Scotland: General Tips

Eating Scotland

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Scotland isn't exactly known for its tradition of sophisticated cuisine, but there's been more and more high-quality restaurants opening in the country all the time, and although day-to-day Scottish food tends towards stodge and fat, there are some products and dishes that you just have to try. Like many cultures from wet and cold places, Scots are good at grain products, and cakes and pastries are something of a national weakness. Try the Dundee Cake -- a ground-almond enriched fruit-cake covered with whole almonds, or the Black Bun, a dark almost flour-less Christmas concoction covered in plain pastry traditionally associated with Hogmany (New Year). Savoury pastries of note...Read More

Scotland isn't exactly known for its tradition of sophisticated cuisine, but there's been more and more high-quality restaurants opening in the country all the time, and although day-to-day Scottish food tends towards stodge and fat, there are some products and dishes that you just have to try.

Like many cultures from wet and cold places, Scots are good at grain products, and cakes and pastries are something of a national weakness. Try the Dundee Cake -- a ground-almond enriched fruit-cake covered with whole almonds, or the Black Bun, a dark almost flour-less Christmas concoction covered in plain pastry traditionally associated with Hogmany (New Year).

Savoury pastries of note include butteries, the Scottish take on a croissant, salty, flaky and delightful if eaten hot, with extra butter (the ''buttery'' of the name is a misnomer, as the rolls are made with lard and yeasty dough). A quick lunch is often a Scotch Pie or a Bridie grabbed from a bakery -- both mince-meat filled pasties, the first one a somewhat plain one, usually round, the latter a flaky pocket with savoury filling. When bed, both can be atrocious, but when good, they are lovely if rather greasy.

A ''fish supper'' is what Scots call the fish and chips, and the best Scottish chippies serve fantastic versions of this British traditional take away indeed: with fat, crispy chips with fluffy insides and fresh fish in light batter. You will be always asked if you want salt and vinegar, and you should, to cut through the grease.

A chippie is a heaven for deep-fry fans and the nation that ostensibly invented a deep-fried Mars bar (though in all honesty I only ever saw Japanese tourists ordering those) deep-fries in batter everything else too, including sausages, chicken and haggis.

Speaking of which, haggis is indeed something that needs to be tried. Traditionally associated with the Burns Night celebrations on 25th January, haggis is an oatmeal and meat (mostly offal) concoction If you have it in a gastro-pub or a restaurant, it will often come as a top slice of a little tower constructed of mashed potato and mashed swede (rutabaga). Confusingly, swede is called a turnip in Scotland! Although ingredients of a haggis may seem off-putting, don't knock down this well-spiced dish before you try. Good haggis is very good indeed.

Meat - especially excellent beef, of which Aberdeen Angus and Highland Cattle are the best - can be very good in Scotland. A steak pie - a rich beef stew covered with flaky pastry - is traditionally eaten on New Year's day, and is another pub meal staple.

Venison, either farmed or wild, as well as game fowl, makes for popular restaurant choices, what with so much of the Highlands covered by shooting estates.

Seafood, shellfish on the west coast, white fish on the east and salmon, wild or farmed, all over, are also worth trying and very popular. Try to get a good Arbroath smokie - a smoked haddock done in a traditional way in or around the small East-coast fishing town. Nothing beats one freshly smoked, hot from the barrel, but they are available in restaurants and at fishmongers throughout the country.

Fruit and vegetables are not as non-existing in Scottish diet as it might seem, in fact Scotland grows a lot of soft fruit for the UK market, with strawberries and particularly raspberries happily growing on the acidic soils. June and July are the high season for those and you will see punnets of freshly picked ones sold from stalls at the roadside.

And finally, if you are staying in a B&B, choose one which serves a good cooked breakfast: you can get your fill of porridge, bacon, sausages, haggis, black pudding and, potato scones and toast, all washed down with strong tea, to last you the whole day! Read Less

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Four Seasons in One Day: Scottish Weather

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Although all of the UK enjoys a relatively mild climate considering its actual latitude, the Scottish weather, especially in the Highlands, and especially in the west, gets a fairly deserved bad press.This is less to do with the fact that the weather is incredibly harsh, as the temperatures rarely drop into below zero and snow isn't that common on the sea level, and more with the amount of rain, the weather's fickle changeability and the fierce gales that combine with the damp to sometimes create a literally lethal wind chill factor. To keep it in perspective, though, unless unlucky or careless on a mountain side or a deserted moor, you are extremely unlikely to die of exposure...Read More

Although all of the UK enjoys a relatively mild climate considering its actual latitude, the Scottish weather, especially in the Highlands, and especially in the west, gets a fairly deserved bad press.

This is less to do with the fact that the weather is incredibly harsh, as the temperatures rarely drop into below zero and snow isn't that common on the sea level, and more with the amount of rain, the weather's fickle changeability and the fierce gales that combine with the damp to sometimes create a literally lethal wind chill factor.

To keep it in perspective, though, unless unlucky or careless on a mountain side or a deserted moor, you are extremely unlikely to die of exposure in Scotland on the sea level. The mountains are a different matter, and even in the summer you need to come prepared for quick changes of weather. Always carry a waterproof jacket, an extra layer of clothes and be ready for a sudden and unexpected drop of temperature, rain and wind picking up. It is said that you can see all seasons in one day in Scotland, and nowhere it is as true as it is in the hills of the Highlands.

There is quite a regional variation in weather patterns as well, with the west being noticeably wetter and more cloudy (though the very coast gets more sunshine that even a couple of miles inland).

North-western Highlands are cold and wet, with the average annual high temperatures in Kinlochewe around 12C, average low 5C, 57 days of frost, 217 days with some rain and less than an hour of sunshine per day in December and January, going up to about 5 hours a day in May (which tends to be the sunniest month here).

Braemar in the Cairngorms, where the coldest temperatures in the UK are frequently recorded, is colder but a bit sunnier, with May and June again the sunniest months with relatively least rain.

On the other hand, Leuchars in Fife near the east coast north of Edinburgh has similar annual average temperatures to Kinlochewe, but three times as much sunshine in January and December and a respectable 7 hours a day in May, with two-thirds of the days rain free all year round. Edinburgh has similar weather patterns.

All in all, May and June are probably some of the best months to come to Scotland. In June, the average highs in the south of the country are around 17C, the lows around 10C. In the Highlands, the temperatures are comparable in July & August, with June and especially May cooler at around 14-15C average high and 7C average low, but there is more sunshine and if you comein May, the midges are less likely to be out yet!
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Don't get eaten

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Various repellents Photo - Scotland, United Kingdom

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If the Scottish weather, apart from being generally wetter (especially on the west coast) than many other places in the UK, tends to be at least a little bit better than its pretty universally held image, and the wildlife in Scotland is mostly as benign as everywhere else in the UK, there is one creature that keeps visitors away from large swathes of the best Scottish landscape for half of the year.This creature is a small insect that flies slowly and can be easily squashed with two fingers: the Highland Midge. Midges are a bane of the outdoors on the west coast of Scotland (although they appear in other areas as well, but in vastly smaller quantities) and anybody who is consid...Read More

If the Scottish weather, apart from being generally wetter (especially on the west coast) than many other places in the UK, tends to be at least a little bit better than its pretty universally held image, and the wildlife in Scotland is mostly as benign as everywhere else in the UK, there is one creature that keeps visitors away from large swathes of the best Scottish landscape for half of the year.

This creature is a small insect that flies slowly and can be easily squashed with two fingers: the Highland Midge.

Midges are a bane of the outdoors on the west coast of Scotland (although they appear in other areas as well, but in vastly smaller quantities) and anybody who is considering camping or even just hiking in those areas between late April and October (and certainly May to September) should really pay some heed to keeping midges at bay.

There are various theories as to how best you can avoid the pesky insects, but frankly, if you are in a midge-infested place, there is very little you can do.

They like damp, warm(ish) and windless. They don't like dry and hot, so won't be out in full summer sunshine (although that tends to be rare in the Highlands). They don't like windy, but then windy is not much for for people either. They are not very fast, so walking at a reasonable speed (easy on flat, not so easy when slogging up a hill) will keep them from biting, but stopping for any reason will bring them on in spats.

What CAN you do, then?

1) Stay indoors, especially when midges come out in droves, which tends to be at dusk and earlish in the morning. Unlike mosquito, midges don't invade buildings much, though if you leave an open window and a light on at night, you will need a vacuum cleaner to get rid of them, and you will miss some.

2) Use a repellent. Various ones have their own fans, in my personal experience the best OVERALL is a new one called The Smidge, expensive but effective and not too horrible. DEET-containing tropical-strength repellents also work, but in addition to repelling midges, they dissolve your electronic equipment (or at least plastic parts thereof) and make the food taste foul. Some people swear by Avon's Skin-So-Soft jojoba skin oil (the original green/blue bottle), and it's commonly sold in shops in the Highlands. I find that it works reasonably, but needs to be reapplied very frequently and smells worse than Smidge (but better than DEET).

3) Cover up. Wear long-sleeved tops, long trousers and some form of hat. If you do a lot of hiking, or are likely to be outdoors a lot and unable to hide from midges, seriously consider getting a midge net for your head. Sometimes you will need it simply not to choke on the swarm of midges even if the repellent keeps them from biting you! Some people buy full-body midge suits, and you know, it's not as a ridiculous idea as it seems.

4) Check midge forecast at ww.midgeforecast.co.uk and try to choose areas where the midge levels are lower.
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Single Track Roads

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Bealach na Ba Photo - Scottish Highlands, Scotland

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A phenomenon that, although appearing occasionally in the most remote parts or on the least significant roads in England and Wales, a single track road with passing places is very much a Scottish thing. In the Highlands, many roads – even fairly major roads, and in the most remote North, even the main trunk A-Roads – are single track. A single track road is a road that has only enough room for one vehicle. Usually a vehicle means a lorry, which means that in SOME places two smallish cars may be able to pass slowly, but in the vast majority of cases it's the passing places that must be used for that purpose. Passing places are wider areas of the road sort of bu...Read More

A phenomenon that, although appearing occasionally in the most remote parts or on the least significant roads in England and Wales, a single track road with passing places is very much a Scottish thing.

In the Highlands, many roads – even fairly major roads, and in the most remote North, even the main trunk A-Roads – are single track.

A single track road is a road that has only enough room for one vehicle. Usually a vehicle means a lorry, which means that in SOME places two smallish cars may be able to pass slowly, but in the vast majority of cases it's the passing places that must be used for that purpose.

Passing places are wider areas of the road sort of bulging out on one side, usually enough for a lorry or two-three normal cars to fit in.

There isn't really much mystery or difficulty in using single track roads, although they can be tiring because they require constantly paying attention even if there is very little traffic.

The basic principle is simple: the cars need to pass in the passing places, and if you don't notice the car approaching soon enough, one of you would need to reverse. Always stop at the correct side of the road – ie when the actual widening in the road is on the left, you should still stop on the right and the car approaching will pass around you using the space. Usually people tend to wait in the passing spaces that are on their side of the road, as it feels more natural than stopping in what feels like the middle of the lane.

Passing spaces are also used to allow overtaking. Please, please, please do that if driving in Scotland. On country roads, especially the wilder ones, the very local locals who know each bend and pothole drive much faster than the visitors, and even the less-local locals going about their daily business tend to drive faster than those who look at landscape and amble about. If you see somebody catching up behind you, pull in into a passing space and let them overtake.

Most single-track roads have plenty of passing spaces, but on a winding or a very hilly road, it isn't always possible to see to the next passing place and thus some degree of planning is required.

Essentially, though, just being watchful and taking your time is all you need.

And remember, never, ever use a passing place to park! Stopping to check a map or something similar is OK (use the indicator to encourage overtaking) but leaving your car is a real no-no. Read Less

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Social mine-fields

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As everywhere else in the UK, Scotland is and old place with an long-standing culture full of subtle (as well as not so subtle) complications and fault lines. Certain sensitivities are common to all parts of the UK, but others are quite specific to Scotland, or even its particular parts or regions. I am not attempting to write an anthropological guide here, just point out certain aspects of the culture that a traveller or a visitor might want to be aware of, either to avoid an unpleasant moment or just to enhance the understanding of the place. Nationality. Never, ever call a Scott ''English'' and never refer to Scotland as ''England''. Although it is understood tha...Read More

As everywhere else in the UK, Scotland is and old place with an long-standing culture full of subtle (as well as not so subtle) complications and fault lines.

Certain sensitivities are common to all parts of the UK, but others are quite specific to Scotland, or even its particular parts or regions.

I am not attempting to write an anthropological guide here, just point out certain aspects of the culture that a traveller or a visitor might want to be aware of, either to avoid an unpleasant moment or just to enhance the understanding of the place.

Nationality. Never, ever call a Scott ''English'' and never refer to Scotland as ''England''. Although it is understood that people from outside the UK will use ''England'' as a metonymy for the whole of Great Britain, and often for the whole of the United Kingdom, it's a very bad form to do it in Scotland. The Union of both countries is still an extremely controversial thing, and in fact the Edinburgh government is (at the time of writing in 2012) in the hands of SNP, a nationalist party whose main (and some say, the only honestly held and real) objective is to achieve full independence for Scotland. The history of Scottish-English wars is long and illustrious and the memory of some battles, particularly the massacre at Culloden (although that was fought actually, along dynastic and religious fault-lines more than national ones) is still alive. Just. Remember. Scots. Are. Not. A. Subset. Of. The. English.

The attitudes to the UK project are more complex and although majority of the Scots support some form of independence, many do not. Historically, many Scots played an important part in the imperial expansion of the UK, and Scottish thinkers, writers and philosophers are an integral part of the mainstream UK intellectual life.

Religion. Overall, more of a fault line in Scotland than in England but less than in Ireland. If you talk to people from Glasgow, you are likely to hear about ''sectarianism'' which will inevitably refer to the tribal rivalry between the Protestants (specifically Church of Scotland) and Catholics, and will be often connected to the conflict between the supporters of the city's two main football clubs, Rangers (the Prod one) and Celtic (the Catholic one). Historically, many a big social upheaval in Scotland had a religious element, including both of the Jacobite rebellions of the 18th century. Nowadays outside Glasgow the Catholic-Protestant differences are significantly less pronounced, in line with the increasingly secular character of the culture in all of the UK.

In the Highlands, and particularly in the Western Isles, the Wee Frees, an extreme protestant church that split off the main Scottish Kirk, still has a powerful influence in many areas, where hanging out washing on a Sunday is frowned upon, playgrounds are chained closed and ferries don't run on a Sabbath.

Region. The rivalry between Edinburgh and Glasgow is legendary, each of those fascinating cities quite particular about its respective image Edinburgh's is one of a refined, cultured and decidedly upper-middle class snobbishness with an undercurrent of decadent darkness dating maybe as far as it medieval days. Glasgow considers itself a down-to-earth, working-class, genuine, friendly and non-snobby, with an undercurrent of violence and a gangland mythology to rival that of London's East End (not for nothing a head-butt is known as a Glasgow Kiss).

There are minor reflections of that archetypal fault-line, for example the antipathy between Perth (a snobby market town that considers itself a refined city) and Dundee (''Scumdee'' in the words of many a less refined Perth inhabitant).

The Highlanders (aka ''tchuchters'', although this word can also be applied to any person from the countryside even if not from the Highlands) are often regarded with reciprocal suspicion by the people from the Central Belt, while in the Highlands themselves the inhabitants of the East Coast are considered dour and repressed by those from the West, supposedly possessed of more of a free spirit and Celtic ''craik''. Read Less

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