Places to visit in Scotland, United Kingdom
32 places to visit in Scotland, United Kingdom, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Forth Bridge, Heart of Neolithic Orkney, Skara Brae and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your Scotland volume.
3 UNESCO World Heritage sites · 28 Famous places to visit · 1 Hidden gem
UNESCO World Heritage sites in Scotland (3)
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Forth Bridge
A red steel cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth, designed by Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker and completed in 1890. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and trains still cross it every day.
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Heart of Neolithic Orkney
A group of Neolithic monuments on the Mainland of Orkney, made a World Heritage Site in 1999. Around the lochs of Stenness and Harray stand the Ring of Brodgar, the Stones of Stenness and the chambered tomb of Maeshowe.
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Skara Brae
A stone-built Neolithic village on the Bay of Skaill, uncovered when a storm stripped the sand dunes away. Ten structures and their passageways survive, with stone beds, hearths and dressers still in place, older than Stonehenge and the pyramids of Giza.
Famous places to visit in Scotland (28)
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Arthur's Seat
An extinct volcano rising 250 metres out of Holyrood Park, just east of the city centre. It is an easy climb from almost any side, and the summit looks out over the Old Town, the Firth of Forth and the hills beyond.
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Balmoral Castle
A royal estate house on Royal Deeside, near the village of Crathie and 80 kilometres west of Aberdeen. Bought for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who had the present house built in the 1850s, it is still the royal family's summer home in Scotland.
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Ben Nevis
The highest mountain in the British Isles, at 1,345 metres, at the western end of the Grampian Mountains above Fort William. A well-trodden path leads to the summit, where the ruins of an old weather observatory still stand.
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Cairngorms National Park
The largest national park in the United Kingdom, established in 2003 around the Cairngorms range in northeast Scotland. Its high plateau, pine forests and glens are home to red deer, ospreys and Britain's only free-ranging reindeer herd.
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Calton Hill
A hill at the east end of Princes Street, crowned with monuments including an unfinished copy of the Parthenon. The view from the top, down Princes Street to the castle, is one of the most painted and photographed in the city.
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Culloden Battlefield
Open moorland east of Inverness where, on 16 April 1746, a Jacobite army under Charles Edward Stuart was defeated by government forces. It was the last pitched battle on British soil, and a memorial cairn and clan stones mark the field today.
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Edinburgh Castle
A fortress on Castle Rock, an old volcanic plug that people have lived on since at least the Iron Age. Kings of Scotland held it from the 11th century, and inside are the Honours of Scotland, the Scottish crown jewels, and the city's oldest building, St Margaret's Chapel.
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Eilean Donan Castle
A castle on a small tidal island where three sea lochs meet in the western Highlands, joined to the shore by a stone footbridge. First built in the 13th century, it was a stronghold of the Clan Mackenzie, and the present castle was rebuilt in the early 20th century.
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Falkirk Wheel
The only rotating boat lift in the world, opened in 2002 to join the Forth and Clyde Canal to the Union Canal. It lifts boats in water-filled gondolas between the two levels, reconnecting canals that had been cut apart since the 1930s.
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Fingal's Cave
A sea cave on the uninhabited island of Staffa, its walls made of tall six-sided basalt columns. It is known for the echoing sound of the waves inside, which inspired Mendelssohn's Hebrides overture, and takes its name from the hero of James Macpherson's poems.
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Glenfinnan Viaduct
A curving concrete railway viaduct on the West Highland Line, built between 1897 and 1901 at the head of Loch Shiel. The Jacobite steam train crosses it in summer, and it became famous as the route of the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter films.
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HMY Britannia
The royal yacht that carried the British monarchy for 43 years, from 1954 to 1997, travelling more than a million nautical miles. Now permanently berthed at Ocean Terminal in Leith, it can be walked through from the royal apartments to the engine room.
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Holyrood Palace
The monarch's official residence in Scotland, at the foot of the Royal Mile with the castle at the other end. It has been the main royal home in Scotland since the 16th century, and the ruined Holyrood Abbey stands in its grounds.
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Iona
A small island off the Ross of Mull, where Saint Columba founded a monastery in 563. Its abbey was a centre of Gaelic Christianity for three centuries and still draws pilgrims and people looking for quiet.
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Isle of Skye
The largest and most northerly of the big islands of the Inner Hebrides, joined to the mainland by a bridge. Its peninsulas spread out from the jagged Cuillin mountains, and its coast is full of sea cliffs, pinnacles and small harbours.
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John o' Groats
A village on the northeastern tip of mainland Scotland, traditionally the far end of the long journey from Land's End. Its signpost is the usual photograph, though the true northernmost point is nearby Dunnet Head.
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Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
A red sandstone museum and art gallery in Kelvingrove Park, in Glasgow's West End. It is one of the most visited buildings in Scotland, and its collections include Dalí's Christ of Saint John of the Cross.
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Loch Lomond
A long freshwater loch that straddles the Highland Boundary Fault, so its southern end lies in the Lowlands and its northern end in the Highlands. Its southern shore is about 23 kilometres from Glasgow, and it sits within a national park set up in 2002.
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Loch Ness
A long, deep freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands, named after the River Ness that flows out of its northern end. It is best known for claimed sightings of a monster, affectionately called Nessie.
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National Museum of Scotland
A museum of Scottish history and culture on Chambers Street, in the Old Town. Its collections run from the Lewis Chessmen to Dolly the sheep, and the roof terrace looks across to the castle.
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Rosslyn Chapel
A 15th-century chapel in the village of Roslin, founded by William Sinclair in 1456. Its interior is covered in intricate stone carving that people have tried to decode for centuries, and it drew new crowds after appearing in The Da Vinci Code.
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Royal Mile
The run of streets that forms the spine of Edinburgh's Old Town, falling downhill from the castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Narrow closes and wynds branch off on either side, and in August it fills with Fringe performers.
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Scott Monument
A Victorian Gothic spire in Princes Street Gardens, raised in memory of the novelist Sir Walter Scott. It is the second largest monument to a writer anywhere, and a narrow stair climbs to platforms near the top.
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St Andrews Links
The links at St Andrews, where golf has been played since the 15th century, earning the town its name as the home of golf. Of its public courses the Old Course is the most famous, and the Swilcan Bridge on its 18th hole is a favourite photograph.
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Stirling Castle
One of the largest and most important castles in Scotland, set on a crag with cliffs on three sides. It guarded what was for centuries the lowest crossing of the River Forth, and its Renaissance palace has been restored to its 16th-century colours.
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The Kelpies
A pair of steel horse heads by the sculptor Andy Scott, each 30 metres high, between Falkirk and Grangemouth. They mark the eastern gateway of the Forth and Clyde Canal and are named after the shape-shifting water spirits of Scottish folklore.
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The Storr
A 719 metre hill on Skye's Trotternish peninsula, with a steep rocky face looking out over the Sound of Raasay. Below the cliffs stands the Old Man of Storr, a tall pinnacle of rock that walkers climb up to see.
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Urquhart Castle
A ruined castle on a headland above Loch Ness, about two kilometres from Drumnadrochit. It is one of the most visited castles in Scotland, and its broken tower looks straight down the length of the loch.
Hidden gems in Scotland (1)
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Fairy Pools
A chain of clear pools and small waterfalls on a burn in Glen Brittle, at the foot of the Cuillin mountains on Skye. The water is a vivid blue green, and wild swimmers brave its very cold water.
Collecting in Scotland
What are the best places to visit in Scotland?
LOQAH lists 32 places in Scotland. The best known include Forth Bridge, Heart of Neolithic Orkney, Skara Brae, Arthur's Seat and Balmoral Castle. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in Scotland?
32, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in Scotland?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in Scotland before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose Scotland and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
More in the United Kingdom
Collect your first stamp.
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