Villages & towns in ScotlandScotland

Village at the head of Loch Shiel, famed for its Jacobite monument and the arched Glenfinnan Viaduct.

Highland

Restored 18th-century cotton-mill village on the Clyde, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of pioneering social reform.

South Lanarkshire

Sheltered Loch Carron village famous for its palm trees, harbour and TV role in Hamish Macbeth.

Highland

Scotland's oldest university town and the worldwide home of golf, with two sandy beaches and a ruined cathedral and castle.

Fife

The most easterly and most photographed East Neuk fishing village, its tiny harbour ringed by pantiled cottages.

Fife

Picture-postcard conservation village of estate cottages on Loch Lomond's west shore.

Argyll and Bute

The bustling capital of the East Neuk, home to the Scottish Fisheries Museum, a famous fish bar and ferries to the Isle of May.

Fife

One of the best-preserved 16th-17th century burghs in Scotland, its white-harled houses and cobbled lanes a favourite Outlander filming location.

Fife

Mull's main town, famous for its curved row of brightly painted harbour-front houses.

Argyll and Bute

Leafy conservation village on the southern edge of Ayr, birthplace of Robert Burns and the heart of Burns country.

South Ayrshire

Victorian planned village on the River Dee, the nearest town to Balmoral with a restored railway station and royal warrant shops.

Aberdeenshire

Trim estate village of the Cawdor lands between Nairn and Inverness, gathered around the castle, kirk and tavern.

Highland

The most north-westerly village in mainland Britain, a scatter of crofting townships above Sango Bay with Smoo Cave, Balnakeil and Cape Wrath nearby.

Highland

Small Black Isle town on the Moray Firth with a red-sandstone cathedral ruin and a spit running out to Chanonry Point.

Highland

Village at the northern tip of Arran with a ruined castle, the Arran distillery and a summer ferry to Kintyre.

North Ayrshire

Skye's capital and largest town, set around a sheltered harbour ringed with painted houses.

Highland

Faded-grand Victorian resort capital of Bute, with a ruined moated castle and ornate pier toilets.

Argyll and Bute

Victorian spa village of pastel villas around a restored pump room and pavilion, at the foot of Ben Wyvis.

Highland

Orkney's second town, a stone-built harbour community of winding lanes and flagstone streets on the west Mainland.

Orkney Islands

Grid-planned fishing and ferry port on Loch Broom, the largest settlement in Wester Ross and gateway to Lewis.

Highland

A pretty south-Fife coast village with a 12th-century castle and the Blue Flag Silver Sands beach, half an hour from Edinburgh by train.

Fife

Historic coastal town famed for smokies, red-sandstone cliffs and its abbey.

Angus

Bustling Trossachs gateway town where the Teith and Leny meet, laid out in the 18th century.

Stirling

An old whitewashed fishing village at the mouth of the River Almond, with a Roman fort site and a tidal causeway to Cramond Island.

Edinburgh

Beautifully preserved 18th-century seaport at the tip of the Black Isle, with merchants' houses, fishertown cottages and dolphin-rich waters.

Highland

A tranquil former milling hamlet of stone cottages in a deep valley on the Water of Leith, minutes from Princes Street.

Edinburgh

Handsome Hillfoots town below the Ochils, gateway to Dollar Glen and Castle Campbell.

Clackmannanshire

Handsome cathedral town on the Dornoch Firth, famous for the Royal Dornoch golf links and its medieval cathedral.

Highland

A conservation village beside Duddingston Loch under Arthur's Seat, home to Scotland's oldest pub, the Sheep Heid Inn.

Edinburgh

A former Scottish capital and burial place of Robert the Bruce, with its abbey, palace ruins and Pittencrieff Park.

Fife

Picturesque village at the southern head of Loch Ness where the Caledonian Canal drops through a staircase of five locks to the water.

Highland

Remote mainland village reached by a high pass, with Iron Age brochs and a summer turntable ferry to Skye.

Highland

Georgian planned town of white-harled buildings on Loch Fyne, seat of the Dukes of Argyll.

Argyll and Bute

Historic border town of colourful frontages, home to its ruined abbey, Mary Queen of Scots' House and the old castle jail.

Scottish Borders

Colour-washed harbour town on the Dee, long an artists' colony and still full of galleries and studios.

Dumfries and Galloway

Orkney's capital and largest town, built around the red-sandstone St Magnus Cathedral and a working harbour.

Orkney Islands

Edinburgh's historic port district, its cobbled Shore lined with waterfront restaurants, distilleries and the Royal Yacht Britannia.

Edinburgh

Shetland's capital and only town, a stone waterfront of 18th-century lodberries and narrow lanes above a busy harbour.

Shetland Islands

Handsome little Tweed-side town beneath the three peaks of the Eildon Hills, gathered around its abbey ruins and market cross.

Scottish Borders

A Victorian seaside resort once dubbed the 'Biarritz of the North', with two beaches, a harbour and the Scottish Seabird Centre.

East Lothian

Old royal burgh on the Tweed, with a riverside walk to Neidpath Castle, the Cross Kirk ruins and a June Beltane Festival

Scottish Borders

Lively Victorian resort town on the River Tummel with a festival theatre and salmon ladder.

Perth and Kinross

Whitewashed fishing village on the Tarbat peninsula, a Pictish monastic site with a west-facing sandy beach.

Highland

Historic Banffshire harbour known for its serpentine marble and its annual traditional boat festival.

Aberdeenshire

Pretty Black Isle village with a sandy beach, the Pictish-stone Groam House Museum and the Fairy Glen waterfall walk.

Highland

Shetland's former capital, a west-coast fishing village of colourful houses below the ruined Scalloway Castle.

Shetland Islands

A cobbled former ferry town on the Forth beneath the three great bridges, with a narrow historic High Street.

Edinburgh

Harbour town beneath Dunnottar Castle, famous for its Hogmanay fireball ceremony and Art Deco lido.

Aberdeenshire