Where Not To Go in Scotland

Or Try Here Instead

When Americans “do Scotland” they mostly take this one tour. Fly to Edinburg [sic] drive to Glen Coe and finally explore the remote Isle of Skye with thousands of their countrymen. That’s the basic skeleton with side-quests for tartan and shortbread. The benefit for the traveller is it does actually pack a serious punch and is a representational transect of the land and its history. The benefit for everyone else is the number of tourists falls off a crag when you go anywhere else because we have funnelled the hordes to a few tiny and chaotic trunk roads.

Off the beaten track, near Portree, Skye.

Friends often asked where to go so here is a start. I have led a few bespoke tours but also followed tours commissioned for articles in the likes of the New York Times, Geo France and Frommer’s guides. The best journey is always threaded together by an overarching story but there are certain locations that are rich, multi-story landscapes. The kind of places I return to again and again, that are amazing whatever the weather. The kinds of places I am weaving for my Fabricated Land series.

I don’t have enough influence to destroy them by telling you so please plan to go here before you die.