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My Insta Scotland, Oban (2026)

31/05/2026

The Quiraing, Isle of Skye.

As part of the Trotternish ridge the Quiraing has been formed by a massive landslip which has created high cliffs, hidden plateaus and pinnacles of rock. 60 millions years old and today one of the most iconic views in Scotland.

The Quiraing is also a very popular movie location. Here a little list of some of the movies filmed there:

Transformers: The Last Knight - A battle between Arthur and the Saxons used the moody landscape as backdrop.

Macbeth (2015): It was the setting for the point in this Shakespearean adaptation when Macbeth returned from battle and was anointed Thane of Cawdor.

Snow White And The Huntsman: The Quiraing formed the landscape behind the enchanted forest and snow forest.

Stardust (2007): Michelle Pfeiffer’s nefarious character Lamia was seen on The Quiraing in this fairy tale flick.

24/05/2026

Hermitage Castle, Scottish Borders near Newcastleton.

The mighty stone castle is built on an impressive platform of earth, which may have been part of an earlier castle complex. The earliest records for Hermitage are for the de Soules residence in the 1240s, but this may have been situated to the west, near the chapel ruins.

English lord Sir Hugh de Dacre began the present castle around 1360. It was transformed beyond recognition by his successor, William, 1st Earl of Douglas, one of Scotland’s most powerful noblemen.

Hermitage was adapted in the 1500s to respond to the threat posed by gunpowder artillery. Gun holes were punched in its thick walls and a massive gun defence was built outside to protect the castle’s western approach.

Hermitage castle also has a romantic past, with the Mary of Queen of Scots visiting her secret lover, the 4th Earl of Bothwell here when he was injured and on his sickbed. Sir Walter Scott was also fond of this castle and had himself painted with it in the background.

17/05/2026

Greyfriars Bobby, Edinburgh

Bobby, a long-haired Skye Terrier, belonged to John Gray, an Edinburgh policeman. Gray and Bobby were best friends until the officer passed away from tuberculosis in 1858. When Bobby’s master was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, the loyal dog followed him there and spent the next fourteen years beside his owner’s grave — which is why he became known as Greyfriars Bobby.

During this time, Bobby’s loyalty became famous throughout Edinburgh. People visited the kirkyard to feed him and give him water. In 1872, Bobby died and was buried not far from John Gray’s grave, so that they could finally rest together.

Save Bobby’s nose! 🐾

Over the years, tourists began rubbing Bobby’s nose for luck. Unfortunately, this is damaging the statue. Bobby’s nose was originally painted black, but today it has become shiny and golden from being touched so often. Please don’t rub his nose. Thank you!

03/05/2026

The National Wallace Monument, Stirling.

The monument is a 67-metre (220 ft) sandstone tower and was built in the Victorian Gothic style 1869. Visitors climb the 246 step spiral staircase to the viewing gallery inside the monument’s crown. The view from the top is stunning.

The tower stands on the Abbey Craig, the hill from which Wallace was said to have watched the gathering of the army of King Edward I of England, just before the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. The Scottish forces of Andrew Moray and William Wallace defeated the English army in this battle.

12/04/2026

Eilean Donan Castle or the Highlander Castle, Scottish Highlands.

The name Eilean Donan, or island of Donan, is most probably called after the 6th century Irish Saint, Bishop Donan who came to Scotland around 580 AD.

The first fortified structure was not built on the island until the early 13th century as a defensive measure, protecting the lands of Kintail against the Vikings who raided, settled and controlled much of the North of Scotland and the Western Isles between 800 and 1266. From the mid 13th century, this area was the quite seperate “Sea Kingdom” of the Lord of the Isles where the sea was the main highway and the power of feuding clan chiefs was counted by the number of men and galleys or “birlinns” at their disposal. Eilean Donan offered the perfect defensive position.

In 1719 the castle was garrisoned by 46 Spanish soldiers who were supporting the Jacobites. They had established a magazine of gunpowder for the Jacobite rising. The English Government caught wind of the intended uprising and sent three heavily armed frigates. The bombardment of the castle lasted three days and the Spanish soldiers finally surrendered. The government troops discovered the magazine of 343 barrels of gunpowder which was used to blow up what had remained from the bombardment.

The ruins of Eilean Donan were abandoned for nearly 200 years. In 1911 Lt Colonel John Macrae-Gilstrap bought the island with the ruins. The castle was rebuilt according to the surviving ground plan of earlier phases and was formally completed in the July of 1932.

29/03/2026

Iona Abbey, Isle of Iona.

Iona is a holy isle and has been described as the birthplace of Christianity in Scotland. St Columba and 12 companions came here from Ireland in AD 563. The monastery they founded was one of the most important and influential in the British Isles. It sent missionaries to northern Britain to convert people to Christianity.

Columba’s fame has brought pilgrims to Iona since the 7th century. Visitors still follow a route similar to the Sràid nam Marbh (‘Street of the Dead’) taken by pilgrims of old. But it now ends at a 13th-century abbey, which stands on the site of Columba’s church.

22/03/2026

Forework or Gatehouse of Stirling Castle.

Installed by James IV around 1500, the Forework now stands as a concealed inner entrance to the castle. But it was built as a highly visible façade, on a site that had long been the castle’s main entrance. In the 1580s, it was described as „the whole outward beauty of the place“.

The French Spur and Dury’s Outworks masked a much earlier line of defence. Anyone approaching the castle in the early 1500s would have seen a very different frontage. The castle would have appeared far more elevated, with the visitor confronted by James IV’s French-influenced frontispiece, immediately proclaiming his power and majesty.

It was originally five storeys high, but even in its much reduced state the Forework cannot fail to impress, integrating defensive and accommodation roles. Access to the main gate may originally have been by a timber bridge, rather than by the ramp in use today. The central triplet gatehouse was originally more than twice as tall, capped with crenellated wall-walks and tall conical roofs, and with a drum tower at each corner. Each of the three gates was provided with a portcullis, operated from the chambers above, and one of these still survives.

Overall, the gatehouse resembles the processional west door of a great church, and is even reminiscent of a Roman triumphal arch. The high curtain was bookended by an accommodation tower projecting at each end, flanked on each side a by a half-round tower (now demolished).

15/03/2026

Glasgow Cathedral or St Mungo‘s Cathedral.

Glasgow Cathedral stands near the heart of Scotland’s largest city. It’s the only medieval cathedral on the Scottish mainland to have survived the Protestant Reformation of 1560 virtually intact.

The Cathedral is one of the finest buildings of the 1200s to survive in mainland Scotland. Parts of it are older still.

Building fabric from Bishop Jocelin’s time (1174–99) is still standing. He is recorded as ‘gloriously enlarging’ his cathedral in 1181. Fragments from the previous cathedral have also been found.

When a fire halted Jocelin’s work, it fell to his successors – notably Bishop William de Bondington (1233–58) – to finish the cathedral.

The intention was to house a shrine to St Kentigern (also known as St Mungo) at the main level, behind the high altar, to complement the saint’s tomb in the crypt beneath. Kentigern is believed to have been the first bishop of the area that is modern Strathclyde. His influence spread widely, and it was later claimed he led a diocese stretching from Loch Lomond to Cumbria. It’s thought that Kentigern was buried on the cathedral site around 612.

08/03/2026

Dunnottar Castle, Stonehaven.

A chapel at Dunnottar is said to have been founded by St Ninian in the 5th century, although it is not clear when the site was first fortified, but in any case the legend is late and highly implausible. Possibly the earliest written reference to the site is found in the Annals of Ulster which record two sieges of „Dún Foither“ in 681 and 694.

The poet Blind Harry relates that William Wallace captured Dunnottar from the English in 1297, during the Wars of Scottish Independence.

In 1392 Sir Williathe Great Marischal of Scotland, builds his Tower House, also known as the Keep which still stands proudly on the rock today.

Oliver Cromwell’s army laid siege and the Castle held out for eight months. Heavy cannons arrived in 1652 and on 24th May that year surrender was made. This was not, however, before the Honours of Scotland (The Scottish Crown Jewels) were smuggled out of the Castle and taken to Kinneff Church, where they remained until the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

In 1919 Dunnottar Castle was bought by the Pearson family. The 1st Viscountess, Lady Cowdray began a program of urgently needed restoration and thereafter opened the Castle to the public.

01/03/2026

Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh.

The Augustinian Abbey of Holyrood was founded by David I in 1128 as a daughter-house of Merton Priory (Surrey). By the 15th century the abbey was increasingly being used as a royal residence – James II was born there in 1430 - and by the time of the Protestant Reformation (1560) much of the monastic precinct had been subsumed into the embryonic Palace of Holyroodhouse.

At the Reformation the east end of the church became redundant (it was demolished in 1570), whilst the nave continued in use as the parish church of Canongate; Charles I was crowned therein in 1633. In 1687 the parishioners relocated to a new church in Canongate to enable James VII to convert the nave into the Chapel Royal of the revived Order of the Thistle. It was wrecked the following year by a mob, who destroyed the fittings, and broke into the royal vault. Following misguided repairs in 1758 the roof collapsed ten years later.

„In the deep twilight we went today to the palace where Queen Mary lived and loved...The chapel below is now roofless… Everything is ruined, decayed, and the clear heavens pour in. I think I have found there the beginning of my Scottish Symphony.“ composer Felix Mendelssohn 1829

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