My passionate love affair with Scotland’s largest island
On the surface, little appears to have changed in the 30 years that bestselling author Peter May has been visiting the Isle of Lewis. But tourism has had a big impact – from Sunday opening hours to a deep water port for cruise ships
July 2024
‘Walking away from the world in Scotland’: an easier way to plan long Highlands hikes
A new website aims to give people more confidence on multi-day, self-guided hikes, and sees our writer – who’d previously had to abandon a wild camping trip in the area – return in triumph
June 2024
‘The merry fellowship of bothies’: hiking in the Scottish Highlands
A hike between bothies – one old, one new – in the Cairngorms fosters a sense of community among strangers sheltering in the Highland wilderness
May 2024
Walking the ‘outdoor capital of Scotland’: 25 years of the Cateran Trail
Country diary
Country diary: Life in slow motion reveals so much more
April 2024
We revel in the remoteness: wild camping and hiking in the Scottish Highlands
A five-day mindful adventure on the Knoydart peninsula – one of the last great wildernesses in the UK – offers the chance to fully unwind and leap into the unknown
February 2024
More than a Highland fling: making wedding rings on a romantic Scottish holiday
A beautifully decorated bothy amid ancient pinewoods in the Caledonian Forest is the setting for a relaxing creative break
January 2024
On the whisky trail: a weekend of wee drams in Moray Speyside, Scotland
The region between the Cairngorms and the Moray Firth is rightly famous for its whisky, but that is just one of its many charms
The couple who bought a crumbling Scottish villa – by accident – and turned it into a holiday let
Cal Hunter and Claire Segeren spent four years, and acquired 300,000 Instagram followers, doing up a dilapidated house in Dunoon. Now it’s open to holidaymakers, you can see the results for yourself
August 2023
‘My milkman saw her once’: Loch Ness sees biggest monster hunt in 50 years
Armed with drones, cameras, notepads and binoculars, hundreds of volunteers have arrived in the Scottish Highlands while others watch online from as far away as Japan
July 2023
An ‘AstroTurf front’ for developers? Row over plans to build an eco golf course on a Scottish heritage site
Some say a fairway on Coul Links would destroy a rare wilderness, but others argue it would restore a degraded habitat and revive the economy
May 2023
‘I sat with my lairdly cup of tea’: how a derelict Scottish tower was turned into a Landmark Trust retreat
Natural lines of Succession: six luxury retreats in the UK
December 2022
‘A land of fairy pools and exquisite light’: escape to the wilds of Skye
The pub walk
A lochside walk to a pub with live music: the Old Mill Inn, Pitlochry, Scotland
November 2022
The pub walk
Through a Highlands Narnia to a great pub: the Taybank, Dunkeld
An appetite-inducing seven-mile hike through the woods of the Atholl Estates returns you to the village of Dunkeld, and its renowned, musical local
October 2022
Skiing in Scotland: ‘On a good day it’s up there with anywhere in the world’
With five resorts all a two-hour drive from Aviemore, the Highlands glitter with the promise of ski adventures – and whisky
August 2022
The pub walk
A two-day Highlands walk to Britain’s most remote pub: the Old Forge, Knoydart
A challenging, awe-inspiring hike in north-west Scotland crosses wild terrain to a community pub like nowhere else
