It was a life-affirming moment that led to my eureka realisation. With the sun warming my face on Harris’ sweeping Scarista beach, I couldn’t see where the sands began, nor ended. I did spot the seal checking me out from the turquoise water, and a squawk of seabirds swirling in front of the hulk of glowering Hebridean hills, forged from some of the oldest rocks on the planet.
“Scotland is a serious, life-affirming destination, a country bursting with over 800 islands and whose coastline without those is still larger than England’s, and whose land mass is almost half the size. It is a world-class wonder”
Then I wasn’t alone anymore. A German couple idled up the sands. She made it to the top of the dunes first and let out a yelp. He trudged upwards wondering what the fuss was about. Then yelped too. An hour later it got ‘busy’. A backpack-clad guy from Liverpool ambled up the wildflower-dappled dunes. As the vast natural amphitheatre of Scarista unfurled before him he threw his cap in the air and dropped to the sands in prayer. Welcome to Scotland.
The eureka moment came the next day when I cycled on up the coast, after a shared dram and foraged spoots (razor clams) cooked over a wee campfire with my new Liverpudlian backpacking buddy. Later on my journey, as I marvelled at the starched white sands of Luskentyre, a retired gent from Toronto declared, “Wow, this looks just like the Caribbean.” I thought about that for a second, then said, “I think it’s the other way round. This landscape is millions of years older; the Caribbean looks just like Scotland.”
That was my eureka moment when it all came together. I shook off my self-doubting Calvinist shackles with no need to apologise for the weather to comrades who inhabit the same rain-lashed British Isles, nor to worry that Scotland is somehow not as worthwhile as other more exotic destinations. In that instant I got it. Scotland is a serious, life-affirming destination, a country bursting with over 800 islands and whose coastline without those is still larger than England’s, and whose land mass is almost half the size. It is a world-class wonder: as much about Caribbean-beating beaches, slick urban centres and Michelin- starred restaurants as it is bagpipes, haggis and whisky. Slainte!
Scotland’s Seven Cities
Boasting culture, history and architecture, Scotland’s classic hubs are an easy train route away
Best for: City slicking and culture.
Route: Glasgow-Edinburgh-Stirling-Perth-Dundee- Aberdeen-Inverness
Why do it? The country’s seven cities offer a window into urban Scotland; thrillingly modern, but underpinned with rich culture and history.
Scotrail’s Inter7City trains now connect Scotland’s seven cities. The largest of these, Glasgow, has polished up its grand Georgian streets over the last few decades, the SSE Hydro venue and striking Zaha Hadid-designed Riverside Museum adding to the old-world Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Glasgow’s burgeoning restaurant scene was recently crowned with Cail Bruich’s Michelin star.
Less than an hour east, the capital Edinburgh was UNESCO’s first City of Literature; both the medieval Old Town and neo-classical New Town are UNESCO listed too. Follow the likes of Harry Potter and Mary, Queen of Scots down the cobbled Royal Mile from the landmark castle to the Palace of Holyrood and the adjacent Scottish Parliament: two sides of a country buzzing on the edge of a geopolitical faultline.
Across the Forth River, through the battlefields that defined Scotland, lies historically strategic Stirling. Sporting a castle that many
