Destinations Archives

Visiting Blair Castle and Gardens, Blair Atholl: practical guide for first-timers

Blair Castle and Gardens is a white-harled Scottish baronial castle and 9-acre garden on the Atholl Estates, located at Blair Atholl near Pitlochry in Perthshire, and home to the Dukes and Earls of Atholl and the only private army in Europe legally permitted to bear…

Dunkeld Cathedral in Dunkeld, Perthshire.

Visiting Dunkeld Cathedral, Perthshire: practical guide for first-timers

Dunkeld Cathedral is a partly ruined medieval cathedral and active Church of Scotland parish church on the north bank of the River Tay in the village of Dunkeld, Perthshire. It is managed jointly by Historic Environment Scotland (the ruins and grounds) and Dunkeld Cathedral Parish…

The Deanston Distillery in Perthshire, Scotland.

Visiting Deanston Distillery, Doune: practical guide for first-timers

Deanston Distillery is a working Highland single malt Scotch whisky distillery located in a converted 18th-century cotton mill on the banks of the River Teith, at Teith Road, Deanston, near Doune in Perthshire. This guide covers opening hours, tour and tasting prices, transport and parking,…

Visiting Rannoch Moor, Scotland: practical guide for first-timers

Rannoch Moor (Scottish Gaelic: Mòinteach Raineach) is a vast upland blanket bog covering approximately 50 square miles (130 km²) of the central Scottish Highlands, spanning parts of Perth and Kinross, Argyll and Bute, and Highland. It is designated a Special Area of Conservation and is…

Visiting the Pitlochry Salmon Ladder: practical guide for first-timers

The Pitlochry Dam Visitor Centre is a free visitor attraction operated by SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy) at Armoury Road, Pitlochry, Perthshire, combining an exhibition about the Pitlochry hydroelectric dam with displays about the adjacent Pitlochry Fish Ladder — one of Scotland's best-known engineered salmon…

Visiting Preston Manor, Brighton: practical guide for first-time visitors

Preston Manor is an Edwardian country house in the Preston Park area of Brighton, Sussex, set in walled gardens two miles north of the seafront. This guide was updated in May 2026. The single most important update for 2026: the manor reopened in April 2025…

Visiting Eagle Heights Wildlife Foundation, Kent: practical guide for first-time visitors

Eagle Heights Wildlife Foundation is a bird of prey centre and wildlife sanctuary in the village of Eynsford, Kent, perched above the Darent Valley near Junction 3 of the M25. It celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2026 — a year that has already seen significant…

Monks, mountains and Muscat: a wine and olive oil tour through the hills above Chania

Crete has been making wine since the Minoan era — a history of roughly 4,000 years. The island grows its own distinctive grape varieties, many found nowhere else in the world. The hilly Kissamos region west of Chania is one of its core wine-producing areas,…

The island that marble built: a full-day bus tour of inland Naxos

Naxos is the largest island in the Cyclades — bigger than Mykonos and Santorini combined. Most visitors spend their time on its western beaches and never venture inland. That's a genuine loss. The island's interior holds ancient temples, marble-paved mountain villages and an unfinished kouros…

The town that water built: exploring Eureka Springs by golf cart

Eureka Springs, Arkansas, exists because of a rumour. In the late 1870s, word spread that the natural springs tucked into these Ozark Mountain hollows could cure almost anything — blindness, paralysis, skin disease, you name it. By 1881, so many people had arrived to test…