Sophie Stone's UK Visitor Map

A year ago, undergraduate software engineer Sophie Stone published a fun interactive map to visualise travel and residence within the UK, with points scored for passing through, stopping, staying, and living in different counties. How do you score?

 

I've visited or stayed overnight in every area in Scotland, and lived in five. The only areas I've not spent at least one overnight visit are West Lothian, Peeblessshire, Kincardine, Banff, and Nairn. There are a couple of obvious gaps in my travels round Britain: I've never been to Cardiff or the Isle of Man, and to my surprise, only ever stopped for a break in Devon - never visited - en route to holidays in Cornwall. Here's my breakdown of Scottish counties for anyone who is interested: 

• Wigtownshire: the Stranraer Half Marathon, Kilantringan Bay, cycling and camping round the Mull of Galloway and The Machars - lovely memories at the southern tip of Scotland.
• Kircudbrightshire: from the medieval grimness of Threave Castle to the gentle delights of Kippford and the Scottish Riviera, memories of warm weather on a family caravan holiday and later, discovering tales of fanatics, witches, and fertility cults. Unfinished business with the Kirkcudbright arts trail. 
• Dumfriesshire: for such a big county I've not visited much, but Caerlaverock is amazing, and of all places Ecclefechan just off the M74 provided a memorable stopover.
• Roxburghshire: a town far from the railways where they like sitting in saddles for transport, a triple topped hill surrounded in myth and legend, a land of crisp winter snow and cracking blue skies, a place where I continued my mission to bag all the county tops of Scotland over some of the loneliest bogs in the country: Roxburghshire deserves to be better appreciated by more Scots.
• Selkirkshire: a funny-shaped country squeezed between more visited places, but I have had trips to little-frequented Borders hills as described in An Ettrick Adventure. 
• Peeblesshire: quiet Southern Upland hills, busy off-road cycle routes, and ancient houses like Traquhair, all cluster round the busy market town of Peebles - one of my favourites. 
• Berwickshire: family connections mean I've visited a lot, though I rarely post about these trips. St Abbs Head and the windy moors of the Lammermuirs are exceptions.
• Ayrshire: family holidays on the Ayrshire coast and camping trips to Arran, islands off islands, with Ailsa Craig ever present on the horizon (one day I'd like to visit it!)
• Renfrewshire: mainly, to be honest, a place to drive through with the odd stopover, but I've spent nights staying with pals and once, slept on the floor of the prayer room in Glasgow Airport before an early flight (have you seen the price of airport hotel rooms?)
• Lanarkshire: Glasgow - a city of legends, whose temples of commerce, sin and redemption stand in for Gotham in a surprising number of American movies. It has the most loved art gallery and museum in Britain and most spectacular cemetery. I lived in Glasgow three times: as a student, during my short-lived music career, and again after living in Birmingham for a while. But it's not all urban sprawl in Lanarkshire - South Lanarkshre has elemental places like the Falls of Clyde and flowing liminal places: less Broomielaw and more Broomy Law. 
• West Lothian: very much drive-through country for me, but makes for the nice occasional daytrip such as Linlithgow.
• Edinburgh: I moved to Edinburgh after being made redundant in Glasgow, to retrain and find another job. I ended up working at the Scottish Parliament for a while, enjoying the Edinburgh pubs and unusual city walks like Arthur's Seat, visiting the National Library of Scotland to research my history book and experiencing the Edinburgh festival.
• Midlothian: I've lived in Midlothian for well over a decade now, so it's no wonder I've posted a lot about my current home county! People outside the county know about Roslin chapel, but what is less well known are the numerous beauty spots along the Rivers North Esk and South Esk, the wonderful Pentland Hills (which being 15 minutes from my house have ruined me for the Highlands), and the castle-laden countryside just outside Edinburgh.
• East Lothian: bike rides to massive unknown castles and beach trips to 'secret' bays, discovering the sport of canicross and my first and so far only ultramarathon. (Who knew East Lothian was such a sporty place!)
• Argyll: Where to start with my favourite county? Visiting granny in Cowal, or the beavers of Knapdale, feeling rooted in the past at Templewood Stone Circle or doing a mountain marathon over the heights of Ben Cruachan perhaps. To Glencoe, Clashgour and Rannoch Moor, which I haunted most weekends in my early hillwalking days. And then the islands: islands of mud, islands of scree, islands of sanctuary, islands of peace and the conundrum of Calmac... 
• Dumbartonshire: I grew up near the Victorian glamour of Helensburgh climbing the Luss Hills as a teenager, had a memorable trip with Loch Lomond seaplanes and can recommend one particular triple-attraction as my favourite half-day out in Scotland.
• Stirlingshire: from the CIA's favourite local site of Grangemouth to the tourist city of Stirling, then beyond to Trossachy hills such as Ben A'an and the nearest Munros to Midlothian, which we climbed on both the longest and shortest days of the year. 
• Clackmannanshire: Scotland's smallest county still has plenty about it - from the little known history of diplomacy with the Roman empire to steep hills that make a mockery of the term 'the Lowlands'. 
• Fife: fond memories of family caravan holidays in St Andrews, but also inspiration from abroad: the Cinque Terre of Fife and finding Ecosse Profonde in Newburgh.
• Perthshire: the archetypal Scottish county, with rolling heathery hills, salmon rivers, forests, old legends, and douce stone towns, Perthshire also contains miles and miles of tramping country over big hills like Ben Lawers, where new Munro-baggers can tick off dozens of summits. 
• Angus: the 'cradle of Scotland', rich in Pictish stones, a rural county of fruit farms and red sandstone cliffs. 
• Kincardineshire: wedged between Aberdeenshire and Angus, yet containing so much between Montrose and the River Dee: atmospheric beaches like St Cyrus and the mighty fortress of Dunottar, or beautiful autumnal woodland and the Falls of Feugh and gracious Jacobean chateau and gardens like Crathes.
• Aberdeenshire: I don't visit Aberdeen much these days but have fond memories of the city, a place of gleaming clean granite and honest hard work where I was got my first career break with a job offshore. It's a lovely and varied countryside of castles, beaches, prehistoric 
• Banffshire: a long thin county stretching from the high Cairngorms to fishing villages and towns, somewhere I don't think I've stayed over (except perhaps on a Cairngorms overnighter), Banffshire is recognisable globally thanks to its famous whisky distilleries.
• Moray: I only started exploring this north-eastern county in recent years, but it has become a favourite with something for everyone in the family. Wonderful coastal walks, inky dark rivers in shady forests, gentle pastoral scenes, castles and historic stones, wild moors and hills, and like Banff, distilleries.
• Nairnshire: watching dolphins from Fort George, visiting Culloden and Clava Cairns, experiencing Nairn Beach in a violent storm, my time in Nairnshire has been limited but memorable.
• Invernessshire: Scotland's biggest county, and one I weekended in most months in my teens and early twenties. Not the city of Inverness, big Munro-rich glens like Glen Affric, nor even big eastern hills like Braeriach; no, it was to the west coast I was drawn, to the big hills of Glen Nevis and Lochaber, the beaches of Arisaig and sunsets of Moidart, and from the rain of Knoydart to the mighty Cuillin of Skye. 
• Ross & Cromarty: like Invernessshire, I visited far more in the days of film cameras so have fewer photos to share than otherwise would be the case. But if you are a hillwalker going to visit anywhere in Scotland, surely it has to be the spectacular Torridon and Fisherfield, with beautiful beaches at Achnahaird and Gairloch and my top viewpoint in the whole of Scotland. But it's not just hills. More recent explorations with my non-hillwaking wife have taken in the Lowlands of Ross at Tarbat or the historic town of Cromarty.
• Sutherland: Scotland's empty county, barren and spectacular, with Sandwood Bay and Cape Wrath in the north and Suilven in the south - is it any wonder, despite the inadequate nature of the roads, that the NC500 has proven so popular a concept?
• Caithness: for the Orkney-bound tourist Caithness is something of a drive-through county, but that's to do it disservice - from the spectacular puffin-haunted Stacks of Duncansby to the unjustly neglected Caithness hills, Caithness repays exploration.
• Orkney: Orkney is perhaps the perfect place to visit in all of Scotland. From surprising ancient history to spectacular walks down the west side of the archipelago, Orkney has it all - except for midges!
• Shetland: I have not been often enough to Shetland! But my two visits were memorable, one a work trip in a winter storm and the other as a tourist for Up Helly Aa, visiting wild spots like the Voe of Dale and Eshaness.
• Western Isles: historically the islands were split between Inverness and Ross, but are far more coherent together: from the sands of Vatersay to the mysterious standing stones of Callanish, via the beaches of Harris and the ultimate place, St Kilda.