Scotland Travel Guides: Places to Visit & Things to Do

Scotland looks like someone took mountains, castles, lochs, ruined abbeys and several centuries of violent history, turned the saturation down slightly and added rain for atmosphere.

And holy shit, does it work.

Edinburgh immediately sets expectations unreasonably high. There’s an enormous castle sitting on volcanic rock above the city because apparently putting it somewhere normal wasn’t dramatic enough. Below it, medieval streets twist through the Old Town while pubs provide convenient shelter from whatever weather condition arrived eleven minutes ago.

Then head north.

The Scottish Highlands are where Scotland stops pretending to be subtle. Mountains, empty valleys, waterfalls and lochs stretch across landscapes that look specifically designed for movies involving swords, questionable monarchs and people dramatically staring into the distance.

Driving through it is spectacular.

Driving through it on a narrow single-track road while a sheep stands directly in your lane reconsidering its life choices is slightly less efficient.

Then there’s the weather.

Scotland doesn’t really have weather forecasts. It has weather suggestions. Sunshine can become rain, wind, fog and then sunshine again before you’ve successfully zipped your jacket.

Bring the fucking jacket.

Scotland can also be remote, and distances take longer than expected once the roads become narrow and every viewpoint convinces you to stop the car.

But that’s exactly why it works.

Scotland is rugged, historic, moody and ridiculously photogenic.

Come for Edinburgh.

Keep driving into the Highlands.

Because somewhere between the castles, whisky, mountains and horizontal rain, Scotland stops feeling like somewhere you’re visiting and starts feeling like the fucking weather itself is telling the story.