DK Travel : Scotland : Editor's choice

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Oban

Busy harbour town best viewed from McCaig’s Folly. Many local attractions and ferries to Mull, Coll, Colonsay, Tiree and the Western Isles.
Old Forge Music Venue

No juke boxes, video games, coach parties, briefcases or football colours. Instead, the Old Forge offers legendary music sessions, superb, unpretentious food, open fires and free moorings if you arrive by boat. The sea almost laps at the door, and Knoydart’s scenery is equal to the best. Combine with the walk by Loch Morar.
Open-Top Bus Tours

Cruise the city with guided commentary and a pigeon’s eye view.
Plockton

Prime candidate for Scotland’s prettiest west-coast village, Plockton has sea, palm trees and a Rare Breeds Farm.
Princes Square

Luxurious shopping centre in a renovated square of 1841 – the genteel atmosphere is heightened by the occasional appearance of a piano player.
Regional Feis

A feis (“faysh”) is a festival of Gaelic arts combined with workshops. Lasting several days, most take place in the Highlands and Islands, always with terrific performances and blistering dances.
Ring of Brodgar, Orkney

A marvellously atmospheric prehistoric site of 36 slabs raised to form a circle. There are taller (but fewer) standing stones nearby at Stenness.
RSPB Forsinard Peatlands Reserve

The great peatland here, known as the Flow Country, offers walks among rare plants, insects and birds.
Sandwood Bay

Perhaps it’s the colourful strata patterning the rocks (Lewisian gneiss, among the world’s oldest) or the quality of the sand. Perhaps it’s the huge stack that stands sentinel at one end like some antediluvian shepherd. Or the Atlantic waves that charge in with billowing crests. Or is it the fact that so often you can have this mind-stretching expanse of beach to yourself?
Scapa Flow Visitor Centre, Hoy, Orkney

An exploration of the bay of Scapa Flow, where, in 1917, the captive German Navy scuttled 74 ships.