Europe
While Scotland has long been known for its culture-rich cities and castle-crowned crags, it is also one of Europe’s last great wildernesses. At almost every turn is a vista that will stop you in your tracks—so keep your camera close at hand!
Videos
Bears, lynx, wolves and wildcats used to roam the lands that today make up Great Britain. European brown bears, however, have been extinct there since at least the early Middle Ages—and possibly even earlier. British lynx disappeared around 700 A.D., due to hunting and habitat destruction. And by the turn of the 16th century, wolves were extinct in England and Wales.
Nature & Wildlife
On New Year’s Day, rather than making resolutions, I have a better suggestion: go outside and take a walk. Or don’t take a walk, but just go outside. You don’t even have to be outdoors for long. Why?
Europe
The Scottish Highlands have been described as achingly beautiful, and I’d have to agree. In this vast wilderness, glens sit in ancient glacial valleys, striped by ribbons of rivers and enclosed by jagged mountain peaks. But this lovely landscape could not be defined as “untouched.”
Europe
Sparsely populated, with several rugged mountain ranges that are speckled with forests of Scots pines, the Highlands of Scotland are the only areas in the British Isles that lie within the taiga biome. The Highlands are often portrayed as the romantic part of Scotland.
Travel Tips
Being an inveterate introvert, I avoid large crowds—well, really, even groups of people numbering 15 or more—like the plague.
Conservation
My father never had the “urge for going,” as songwriter-singer Joni Mitchell calls it—the desire to travel. I place the blame for that fact squarely on the shoulders of World War II.
Nature & Wildlife
There’s no doubt that today most adults and children spend more time indoors interacting with media and technology than participating in outdoor activities. Numerous studies have shown that spending time in nature is good for our physical and mental health. But what impact does it directly have on our creativity?
Europe
Every time I see a puffin, the same thought comes to mind: They’re not real, right? They’re too impossibly cute. For me and for everyone else on the planet, I bet, they seem just too adorable to be of natural origins. But they are.
Europe
There is nothing so beautiful as the wild Highlands of Scotland—with the exception of, perhaps, its feral islands. Scotland has nearly 800 of them, most of which are found in four main groups: Orkney, Shetland, and the Outer and Inner Hebrides. And one of the wildest in the Inner Hebrides is Handa Island.
Europe
Surrounded by the bracing waters of the North Sea to the east, and the North Atlantic Ocean to the west and north, Scotland is a place of rugged coastlines, of mountains and valleys, and of rolling hills and green fields.
Travel Tales
Like a soft, stretched-out sweater you’ve had for decades or a faded, well-worn jean jacket, I have a favorite pair of slacks. They earned my esteem not because of a fantastic fit, a comfortable fabric or a trendy style.
