PERTH

 Once the capital of medieval Scotland, Perth has a rich heritage that is reflected in many of its buildings. It was in the Church of St John, founded in 1126, that the preacher John Knox delivered the fiery sermons that led to the destruction of many local monasteries. The Victorianized Fair Maid’s House (c.1600), on North Port, is one of the oldest houses in town and was the fictional home of the heroine of Sir Walter Scott’s The Fair Maid of Perth (1828).

 

Scone Palace, East Front: Historic Home of the Earls of Mansfield

  

Three km north of Perth, the Gothic Scone Palace stands on the site of an abbey destroyed by John Knox’s followers in 1559. It is one of Scotland's grandest stately homes. Between the 9th and 13th centuries, Scone guarded the sacred Stone of Destiny, now in Edinburgh Castle, on which the Scottish kings were crowned. It has magnificent collections of porcelain, furniture, ivories, 18th-century clocks and 16th-century needlework, as well as a playground and fine gardens to explore.

 

Received from Roman

ELGIN

 Elgin is the largest town in the district of Moray, a commercial and administrative center serving the whisky country around the Spey River, and the personnel of the nearby air bases. It has been rebuilt many times over the centuries. However, its original central street, now filled with a large church (the "muckle kirk"), as well as the series of alleyways leading off, can still be made out. Look, too, for the arcading dating from the 18th century, which still fronts a few stores. With its cobbled marketplace and crooked lanes, the popular town of Elgin still retains much of its medieval layout. The 13th-century cathedral ruins are all that remain of one of Scotland’s architectural triumphs. "The Lantern of the North", as it was known, was founded in 1224 and burned down in 1390.

 

 Elgin, High Street

ABERDEEN

 No other Scottish city is like Aberdeen, with its remarkable granite character. Bold blocks of gray granite buildings, silver when the sun shines, lend distinction to this northern place. Granite may be austere, but the city is softened by an emphasis on flowers. Aberdeen is also the oil capital of Britain. It offers a good range of places to see within the old core of the city and makes a good base for exploring the hinterland with its castles, coastline, whisky distilleries and royal connections. 

The Promenade and Beach

Downtown Aberdeen's main street is Union Street, with the oldest part of the city at the sea end, known as the Castlegate. Down towards the harbor, Aberdeen's Maritime Museum on the Shiprow is housed within Provost  Ross's House of 1593. Aberdeen's name turns up in the song The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen. However, downtown Aberdeen is not the place to see this night sky phenomenon. 

VisitAberdeenshire

THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS

Once considered wild and remote, the Scottish Highlands are now valued by today's visitors for their majestic landscapes and their solitude. The Highlands are a state of mind as well as a geographical reality. The North was seen as a primitive wilderness populated by savages. With the advent of the cult of the picturesque travellers began to view the Highlands as romantic and heroic, ideal and unspoilt. Most of the stock images of Scottishness – clans and tartans, whisky and porridge, bagpipes and heather – originate in the Highlands, and enrich the popular picture of Scotland as a whole.

 EILEAN DONAN CASTLE, LOCH DUICH

Eilean Donan is recognised as one of the most iconic images of Scotland all over the world. Situated on an island at the point where three great sea lochs meet, and surrounded by some majestic scenery, it is little wonder that the castle is now one of the most visited and important attractions in the Scottish Highlands.

Received from Thomas Goatherd

ROTHIEMURCHUS

Hidden in the forest of Rothiemurchus, this beautiful place is one of the most loved in the UK.  Rothiemurchus is a special place at the heart of the Cairngorms National Park, near Aviemore, in the Scottish Highlands.
The Cairngorms is the collective name for the high plateau to the south of Aviemore and which have four of the five highest mountains in Scotland.

ROTHIEMURCHUS, CAIRNGORM MOUNTAINS, HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND
Loch an Eilein Castle: www.rothiemurchus.net

The Rothiemurchus Estate includes Loch an Eilein Castle, an exceptionally lovely loch, surrounded by pines below a mountain backdrop and with an island castle, started in the 15C by Lachlan of Mackintosh but later enlarged and passing, as part of the estate, to the Gordons and then the Grants. Until the loch was dammed during the 18C  the castle could be reached by causeway.

Received from Hazel

ISLE OF SKYE

The Isle of Skye exerts a magnetic pull on visitors. It is a byword for spectacularly craggy mountains. Thus it is forgiven its relentlessly wet climate, which is inevitable as the big hill masses get in the way of the prevailing Atlantic weather fronts moving out of the south west. The new bridge linking Skye with the mainland may do little for the immediate scenery of the strait between. Sky has plenty of scenic wonders, thanks to its complex geology of overlapping ancient lava flows. 

Waller Hugh Paton (1828-1895) Entrance to the Cuiraing, Skye 1873

This painting is a spectacular example of Paton’s mature landscape work. It shows the Cuiraing (or Quiraing in modern usage), a remarkable landslip on the Trotternish peninsula of Skye. Here, the jagged spike of the thirty-seven meter high pinnacle known as ‘The Needle’ dominates the middle of the composition. Paton described the Quiraing as ‘an awful place’, despite the fact that it had become a top destination for artists and tourists alike. 

Received from Hazel, Scotland. As she says it is a very spiritualist place and great scenery!