Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Scotland Highlands ( what's worth visiting?)

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Scotland Highlands ( what's worth visiting?)

I come from Greece and I am currently attending a Masters course at the Glasgow University.Since I have a quite tight everyday schedule I have not been to many places in Scotland yet.So far I have only been to Isle of Skye and Isle of Bute. Could you make any suggestions about places in Highlands that is definetely worth visiting during the summer? Thank you in advance Cheers Emmanouella

My favourite sort of question.... It really depends on what you like. But let me suggest a range of options. For the purpose of this question I will assume you do not mean the islands but only the Highlands. Basically you have 4 main attractions:- 1. landscape 2. Mountains (for climbing-not looking at 3.History and 4 nature All of the Highlands are spectacular (if you are as prejudiced as I am). However for landscape I would suggest the following 1. Deeside- from west of Braemar to Aboyne. Beatiful river, native pine woods, high mountains, castles. 2.Highland Perthshire from Aberfeldy west to Killin and north to Loch Rannoch for lochs and mountains 3. Rothiemurchus and Loch Morlich for pine forest and lochs and mountains. You can take the chair lift to the top of Cairngorm and enjoy the view. 4. Oban north to Ballachulish taking in Port Appin- for sea lochs and mountains and lovely villages and views to islands. 5. Gairloch- for sea lochs and lovely villages and the gardens at Inverewe. For Mountains to climb you are in roughly the same areas- 1. The Southern Cairngorms from Linn of Dee, west of Bremar and into the Lairig Gru. 3. Speyside for Cairngorm and Ben Macdui and the Coire an Lochan 4. Kintail for jaggy mountains 5. Torridon for spectaular mountains- Health warning- do not do these if you are inexperienced or do not ahve wit you someone who knows what they are doing. History 1.Killiecrankie in Perthshire for the Covenanters 2. Glenfinnin and Glen Shiel for the Jacobites and Culloden for the most moving battlefield 3. Speyside for "Wolf of Badenoch" stuff 4. Easter Ross for the Highland Clearances 5. West Perthshire (Balquhidder) for Rob Roy And for nature, well.... Speyside for birds- eagles and Ospreys and capecaillie and crested tit and crossbills and Black grouse- and native caledonian pinewood The Moray Firth or Gairloch for dolphins and porpoises and seals The high tops of the Cairngorms for alpine flora and Assynt for everything else. Hope this helps

Dear Sheila Thank you very much for all these information. I will try to put them in practice as soonas possible. Best regards emmanouella

Sheila: You mentioned eagles. Are there any places in Scotland that rehabilitate, rescue or raise eagles, where they have demonstrations (ie.sending them out in flight)?

Sorry didn't see this question before, Shane. No there is nowhere that rehabilitates, rescues or raises eagles in Scotland. We have 2 species; Golden and White tailed or Sea Eagles. The former is more common than the latter, but both are rare. Sea eagles died out here at the end of last century and have been re-introduced in the last 20 years. Both are protected species. Sea eagles are so protected we are not supposed to tell you where they are, but it's not hard to find out. I am aware of one falconry in Aberdeenshire and one in the north of England, but i don't know if they fly eagles. I will try to find out for you. What is your interest? I am involved with the RSPB (our equivalent of the Audobon Society)

I have found a set of webpages on falconry. The one with most information about eagles seems to be http://ourworld.compuserve.co./homep...mid/golden.htm It has links to other pages. i can only find one other falconry centre in Scotland and it doesn't mention eagles. Hope this helps

Thanks so much, Sheila. We are simply interested in the preservation of eagles. We just got back from a trip to Germany, and went to two rehabilitation centers there. At one of them they advised us that they send some of their rehabilitated birds to Britain to attempt to increase the population. Should have found out at the time where they were talking about - but didn't count on wanting to take another trip, this time to Scotland. Thanks for always being so helpful, and please keep me in mind if you happen to find out anything else.