In the summer, The Dundee Summer (Bash) Street Festival takes over the city as part of the Year of Stories. Dundee will be renamed BEANOTOWN and host a comic museum, film screenings, street performances and world-record attempts. A ferry from Wemyss Bay delivers you to the Art Deco seaside resort of Rothesay with its kitsch ice cream parlours, palm trees and promenade. Bute is a small island in the Firth of Clyde full of character and dotted with heather-clad moorlands, beaches, and coves. It has reinvented itself as a popular location for outdoor holidays, offering hiking, cycling, and fishing spots. At the heart of Scotland's first national park, the loch begins as a broad, island-peppered lake in the south, its shores clothed in bluebell-sprinkled woods, before narrowing in the north to a fjord-like trench ringed by mountains.

Not convinced? "You have to see it for yourself," says Smith. " There' s a lot of beautiful places in Scotland but Glen Fyne is really special. It's been home to our founders for six generations, we think we're one of the most beautifully situated breweries in the world, surrounded by these peat-rich hills, at the top of the longest sea loch in Scotland. The Kintyre Peninsula is home to a long stretch of deserted coastline, perfect for an escape from reality. Local tip: Shetland is one of the best places in the UK to spot orcas (and the Northern Lights). 13. Follow the River Spey on a Speyside whisky tour Best place for whisky tasting Travel:Travelling by car is the best way to see Aberfeldy in all its glory and is served by an extensive number of road networks across Scotland’s cities. You can use a combination of both train and bus by getting the train to Perth or Pitlochry. The town was the location for Tannochbrae in the original Doctor Findlay’s Casebook television series. It’s a short drive to Loch Katrine, the main fresh water supply for Glasgow. Scenic cruises of Loch Katrine leave from Trossach’s Pier where you can also hire bikes. The area is linked to folk tales about Rob Roy MacGregor and the Rob Roy Way, a long distance footpath that runs from Drymen to Pitlochry passes through the town.A picturesque sliver of a town that offers a warm welcome to visitors exploring the beautiful countryside of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. It sits at the meeting point between the Highlands and the Lowlands so is a convenient base for a weekend break venturing out to local attractions. From their first arrival in late spring to the raucous feeding frenzies of high summer, the vast colonies of gannets, guillemots, skua, puffins and kittiwakes at Hermaness, Noss, Sumburgh Head and Fair Isle provide some of Britain's most impressive birdwatching experiences.

Stay at The Foveran in Kirkwall for excellent food and views across Scapa Flow, or for an unforgettable experience, sleep in a yurt at Wheems Organic Farm on South Ronaldsay. Art and music permeate Orcadian life, and art galleries are dotted around the archipelago. For a real treat, catch the Orkney Folk Festival in May for four days of traditional music in Stromness and the surrounding area. Hoyis a unique part of the archipelago. It might remind you more of the north Highlands than the other Orkney isles, with tall cliffs, sandy bays and heathery hills all around.Dark and moody, Jura broods off the west coast of Scotland, reached by a summertime ferry from Tayvallich on the mainland, or year-round boats from nearby Islay. Amongst left-leaning folks and literature buffs, the island is best known as the spot where George Orwell came in 1948 to write the manuscript of 1984. Hill walking is a popular pastime on the island, and one glance can tell you why. “Just look at those jaggedy mountains!”, Billy Connolly exclaimed from the ferry when approaching Arran on his World Tour of Scotland. When you get closer you realise the landscape flows around a succession of hills – four of them qualify as Corbetts, peaks over 2500 feet but less than 3000 feet. Food & Drink:Seek shelter at The Brig & Barrel . You’ll be served with a warm and exceptional service with delicious hearty pub fare. The pub is dog-friendly too so make sure to bring your beloved pooch along. You will still find scrambly walks and ridges with impressive views. Goatfell is the highest peak on the island close to the waterfall on Glenrosa Water. Cir Mhor is the most recognisable of the cliffs in the north Arran hills. It sits above the Blue Pool, a popular wild swimming spot. Travel:Catch the train from Edinburgh Waverley to Galashiels/Tweedbank station. When you hop off the train, get the bus to Kelso from the main bus terminal.

Scotland's national drink is whisky – from the Gaelic uisge beatha, meaning “water of life” – and this fiery spirit has been distilled here for more than 500 years. More than 50 distilleries are in operation in Speyside, Scotland's most famous whisky area, famed for fruity, lightly spicy flavors (head over to Islay for peatier varieties).In the daytime visit Aberdeen Art Gallery, it has a wonderfully expansive collection, and the gallery's restoration and redevelopment scooped most of last year's top architecture prizes - come and see why. It’s not only the big islands that are covered. Wee isles like Easdale (which once supplied the world its slate) appears to maintain a precarious truce with the sea, judging from the epic drone picture by Iain Masterton.