8 Best Sights in Scotland

Seemingly out of place in this near-wilderness setting, Bonawe is a fascinating relic from the dawn of Britain's Industrial Revolution. In the mid-18th century, Argyll's virgin forests attracted ironmasters from England, where such valuable fuel sources were harder to find. Business boomed when wars with France boosted demand for pig iron and cannonballs, and in its heyday Bonawe employed up to 600 unskilled local wood gatherers and skilled southern foundrymen. The factory is currently closed for restoration work, but you can still access the grounds for free.

Like the lair of a classic James Bond villain, this triumph of 20th-century British technology lurks deep within a vast man-made cavern. Hidden 3,000 feet beneath the slopes of Ben Cruachan, the colossal water-driven turbines of this subterranean power station, completed in 1965, supply clean energy to much of Scotland. The ½-mile bus ride from the surface to the generating hall is a surreal experience, made all the more so by the subtropical plants that thrive under artificial light in the warm, humid atmosphere.

Gorgeous tweed, plaid, and tartan clothing, wraps, and throws---woven at this historic mill and dyed in subtle, traditional tones---are sold here.

You can take an informative guided tour of this world-renowned working textile mill and also purchase some of the best woollen goods on offer, from knitwear to tartans and tweeds. The shop also sells Scottish jewelry.

Try your hand at printing the way it used to be done: painstakingly setting each letter by hand. Robert Smail's print shop, founded in 1866 to produce materials for nearby factories, boat tickets, theater posters, and the local newspaper, is still a working print shop as well as a museum. Two great waterwheels once powered the presses, and they are still running. The guided tour, which includes making your own bookmark, takes 90 minutes.

A free 15-minute tour of this working tannery gives visitors excellent insight into the process of salting, washing, and preparing sheepskins. You'll learn the source of such phrases as "on tenterhooks" and "stretched to the limits," and you can buy sheepskins, sheepskin garments and footwear, and tweed and woollen wear from the on-site shop (there's another outlet in Portree). In summer, there's also a lovely little yurt café around the back.

Situated four miles south of Rothes, this working cooperage is the only place left in the U.K. where you can see coopers hard at work making wooden whisky casks. Since 1947, coopers here have been using American oak, along with traditional tools and methods, to create the casks for distilleries across Scotland and beyond. This visitor center gives you the chance to see the coopers at work and learn more about the life cycle of a cask, with tours throughout the working week.

On the site of the old Summerlee Ironworks, this vast and exciting museum re-creates a mine and the miners' rows (the cottages where miners and their families lived). An electric tram transports you there from the huge hall where industrial machines vie with exhibits about ordinary life. You can take a short trip into a mine (helmets and lamps are provided), and later you can stroll along the canal and take the kids to a fine playground.