Places to explore in ScotlandGreat Britain

A quartzite sea arch shaped like the tip of a fiddle bow just off Portknockie, best at dawn with fulmars riding the updraughts.

Moray

A hill in central Edinburgh crowned by the National Monument and Nelson Monument, giving classic panoramas of the city.

Edinburgh

McAlpine's 21-arch concrete curve of 1901 above Loch Shiel, now timed to the minute by Harry Potter fans waiting on the Jacobite steam train.

Highland

Goatfell and the northern granite ridges, Brodick Castle, the Machrie Moor stone circles and a coast road circling the island

428 km² · North Ayrshire

Tobermory's coloured harbour front, Duart Castle, Ben More, and white-tailed and golden eagles along the sea lochs

883 km² · Argyll and Bute

The Cuillin ridge, the Trotternish pinnacles of the Storr and Quiraing, Dunvegan Castle and a long, indented coast of sea lochs

1,628 km² · Highland

The Calanais stones, the white beaches of Luskentyre and Seilebost, Harris Tweed weavers and the mountains of North Harris

2,138 km² · Na h-Eileanan Siar

Miles of white shell-sand and turquoise shallows against the Harris hills — routinely voted among the best beaches in Europe, and empty most days of the year.

Na h-Eileanan Siar

Skye's westernmost headland, a Stevenson lighthouse of 1909 at the end of a steep concrete path, with whales and basking sharks passing below the cliffs.

Highland

Orkney's main island, home to Kirkwall's St Magnus Cathedral, Stromness and the Neolithic sites of Skara Brae, Maeshowe and Brodgar

517 km² · Orkney Islands

The largest sea-cave entrance in Britain, with a burn falling twenty metres through the roof of its inner chamber — half sea-carved, half dissolved.

Highland

The world's only rotating boat lift, linking the Forth & Clyde and Union canals near Falkirk.

Falkirk