The Most Atmospheric Place in Scotland? My Personal Top 12
So here's a personal countdown. I look forward to discovering your own favourite spots! Leave suggestions in the comments.
#12: Kilantringan Bay, Galloway
I love a lighthouse. And I'll never forget that trip to Kilantringan Bay. We'd just run the Stranraer Half Marathon, and came out here for the evening, Ireland a velvet silhouette across the North Channel. As the sun set in the biggest sky you could imagine, the lighthouse started to shine its light across peaceful waters. A few boats at sea already had their lights on. And then, across the water in Ireland, the lights started winking back.
There are so many lighthouses, but that particular one sticks in my mind. I didn't take a photo, so here's a picture instead of Pladda lighthouse in the same stretch of waters.
#11: Hampden Park, Glasgow
I don't have a picture of Hampden, so here's a random photo instead of me kissing a tiny trophy!
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#10: The closes of Edinburgh Old Town
It's nearly Christmas, when the sun sets before 4pm. The wind is howling outside. The streetlamps flicker on on the Royal Mile, with dark vennels and closes leading away downhill. If it has been a grey and chilly day of little cheer, then the lit buildings and shop displays become more benign; half-shadowed faces full of possibility. The town gathers in on itself, the pubs a welcoming haven from fierce bursts of rain. It's my favourite time of day in central Edinburgh in winter.
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#9: A Cairngorm forest
The Cairngorms forests are alive with wildlife - and with legends. Here is the capercaillie. Here too is Lamh Dearg, or Bloody Hand, a spectre who challenges you to single combat. Here is the fly agaric toadstool; here the deer tracks; and here the dell where the tailors danced. Sharp, pine-scented air in winter; the keening of wildcats in summer. Rivers rush past, over granite, through peat, springs for the best whiskies in Scotland. It is easy to wander into these forests and get, in the best possible way, completely lost.
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#8: Glencoe
Glencoe is one of those rare places that looks good in any weather. Which is just as well, as the weather is often gloomy. Climb up past beetling crags, water running down them, to be swallowed in fog in the Lost Valley; climb Beinn a'Chrulaiste in a snowstorm and watch the hills of Glencoe shrug off their cloud chrysalises to reveal achingly beautiful winter butterflies; watch the summer sunrise at 4am from the Devil's Staircase, and give thanks for being alive.
Glencoe is famous for a massacre, which occurred at the bottom of the glen, but it is at the top around the Buachaille and Rannoch Moor where the landscape and weather is perhaps most atmospheric.
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#7: Templewood Stone Circle
Prehistoric stone circles are unique to the British Isles, from the most famous, Stonehenge, to evocative smaller ones like Castlerigg or East Aquhorthies. Two of the finest are in Scotland's islands: the Ring of Brodgar on Orkney, and Callanish on Lewis. But for me, the most atmospheric is this little one in a clearing of trees in Argyll. Templewood. It might not be much to look at. But stand here, and the world seems at peace.
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#6: Skye
Skye isn't nicknamed 'the misty isle' for nothing! 3,500mm of rain falls each year on the Cuillin hills and if it isn't raining, it soon will be. In summer, the midges are ferocious. And yet every summer, tourists flock to Skye in their droves. What possibly draws them? Is it the rain? Or do they seek a glimpse of what Sorley Maclean described when he wrote: 'And even if I came in sight of Paradise, what price its moon without Blaven?'
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#5: St Blane's Chapel, Bute
St Blanes might not look much from the photographs. But visit this secret spot tucked away at the southern end of Bute, a short walk up a hill and nestled in a dell with a holy well, and you will understand why it rates so highly. It's hard to tear yourself away from this sanctuary, and when you do, the hills of Arran greet you across the Sound of Bute.
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#4: Culloden
Glencoe, number 8 on this personal list (you will have your own list! Please share any spots you particularly love) is impressive in any weather. Culloden too, seems to have its own microclimate. No matter the weather, an air of sadness hangs heavy over this place. No wonder Shakespeare had this location in mind when describing his scene with the witches in Macbeth. In April 1746 the Jacobite cause petered out on this moor in the face of sleet, cannon fire and the bayonets of British soldiers. It was a poorly chosen battle site and the first - and last - in which Charles Stewart led the troops himself. I've been to many battle sites, but none have the atmosphere of this spot.
I don't have any decent photos of Culloden unfortunately, so here's one of the nearby Clava Cairns: a link between the Jacobites and prehistory that Outlander fans will surely love.
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#3: Rannoch Moor
We're really getting to the most atmospheric spots in Scotland now! For many, Glencoe is an incredibly atmospheric spot. I agree, especially higher up the glen where it meets Rannoch Moor. Rannoch Moor! This is a liminal land of rainbows and water, storm and bog, uninhabited yet startlingly rich in folklore.
Here is An Duine Eagalach, the terrifying Egg-Faced Man, or the two-headed dog the Cu Saeng. Here the witch of Beinn a'Bhric clawed her undead way out her grave (always bury witches facing downwards btw) and terrorised the local area. Here the outlaws and desperados of the broken clan MacGregor holed out, assaulting the tiny garrison of redcoats at Achallader when they dared cross the moor. The moor is rough underfoot, tough to cross, and perhaps the legends were tales designed to scare children from the surrounding communities and keep them from wandering too far into the moor's dark heart...
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#2: Cape Wrath and Sandwood Bay
Years ago I walked the length of the West Highland coast, from Ardnamurchan Point to Cape Wrath. I'd climbed the Munros, so long-distance walking seemed the next obvious challenge. As a hill-bagger, I'd neglected some of the more out-of-the way places. Ardnamurchan was one: a beautiful place. Cape Wrath another. This was in the days when nobody lived at the cape, and Sandwood Bay was deserted, an oceanic beach with the waves crashing in, the wind tousling my hair, and the weird feeling that my footprints would be washed away at the next tide like I'd never been there. This is the supposed haunt of mermaids and a shipwrecked sailor's ghost, and I felt a bit like a ghost myself. Today at Sandwood you'll mainly see other daytrippers. But oh, the onward walk to Cape Wrath and Kervaig Bay! I've been to prettier capes in the world. But I've never yet visited one with such an atmosphere as this lonely, storm-tossed place.
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#1: Iona
Land on Iona and you feel the change immediately. Perhaps it is the geology: surrounded by the dark volcanic hills of Mull, Iona's marble and ancient gneiss form shallow beaches of white sand, making the surrounding waters turquoise. Even on a dull day, Iona seems brighter somehow. In AD 563 St Columba landed from Ireland and founded Scotland's most important early church: dozens of kings and lords from Dal Riata, Scotland, Norway, and Northumbria are buried here. Iona had been special for a very long time: it was a holy island for the druids before Columba and is my #1 most atmospheric place in Scotland. Visit yourself and you will see why.
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I hope you enjoyed this little series! So what to you is the most atmospheric place in Scotland? Where have I missed out?
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