All flipper, no flop — the best places to see whales in Scotland
At the tip of the Eye peninsula, near Stornoway, Tiumpan Head Lighthouse offers front-row views across the Minch. Below it, the strait's deep waters attract whales, dolphins and porpoises, making it one of the UK's best land-based locations for spotting them. Look out for distinctive grey-and-white Risso's dolphins and fin whales, or join the Whale and Dolphin Conservation's Shorewatch team for expert-led sightings.
Coll's wild waters are a summer hotspot for basking sharks, the world's second-largest fish; they're often spotted gliding through the shallows with gaping mouths. From the ferry port at Arinagour you can enjoy stunning views over Mull and the Treshnish Isles, while coastal walks reveal harbour porpoises and bottlenose dolphins. Keep watch from the shore or ferry — minke whales and common dolphins thrive around this quiet, wildlife-rich island.
On Mull's rugged north coast, the Glengorm estate enjoys sweeping views across the Hebridean Sea, where minke whales, bottlenose dolphins and basking sharks ply the waters. The castle at the estate's heart watches over wonderfully wild landscapes, while the shoreline is a prime spot for marine life. Join the Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust rangers every Thursday for a guided whale watch before warming up in the café, or exploring the coastal trails.
• Never mind the Med, I'm longing to be back on Mull
Shetland's southernmost point is a prime spot for orca-watching, thanks to the semi-resident orca pods. From the towering cliffs here are panoramic views over seas where minke whales and porpoises also hunt. The lighthouse above has a welcome café, and a base to explore one of the most accessible seabird and puffin colonies in Britain. Expert advice is available from the on-site Whale and Dolphin Conservation Shorewatch team, or check the Shetland Orca & Cetacean Sightings Facebook page.
• Sumburgh Head lighthouse review — like stepping into Springwatch
The Deerness peninsula, on mainland Orkney's wild eastern edge, is a prime spot to watch dolphins and porpoises. Harbour porpoises are often seen gliding through the waves, while white-beaked, white-sided and Risso's dolphins also patrol these rich waters. Dramatic cliffs offer sweeping views of the North Sea, and there is a fabulous coast walk to the Brough of Deerness, a rocky outcrop that was once home to a Viking settlement.
Taken from Islandeering by Lisa Drewe (wildthingspublishing.com £16.99). To order a copy go to timesbookshop.co.uk. Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
6 hours ago
- Times
Scottish Thistle Awards: a sneak peek at this year's shortlist
Want to know the best places to stay, the must-visit attractions and top sporting events? Frankly, who has time to do the research? Well, luckily, the Scottish Thistle Awards judges do — they've found the hoteliers with heart, the restaurants cooking up a storm and the events worth putting your kilt on for. Better still, they've given us a sneak peek at the finalists, exclusively revealed below. Our advice? Book now, while you still can. Say what you like about his politics, Donald Trump sure knows how to glam up his hotels — not for nothing Trump Turnberry scooped last year's Best Luxury Experience, and is down to the last four in 2025. Perched high above the rugged South Ayrshire coast, it was Britain's first purpose-built golf resort, dating from 1906. You're unlikely to forget the year: the signature restaurant is named 1906 and dinner service begins every night at 19.06. Besides eating lobster thermidor while looking out over the golf course to the sea, or taking tea under sparkling chandeliers in the Grand Tea Lounge, guests can also detoxify in the five-star spa, which has floor-to-ceiling views over to Arran and Ailsa Craig, plus a heated infinity pool, steam room, sensory showers and ice fountain. Much has been made of Trump's bid for the Open return to Turnberry — the Ailsa course hosted the event here in 1977, 1986, 1994 and 2009 — but for now hotel guests (and visitors) can play a round at this bucket-list course for an eye-watering green fee roughly between £500-£1,000. Or get stuck into activities including clay shooting, quad biking, or horse riding at Turnberry's own equestrian B&B doubles from £299, A finalist in last year's Scottish Thistle Awards, Knockinaam Lodge is a five-star luxury boutique hotel in a former shooting lodge where Churchill and Eisenhower met in secret to plan the D-Day landings. Just round the coast from Portpatrick on the wild, western edge of the Rhinns of Galloway, the hotel has dreamy views over the Irish Sea — but the food is an even bigger draw, with three AA Rosettes over the restaurant door. The head chef Tony Pierce and his team take pride in their daily-changing tasting menus, using ingredients from their own kitchen garden. Since last May, the hotel has teamed up with local businesses to offer bespoke packages for guests, including falconry experiences, gourmet weekends and in-room massages, which have been going down a storm. • Knockinaam: heaven's door The best room is the Churchill Suite, where the prime minister stayed for that famous meeting in 1944, featuring a seating area around the original fireplace and views over the garden and a private cove below. Nine other rooms are available; some with a cosy window seat or Victorian rolltop bathtub. Book one for your own secret rendezvous or the entire Victorian lodge can be hired for exclusive use. All suites come with luxury handmade toiletries by Apothecally, an hour away in Gatehouse of Dinner and B&B doubles from £390, 'Made in Scotland, made to last' goes the motto for this luxury cashmere and merino wool brand, weaver of the world's finest fibres since 1797. Buy its knitwear at its shops in Edinburgh, St Andrews and Mayfair — or see how it's all done at its visitors centres in Hawick and Elgin, the latter housed in Johnstons' original mill on the banks of the River Lossie. • How to get the best out of a weekend in Elgin Guided tours teach visitors about everything from the 30 processes involved in crafting a single scarf to the history of the company's famous tweeds. Johnstons' Elgin mill is the only 'vertical' weaving mill in Scotland — where raw fibres are treated, spun then dyed and woven all in the same building. Tours can be tied in with a personal shopping experience followed by lunch or afternoon tea in the Weavers coffee One-hour tours £15, Nicknamed the Harrods of the north, The House of Bruar is to the Highlands what Jenners used to be to Edinburgh (albeit halfway up the A9 near Blair Atholl, not slap bang on Princes Street). It calls itself Scotland's premier independent country living retailer — and it's hard to argue with somewhere selling everything from Harris Tweed dog blankets and top-brand fishing rods to merino wool socks and Barbour jackets. The adjoining food hall and restaurant have similarly high standards (our recommendation, the lobster, fish and chip shop). A bonnie location near the Falls of Bruar helps: where else can you stock up on copper-plated garden tools, antique games tables and smoked salmon terrine, then walk to the falls, let the children loose on the play park, and take off up or down the A9 — probably off on your hols?Details • Walk of the week: The Falls of Bruar, Perthshire The opening stage at last year's men's Tour of Britain cycling race kicked off in Kelso, looping through the Borders via Coldstream, Melrose and St Boswells. Free to spectators, the event featured Borders boys Callum Thornley from Peebles and Oscar Onley from Kelso, with this leg won by the Frenchman Paul Magnier. The bad news for anyone wanting to copy the route is that it's a whopping 113-mile rollercoaster — you would need to borrow Chris Hoy's thighs if you wanted to do it in a day. • A cycling tour de Borders fuelled by fine French-inspired cuisine The good news is that with a fair wind (and energy gels) most could manage the 56-mile Four Abbeys loop, which hits Kelso, Melrose, Jedburgh and Dryburgh and includes some key climbs from the race — minus that pro peloton breathing down your neck. It's by no means a cakewalk (you're looking at six to eight hours in the saddle), but you'll get epic views, ancient abbeys and maybe a slice of cake at Sir Walter Scott's old home, Abbotsford Visit for information on the Four Abbeys Loop Wondering about the name? It comes from the Gaelic word for disembowelling a deer. Strange name for a mountain-biking event then? Not if you look at the stats: 69 miles on gravel, one vertical mile of ascent — the 1,500 competitors at last year's event knew exactly why the organisers chose the name. Taking place each May, the Gatehouse of Fleet event began in 2023, the first time the UK had hosted a top-level international gravel race. There's live music, food and drink, and riders aged 16 to 80 have competed from as far afield as Mauritius, New Zealand and Colombia. It's a perfect showcase for Scottish cycling, with its rolling hills, hidden lochs and vast network of gravel tracks. Got what it takes to join them? Registration is open now for the 2026 event. If you fancy giving it a go but don't know where to start then visit Wheels of Fleet ( a fantastically friendly bike shop near the Mill in Gatehouse that rents out gravel bikes from £30 a day and ebikes from £45 a day, including helmets and route maps for loops of 5-35 If you were in Holyrood Park last July and saw a bunch of wiry runners hurtling about with maps and compasses, you were probably witnessing the World Orienteering Championships. The six-day speed navigation event drew amateurs and elite athletes from across the orienteering world, with races also taking place in Leith, Wester Hailes, Heriot-Watt University campus, the old town and even the University of Edinburgh's King's Buildings. The competition will be in Genoa in July 2026 — and if that sounds tempting, there are several clubs in Edinburgh who'll help you get into the sport, including Edinburgh Southern ( and Interlopers ( Beginners outside Edinburgh can visit Scottish Orienteering ( to track down a club nearer to Delivered by VisitScotland, in association with headline sponsors Abbey: The Destination Experts, the Scottish Thistle Awards celebrate the very best of the tourism and events industry. The national final takes place in Glasgow on November 20, 2025;
Telegraph
13 hours ago
- Telegraph
Perverted liberalism has led to neo-Marxism, perverted patriotism may yet lead to neo-fascism
It is, on balance, helpful, that the current American president and vice-president are both interested in Britain. We are one of the few allies not deliberately antagonised by the Trump administration. This is a Brexit benefit. Yesterday, Donald Trump had things to do in Anchorage, Alaska, but last month he was in Aberdeenshire, and next month he will be over here for his second state visit. JD Vance, the vice-president, ended the week staying on an estate in Ayrshire, after spending a few days near Adlestrop in the Cotswolds, scene of Edward Thomas's much anthologised pastoral poem about a summer railway station where nothing happens. What draws these two powerful men here? Mr Trump likes – and owns – golf courses, and his mother came from the Hebrides. He seems to prefer her Scottish roots to his father's German ones, and he is in love with the British monarchy. Mr Vance has Scottish roots, too, but his quest seems more cultural, intellectual and political. He was mixing a family holiday (accompanied by a few non-political old mates) with discussions about ideas with his English friend, Dr James Orr, a Cambridge theologian, and Danny Kruger, the Conservative MP who recently made a powerful parliamentary speech in favour of Christianity in Britain. He saw the billionaire businessman Sir Paul Marshall, owner of The Spectator and patron of several conservative and Christian causes. The vice-president entertained and was entertained by Tom Skinner – patriotic Essex man, former market trader and star of The Apprentice, whose catchword is 'Bosh' – and a much more famous public entertainer, currently from Clacton, called Nigel Farage. Through the good offices of George Osborne, a surprising ally, given Mr Osborne's Remainer, globalist views, Mr Vance also met assorted Conservatives – Robert Jenrick, Chris Philp, Laura Trott and the rising star of the party's new intake, Katie Lam. It was a mark of how even Tory centrists feel the need to trim to the Atlantic wind that the journalist Daniel Finkelstein was among the guests. Lord Finkelstein's column this week was a fine read for Kremlinologists, as it sidled cautiously closer to Mr Farage. There is something attractive about Mr Vance's quest for ideas. Although it can be tactless (and may be intended to be), his readiness to propagate them is refreshing too. Since the days of Theodore Roosevelt, who invented it, the 'bully pulpit' has been the property of the US president. Mr Trump, however, is more bully than pulpit, and Mr Vance, a Catholic convert, is a most articulate preacher. He is searching, like so many, for a conservatism which goes deeper than economics and pays greater heed to those left behind by social change and discriminated against by modern public doctrine. He is influenced in this by the National Conservatism movement in the United States. In developing these views, Mr Vance and Maga allies identify 'woke' as their main internal opponent. They see woke doctrines, advancing under the camouflage of liberal tolerance, as neo-Marxist attempts to set different groups, tribes and classes against one another and to dissolve the proud historical identity of the nation state. This is an even more incendiary subject in America than in Britain but, goodness knows, it is hotting up here, chiefly because of this century's huge increase in immigration encouraged under both main parties. Mr Vance has expressed this vividly: 'I think the people whose ancestors fought in the Civil War have a hell of a lot more claim over America than the people who say they don't belong today.' He seeks allies for a comparable message here and, in more directly political terms, for the best political vehicle. He is contemplating a different party configuration on the Right. At present, he sees Reform, if allied with 'sound' Tories, as the likelier means than the present Conservative Party. I have my doubts about the practicality of that, and the wisdom of foreign politicians, Anglophile though they may be, getting involved. But what I want to discuss today is not party-political manoeuvring. It is the philosophical and moral ways in which the Vance Anglosphere crusade – given the militant Christian roots involved, the word 'crusade' may be apposite – could all go wrong. I write as someone who wants it to go right. The first danger – though I agree that Christianity is the most important single root of our institutions, our civil society and our shared culture – arises because there is usually something unscrupulous about using Christianity as a political weapon. Look at how politics in the Muslim world is corrupted by Islamist ideology and you will see the analogy. The second danger is that the anti-wokeists may replicate on their side what they so dislike about their opponents. Just as woke people try to smear all conservatives as racists, so some conservatives smear all wokeists as unpatriotic traitors. Many Maga supporters are doing this already, especially online. They lament how the 'mutual loyalty' of American society has been gashed by political correctness, but they are not doing much to bind up the wounds. Like that of woke, their rhetoric attracts people who enjoy hating other people. If perverted liberalism leads to neo-Marxism, could not perverted patriotism lead to neo-fascism? Take, for example, Dr Orr's recent advocacy of the slogan 'Faith, Flag and Family'. All three are indeed good things, but he, an intelligent and well-educated man, must know how similar are these words to the propaganda of Vichy France (' Famille. Travail. Patrie '). One well-known Vichy poster contrasted an attractive, well-built house founded on these principles with a crumbling one built on 'capital', 'Jewishness', 'democracies' and other supposed evils. Does that not worry him? It should. In the United States, sometimes assisted by people as prominent as Tucker Carlson, anti-Semitism, which in the past 30 years has become increasingly the property of the Left, is being reclaimed by elements on the Right. A good index of bad trends of thought is what some on the Right say about Ukraine. There are, of course, reasonable arguments to make for peace talks, but note the omissions. Neither President Trump nor his vice-president ever says that Putin's invasion struck against the 80-year peace of all Europe, which depends on inviolable borders. Neither draws attention to Putin's more minor but significant provocations and infiltrations in most other eastern European nations. Note, too, the shifting of blame – most strikingly on to President Zelensky himself, whose crime seems to have been to refuse to run away as the Russian tanks rolled towards Kyiv – and also on to the West in general (a persistent claim made by Nigel Farage). Finally, note how the wilder attacks on wokeism in the West invoke Putin almost as the goodie. On the BBC in May, Dr Orr appeared with the Liberal Democrat MP, Max Wilkinson. Complaining (rightly) about growing free speech restrictions in this country, Dr Orr said, 'A lot more people have got into trouble in the UK for free speech offences than in Putin's Russia.' When challenged for this astonishing statement, he 'gladly' promised to send Mr Wilkinson the evidence to back it up. He has never done so. If Maga people are sincere, as I believe they are, in wishing to reassert the self-determination of independent nation states and disapproving of imperial 'forever wars', why do they excuse Putin's Russia and disparage Ukraine's battle to maintain the rights of nationhood? How did the national conservatism of Edmund Burke get muddled up with the Putinist opportunism of Viktor Orban's government in Hungary?
Sky News
19 hours ago
- Sky News
Charity rowers MP mistook for migrants welcome blunder as it helped boost donations
A team of charity rowers that were mistaken for migrants by an MP have welcomed the blunder as it has helped to boost donations for their fundraiser. The ROW4MND crew arrived at the Forth Bridge near Edinburgh on Friday, marking the end of the first leg of their bid to circumnavigate Britain. Since departing from Land's End in Cornwall on 25 July, the rowers have covered approximately 900 miles and burned some 450,000 calories, while battling sleep deprivation and physical exhaustion. The have also faced a number of unexpected obstacles, including Storm Floris and being mistaken for a "migrant dinghy" by Norfolk MP Rupert Lowe while rowing up the east coast of England. In a post on X on 7 August, Mr Lowe wrote "Dinghies coming into Great Yarmouth, RIGHT NOW", alongside a grainy picture of the ocean rowing boat, before acknowledging his mistake in a post the following day. The incident made headlines and boosted donations by upwards of £30,000 - including £1,000 from Mr Lowe himself. The original route also took the crew north into the Irish Sea, but after rowing 100 miles strong headwinds forced them to return to Land's End to start the row again, this time heading east along the English Channel. The ROW4MND team, consisting of Aaron Kneebone, Liz Wardley, Mike Bates and Matt Parker, is aiming to raise money for research into motor neurone disease (MND), with the first leg of their circumnavigation being the first of four epic rows over four years. As they passed underneath Scotland's famous bridge, the crew were welcomed by supporters, well-wishers and members of the MND community. Mr Parker, co-founder of the ROW4MND project, said: "While we may have been fortunate in that the 'migrants' story made ROW4MND huge news, the media and public interest has now shifted from Rupert's tweet to everyone wanting to talk to us about raising £57m. "We couldn't have wished for a better outcome." Mr Bates, a former Royal Marine and British record holder for rowing solo across the Atlantic, said the row had "exceeded our wildest dreams" and he also thanked Mr Lowe for bringing it to the world's attention. "A huge amount of effort and detail goes into planning a challenge like this," he said. "Coastal rowing is very different to ocean rowing and we've encountered some of the most challenging conditions that any of us have faced - including in the Atlantic and Pacific. "We'd like to thank Rupert Lowe MP for inadvertently bringing the eyes of the world onto our crew, which has opened the floodgates in terms of donations. "Maybe he can lend a few further words of encouragement for the second leg next year." Representatives from three charities involved in the project - the Motor Neurone Disease Association; the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation; and the Leeds Hospitals Charity - were among those welcoming the rowers to shore. So far, the crew have raised more than £135,000. Mr Parker said: "At the outset, we wanted to deliver two objectives: raising £57m to have a material impact on the search for a cure to MND; and building awareness about this cruel illness, which will affect one in 300 people over a lifetime." The crew plan complete the second half of their circumnavigation next year, before rowing from California to Hawaii in 2027, and from New York to London in 2028.
