeed a vigorous civilisation. Later arrivals included Europe's Beaker people, who introduced bronze and weapons, while the Celts brought iron. The Romans were unable to subdue the region's fierce inhabitants, their failure symbolised by the construction of Hadrian's Wall. Christianity arrived in the guise of St Ninian, who established a religious centre in 397. Later, St Columba founded a centre on Iona in 563, still a place of pilgrimage and retreat today.

Around the 7th century, Scotland's population comprised a constantly warring mix of matrilineal Picts and Gaelic-speaking Scots in the north, Norse invaders in the island territories, and Britons and Anglo-Saxons in the Lowlands. By the 9th century, the Scots had gained ascendancy over the Picts, whose only visible legacy today is the scattering of symbol stones found in many parts of eastern Scotland. In the south, Anglo-Norman feudalism was slowly introduced, and by the early 13th century an English commentator, Walter of Coventry, could remark that the Scottish court was 'French in race and manner of life, in speech and in culture.' Despite some bloody reactions, the Lowlanders' tribal-based society melded well with feudalism, creating enormously powerful family-based clans.

The Highlanders, however, were another matter entirely. In 1297 William Wallace's forces thrashed the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, but after a few more skirmishes Wallace was betrayed and finally executed by the English in London in 1305. He's still remembered as the epitome of patriotism and a great hero of the resistance movement.

Robert the Bruce threw a punch for Scottish independence next, when, a year after Wallace came to his very sticky end, he murdered a rival and had himself crowned King of Scotland. In the same year, he faced off the English, but they defeated his forces at Methven and Dalry. He had to wait until 1314, when at the Battle of Bannockburn he finally defeated the English. This was a turning point in Scotland's fight for independence. A distinct barrier developed between Highlander and Lowlander, marked symbolically by the Highland Boundary Fault. Highlanders were regarded as Gaelic-speaking pillagers by the Lowlanders, who spoke Lallans and led a less rigorous and more urban existence.

In the 16th century, Scottish royal lineage was blurred by opposing matrilineal and patrilineal lines of descent and the jockeying of English and French interests. Fierce resistance to the English and persistent monarchic squabbles led to a virtual civil war, and very few monarchs managed to die a natural death. The 17th century was also coloured by civil war, spurred by the thorny issue of the religious Reformation. Despite all the anti-English sentiment, the Act of Union of 1707 saw the Scots persuaded - by means both fair and foul - to disband parliament, in exchange for preservation of the Scottish church and legal system.

Famous attempts were made to replace the Hanoverian kings of England with Catholic Stuarts, although the Jacobite cause lacked support outside of the Highlands due to the Lowland suspicion of Catholicism. James Edward Stuart, known as the Old Pretender and son of the exiled English king James VII, made several attempts to regain the throne, but fled to France in 1719. In 1745, his son, known as Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Young Pretender, landed in Scotland to claim the crown for his father. His disastrous defeat in 1746 at Culloden caused the government to ban private armies, the wearing of kilts and the playing of the pipes. Coinciding with the inexorable changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution, the bans caused the disappearance of a whole way of life and the quelling of the Highlanders.

In the south, the Industrial Revolution brought flourishing towns and expanding populations, the creation of industries such as cotton and shipbuilding, and booming trade. The spread of urban life coincided with an intellectual flowering, the Scottish Enlightenment, as people fed the energy they'd previously spent on religious issues into their leisure and money-making activities. Literature in particular blossomed. Life for the privileged became increasingly bourgeois, while the poor got poorer, suffering typhoid epidemics and other side-effects of their overcrowded tenement life. Cities grew even bigger following one of the bleakest events in the north's already grim history: the Highland Clearances that began in the late 1700s and continued for more than a century. Overpopulation, the potato famine and the collapse of the kelp industry caused landlords to force or trick people from the land. Waves of Scots emigrated to North America, New Zealand and Australia, taking with them their reputation for thrift and hard work. The few who remained on the land were pushed onto tiny plots called crofts.

Modern History

Industrial prosperity lasted through WWI, but the world depression of the 1930s struck a mortal blow. Aberdeen was the only city to show marked prosperity in the 20th century, thanks to North Sea oil and gas discoveries in the 1970s. Continuing economic hardship, rampant unemployment, the depopulation of rural areas and lower standards of health and housing than those experienced in England have all led to a loss of confidence. However, dreams of seceding from the Union with England are stronger than they've been for many years.

Strongly Labour, Scotland smarted through the 1980s and 90s under Britain's Conservative-led government, which showed scant regard for Scotland's desire for self-rule. The decisive Labour victory in the 1997 general election resulted in the loss of all Conservative seats in Scotland and the birth of a Scottish Parliament, which first convened in 1999.

Recent History

A new parliament building was constructed at Holyrood in Edinburgh, and opened in November 2003. In 2007 the Scottish National Party won power in Scotland's third election; part of its election manifesto was a commitment to holding a public referendum on the issue of independence from England. This referendum is scheduled for November 2010.