Nothing quite beats staying in a rented Scottish croft for a week or two. Whether in the small village of Achiltibue on the Coigach Peninsula in the western Highlands, where dusk is magical...
and your only guest is a sheepdog.
Or on the Isle of Skye, where, as the light turns golden, you open a bottle of wine...
and sit outside until the sun sets.
Alternatively, you can stay in splendor at Kinloch Castle, on the Isle of Rhum.
Here, a chambermaid will make up your bed. And food will be served in style.
You relax in front of a cozy fire - then comes the cocktail hour.
And we mustn’t forget Lady Monica. Like everything else in this place, she’s kept dust-free.
Speaking of castles, what could be more iconic than Edinburgh Castle?
SHEEP & CATTLE
Sheep are everywhere,
even on the roads.
And so are cows.
Highland cattle - an ancient Scottish breed, with long horns and wavy pelts.
Sheep are for shearing.
Sheep dog trials: a gentle, bucolic, competitive sport in which dogs herd sheep around a field, as directed by their handlers.
The dogs have arrived, the audience is in place, and the games can begin.
WHISKY GALORE
The pagoda-shaped kilns of the Highland Park Distillery.
Old-fashioned floor malting, Alan, the plant operator, and Jim Robertson, product manager and taster.
Although one of the very best, Highland Park is not exactly the only distillery producing single malt, the elixir of Scotland - enjoyed singly, or in pubs everywhere.
ISLES
Heading for the Isle of Mull, in the Inner Hebrides...
to Tobermory, the capital, and a B&B, with an unusual but most affectionate house pet.
A pint on the Isle of Skye...
a standing stone on Colonsay...
and Rackwick Beach on Hoy, in the Orkney Islands.
HIGHLANDS
Glencoe, in the Scottish highlands, has a rather bloody history. It was here, in the 1690s, that the Campbells massacred the MacDonalds.
A Highland Piper...
and two fishermen. Like golf, fly fishing is a Scottish passion.
