Gillian Alexandra: Bonnie Scotland - Places You Need To Visit

I read recently that Scotland has been voted the “Most Beautiful Country in the World” by readers of “Rough Guide” and if I'm honest, I completely agree, so here are a few of my favourite places to visit and things to do.

Dundee (The City of Discovery)

Ok so I’m kind of biased because it’s where I live, but I genuinely think Dundee is quite beautiful. Obviously it has its “not-so-great” areas (what city doesn’t?) but it is definitely on the up with the new V&A museum and the brand new waterfront area. There’s also the Law (which used to be a volcano) where there is a really nice walk and it gives you amazing views of the whole city, and over the River Tay to Fife! Dundee has a lot of history as well, and is famous for the three Js – Jute, Jam and Journalism. Jute because the Jute mills were the main source of employment in the 19^th century, Jam because of the worldwide export of Keillors marmalade, and Journalism because of the headquarters of DC Thomson, the publishers which were founded in the city in 1905. Read more about Dundee’s history here. If you love animals (as I do), you have to visit Camperdown Wildlife Centre! We live just ten minutes away and visit a few times a year. With it only being £5.50 for an adult, it’s great value for a day out!

View from the Law Hill - The River Tay, the Tay Rail Bridge and Fife

The "Swannie Ponds", Dundee

Broughty Ferry

Just a couple of miles outside of Dundee lies the little town of Broughty Ferry. It’s such a lovely little place, especially in the summer, and it has a gorgeous beach and esplanade. The sunsets you can see from “the Ferry” (see below) are incredible! There’s nothing like having a drive into the Ferry on a sunny Sunday afternoon and walking along the beach with an ice cream from Visocchis! Unfortunately a lot of other people feel the same because the queue for Visocchis is usually out the door and half way down the street! Be sure to visit Broughty Castle Museum too, entry is free and it has lots of interesting historic displays.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is one of my most favourite cities in the world, simply because of its rich history and impressive architecture, especially in the Old Town. You could never be bored in Edinburgh because there is just so much to do! Edinburgh Castle is a must-see, it’s so impressive and there’s SO much history behind it. It’s only £17 for an adult as well so it's amazing value. There’s also the 200ft tall Scott Monument (dedicated to Sir Walter Scott) which is £5 per person and gives you incredible views of the city. If you like a bit of grisly history, you will LOVE Edinburgh Dungeons! (As it is a Merlin attraction though, be prepared for the obligatory photo at the entrance! 😣)

The Scott Monument

West Highland Line

If you’re a fan of Harry Potter, a fun thing to do is to take the train over the Glenfinnan Viaduct (as seen in HP and the Chamber of Secrets when Ron and Harry are in the Ford Anglia). You can take the actual Jacobite steam train or just an ordinary Scotrail train (we did the latter). We left from Glasgow in the morning (the Jacobite leaves from Fort William), and made our way to Mallaig, and the views from the train were absolutely stunning. It was January when we did it so it was very wintry and it just made it even more magical. We stopped in Mallaig for a couple of hours for lunch and a wander and then it was back on the train to Glasgow. It took most of the day and we were on the train for the majority of it but we weren’t bored because we got to see the wildlife and changing landscapes (until it got dark!)

These photos were taken from a moving train so apologies about the quality!

The Outer Hebrides

A couple of years ago Shaun surprised me with a mystery trip. He just told me to pack a case and wouldn’t tell me where we were going. We stopped off at our friends’ house under the pretence that he needed to speak to them about something, turned out we were borrowing their convertible for the weekend! We drove and drove, I was getting more excited by the minute, and then we got to Skye and I thought we were there…nope! We turned round a big bend and Shaun said “oh no, we’ve run out of road, what will we do now? We’ll just have to go on that ferry”! So we got the ferry over to a place called Lochmaddy which is a lovely wee village on North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. He then took me to a lovely B&B (hello Marion, Angus and Cara 🐕!) for the weekend and we got to explore the islands. It was fantastic! Although there’s not much to do, there’s still plenty to see. The beaches are stunning and even though the weather wasn’t that great we still had an absolutely fantastic time. We loved it so much we went back again the next year to the same B&B!

A beach in Sollas, North Uist

Uist traffic!

Eriskay Beach

The second time, we stayed in Skye for a night and visited the Dinosaur Museum in the morning before heading over to Uist. We tried to find the dinosaur footprints on Staffin beach but unfortunately the tide was too far in 😞 The beaches on Skye are just as stunning as the Outer Hebrides, we are so lucky to have such wonderful scenery in our country 😊