Scotland

A few months ago I had call to visit the Isle of Skye for a couple of days. I have travelled acros Skye countless times but rarely spent more than a couple of hours exploring places such as Portree where we would often stop for a bite to eat before returning to our journey. This time my destination was the island itself so I had plenty of time to look around... Read More

It’s been a while since I posted here, it’s not that I have run out of things to say about Scotland and the UK, no, I have actually been rather busy building my new UK Hotels site SimplyTop.com. I have also been hard at work trying to make something of my front garden and although there is still a fair bit to do I have started to think about my other sites, especially those about the Isle of Harris and the Outer Hebrides. I’ve just completed a couple of sites dedicated to hotels on Skye after spending a wonderful couple of days there getting our car serviced and I have just revamped my site Virtual Skye with a view to expanding it considerably over the next year or so (yes there really is that much to see and do on Skye!).  The next islands I plan to visit are the Isle of Arran and, in the autumn, I plan to visit the Isle of Mull but for now I am happy enjoying the wonderful Isle of Harris... Read More

Each year I see more and more people taking their family pet away with them on their annual vacation. I used to only see old age pensioners taking their pet dog with them but now it is just as common to see a whole family with the dog. I don’t know why this surprises me so much as when I was a child we always took our dog with us when we went camping and the only time we didn’t was when we stayed in a hotel. Maybe that is it, maybe these days more hotels and guest houses allow pets? I pondered on this for a while and took a look at some of the many articles on the Internet about so called “Pet Friendly Hotels”. I then decided to begin creating lists of places which allow pets and could therefore be said to be pet friendly... Read More

I have mentioned Stirling Castle in earlier posts but having just created a new page for simplytop.com with a wealth of details about Stirling Castle I thought it was worth including a few of the important details here. Although I have yet to visit Edinburgh Castle from the information I have read it appears to me that it is rather over estimated, especially when compared to the fantastic example at Stirling... Read More

I write for a number of sites and I was recently writing for Virtual Scotland about Tony Blair when I just totally lost it. The article started of reasonably well with a basic rundown of his life but by the time I got to his days as British PM I found that all the good I had to say was negated by the war in Iraq and the likes. I had decided that I was going to write her about the wonderful Scottish city of Aberdeen and why it was such a cool place to take a weekend city break but I can not help but think about all the choas that seems to be going on there at the moment so I will add a quick bit about that first... Read More

I have actually lost count of the amount of times I have been asked (in personal or via email) what is the best time of the year to visit the Outer Hebrides (Western Isles) and I really do have to admit that though many assume it to be the height of the tourist season many choose to visit the islands at various other times instead. Let me explain a couple of the reasons why I would consider this to be a very wise decision... Read More

Spending most of my summer vacation on the beach isn’t my idea of fun. Please do not get the wrong idea, at times I really do enjoy relaxing on a sandy beach, however, I also like to travel a little inland too. I love to soak in the atmosphere, which is often unique, I like to sample the local food and culture. If the truth is to be known I simply enjoy visiting new places each year and I try very hard attempting to find something totally different. Most probably this is why I so thoroughly enjoy visits to the island in the Hebrides known as the Isle of Harris and why I frequently choose to book a self catering cottage on Harris... Read More

Fife is an region of Scotland surrounded by water on three sides, the Tay, the Forth and the North Sea. While much of the land is turned over to agriculture the small region is actually the third largest, in terms of population, in Scotland with a rather industrial southern part. Tourism provides an important income and much of the interest in the area is associated with golf, that ancient Scottish game that is known, and well loved, throughout the world. For this reason I have decided to introduce you to the British Golf Museum and the St Andrews Museum. There are a great many places to visit in Fife but for an area surrounded by so much water it will not come as any great surprise that I have chosen to also take a look at the Scottish Fisheries Museum... Read More