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We’re delighted to be back with a new ‘Hidden Scotland Weekly’. We really hope that you enjoy reading. We're also excited to share that subscriptions to Hidden Scotland Magazine are now available. With a subscription, you’ll receive every issue delivered directly to your door, beautifully packaged and accompanied by a complimentary bookmark and cover print. To find out more, click here.

We hope you enjoy this week’s edition, and have a wonderful Sunday!

Plan your 2025 Adventures

With January already underway, it's a great time to plan your adventures for 2025. Whether you're dreaming of exploring the rugged beauty of the Isle of Skye, uncovering the charm and history of Edinburgh, or diving into the rich stories featured in Hidden Scotland Magazine Issue 09, our guidebooks and latest issue are your ultimate companions for creating unforgettable travel plans.

Additionally, our 2025 wall calendar is here to keep your plans organised and inspired throughout the year. Featuring breathtaking photography of Scotland’s most striking locations, the A3 calendar doubles as a collection of prints to cherish beyond the year. Start 2025 with inspiration and structure, ready to embark on your next Scottish journey.

Legends From the Old Man of Storr

The Old Man of Storr is one of Skye's most iconic landmarks and most popular hikes. It’s no surprise that more than one folk story has grown around this uniquely shaped pinnacle of rock.

The most popular legend tells us that Skye was once a land of Giants. These enormous figures roamed the island from the Cuillins to the Quiraing, the sound of their constant fighting filling the air. During one of these regular battles, a particularly large giant was slain on the Trotternish Peninsula.

Abandoned where he fell, the land eventually swallowed up all but this one point, left poking above ground. Some say the Old Man of Storr was the giant’s thumb, while others know it as a slightly more intimate part of his body.

Another folk story attributes the landscape to Skye's mischievous fairies. A local couple once climbed to the top of these hills every single day of their long and happy marriage. As the years passed and the couple grew older, the wife began to struggle with their daily hike.

Her husband refused to break the tradition and when she just couldn’t climb any longer, he carried her on his back. It wasn’t long before the old man wasn’t strong enough anymore, but he still didn’t want to leave his love behind.

The fairies had taken an interest in the strange sight of the couple plodding up the hill daily. When they heard the man wish that his wife was able to go everywhere that he went, they decided to pay him a visit. The fairies agreed to grant his request, all he had to do was carry his partner up the hill one more time on his back.

Once they had reached the top, the devious creatures turned the couple into this huge stone pillar. As promised, the husband would no longer go anywhere without his wife, joined together forever.

The last story relates to a much friendlier creature from Skye. A farmer who lived at the foot of the slope had once saved the life of a kind and honourable Brownie. These small creatures were well sought after, usually helping with chores around the house at night. This farmer didn’t want free labour though and instead, the two became close friends.

Years later, the farmer's wife fell ill and tragically passed away. With a broken heart, the farmer died the very next day leaving the brownie all alone. Devastated at the loss, he decided to honour his friend in a lasting memorial. The brownie carved a rock above their home into the shape of his good friend, creating the Old Man of Storr.

The appearance of this landmark has changed greatly since these stories were first told. So much of the pillar’s rockface has crumbled away that it takes a good imagination to see the shapes that made the legends. Not as many people believe in giants, fairies or brownies anymore, but you can’t deny that there’s something very special about the Old Man of Storr.

Written by Graeme Johncock

A Day Around The East Neuk Of Fife

As a born and bred Fifer, there’s nothing I love more than spending a day around the Kingdom of Fife. There’s lots to keep you busy around this wee peninsula, but if you only have one day, then follow this itinerary along the string of fishing villages on the coast known as the East Neuk of Fife.

Elie & Ruby Bay

Starting at the most southern point of the East Neuk, Elie is blessed with some of the best beaches in the area. In the summer, a local cricket team even takes to the sand for their games and a horsebox sauna is available for private hire! Another stretch of coastline just next door is known as Ruby Bay due to red garnets that have sometimes turned up there. It’s also where you’ll find the short walk to Lady’s Tower, a stone folly that was built in the 1770s for Janet Anstruther. She liked to skinny dip in the bay and then sit here to dry off while admiring the view across the Forth to the Bass Rock & North Berwick Law.

Bowhouse Market

A short drive north takes you to a new addition to the East Neuk – Bowhouse Market. It allows growers and producers to bring the amazing natural larder of this corner of Fife to the general public. On market weekends, the place is packed with stalls, but on regular days there are often a few traders open including the butchery and a café called Baern.

St Monans

The next village along is St Monans, one of the most picturesque harbours anywhere in Scotland. It’s characteristic of the East Neuk, with pretty coloured buildings and orange pantiles on the roofs. After exploring the harbour, head up to the old church that claims to be the closest to the sea in Scotland. It’s over 650 years old, founded by King David II after he arrived to pray at the shrine here in the mid-1300s. The King had lived for 10 years with an arrowhead lodged in his face, but upon praying to St Monan, the barb miraculously worked its way free. The church was built in thanks and it’s barely changed in all that time!

Pittenweem

Keep travelling north along the coast and you’ll come to Pittenweem. It’s just as idyllic as St Monans, but as well as a wander around the busy harbour, this fishing village has a secret. The clue is in the name – Pittenweem means “Place of the Cave”.

Dedicated to another local Celtic saint, St Fillan’s Cave can be found down Cove Wynd. It’s dark and damp in the cave, with a steep slope down to the more modern altar. This is where Fillan lived as a hermit and to ensure he could still study the scripture, his arm would miraculously glow in the dark!

The key that provides access to the cave can be picked up at the Cocoa Tree Café for a small cost and deposit.

Cocoa Tree Cafe

Once returning the key for St Fillan’s Cave, the Cocoa Tree makes the perfect stop for lunch! As well as cooked rolls and homemade cakes, they produce their own delicious chocolates on site with a truly staggering selection.

Kellie Castle

Moving briefly away from the coast but staying in the East Neuk, it’s well worth visiting Kellie Castle. Run by the National Trust for Scotland, it’s a real hidden gem with the oldest tower dating back to the 14th century.

As well as the early history of the castle, you’ll discover about the Lorimer family who brought the building back from ruin in the 1900s. Plant lovers will enjoy this place as much as history fans with a walk around the huge walled garden.

Anstruther

The next village on our route is one of the best known and the largest - Anstruther. On sunny days, there can be a queue down the street of people waiting for fish & chips from the famous Anstruther Fish Bar! Many don’t realise that just next door is the fantastic Scottish Fisheries Museum.

Impossibly big on the inside, it covers the history of fishing in Scotland from the earliest days to the modern vessels bobbing on the waves outside.

Crail

Crail is the final stop on this East Neuk itinerary and it’s one of the most historic spots in all of Fife. The market here was once the second largest in the country and the cobbled streets are lined with houses dating from the 1600s and earlier.

In the summer months, a lobster shack provides shellfish to enjoy by the water, but it’s a beautiful spot at all times of the year. It’s a place packed full of character and a fitting end to a day around the East Neuk of Fife!

Written by Graeme Johncock Greame has recently written a book called ‘Scotland's Stories by Graeme Johncock’ Grab a copy here. Look out for ‘Around Scotland with Graeme Johncock’ at the end of the month.

Spotlight: Jura Distillery

Welcome to a place apart. A grand total of around 212 people live on the wild Inner Hebridean island of Jura, where they’re outnumbered about 30 to one by red deer. The island has one proper road – a snaking stretch of singletrack – three conical quartzite mountains known as the Paps of Jura, and one whisky distillery. Some 80 years ago, George Orwell decamped to a farmhouse here to write his classic dystopian novel 1984, and the island is as singular today as it was then.

It brings a uniquely rare feel to the island’s whisky. There’s been a licensed distillery here since way back in 1810 – in Craighouse, Jura’s largest village – and pleasingly, today’s operation occupies the same site. It’s been there since 1963 its current form, making this year its sixtieth anniversary. Just as appealing for connoisseurs is the fact that Jura sits a mere 10-minute ferry hop from the hallowed whisky island of Islay, which tells you something of the tastes and terroir you can expect.

Given the size of the island’s population, a sense of community still underpins everything the distillery produces. The two local landowners who got things up and running in the 1960s did so partly as a way of bringing more jobs to an island that needed a fresh lease of life. Happily, the whisky that comes from the stillhouse’s four colossal lantern-shaped stills is rejuvenating in its own right, with a sweet, fruity nose and a smoky finish.

The core range has four different bottlings: a 10-year-old, a 16-year-old, the heavily peated Prophecy and the smoky Superstition. A valuable rarity is the 1984 bottling, created to commemorate George Orwell’s links to the island. Big Brother is watching you – and probably fancies a dram himself.

For more info click here

Meet Helen, Owner Of Dook

Hi Helen, please tell everyone a bit about yourself and introduce your brand & products.

Hi, I’m Helen: mum of two kids, maker of lots of soap. I run a small company called ‘dook’ from my shed in Edinburgh.

Can you tell us the meaning behind the name Dook?

Dook is Scots for ‘ to dip, bathe or plunge.’ I’m lucky enough to live and work by the sea in Portobello – Edinburgh’s beach. So, the name references the place the soaps are made and also the salt in the soap which creates our very special lather.

How would you describe your style and where do you take inspiration from?

I would say that my style is pretty minimalist, with a natural muted colour palette – the colours in my soaps are all plant or earth based either from the essential oils or the cleansing clays.

The north sea on our doorstep is a definite inspiration – I enjoy a dook at any time of the year. There was something about the soft feeling of seawater on my skin that made me investigate adding salt into my soaps in the first place.

Can you tell us a bit about your process and how you come up with the gorgeous scents and combinations?

Soap is made using a combination of oils mixed with an extremely alkaline solution called ‘Lye.’ The oils you choose contribute creamy, bubbly or nourishing qualities to your soap. I also add Himalayan salt to my soap bars. This creates a hard, long-lasting bar with a thick creamy lather that cleanses and nourishes the skin. The scent combinations are simply scents that I enjoy myself – nothing too flowery or overpowering but clean, herbal and citrus scents with a few woody notes here and there.

Please tell us about the ingredients that you use and the benefits they bring.

The main ingredients in my soaps are two gorgeous organic oils: coconut oil and raw shea butter. The coconut oil is a brilliant cleanser and pairs beautifully with raw shea butter. The shea is full of skin loving vitamins such as A, E and K. A small percentage of the butter remains in its raw form in the soap and so creates a nourishing layer on your skin. This way dook soaps never dry your skin out like other bar soaps can.

What is your favourite part of the process?

The multi-step process of making a batch of soaps is very sensory and really enjoyable. You can put music or a podcast on, but it’s impossible to check your phone and unsafe to be disturbed. I love the process of converting the oils into a hot batter then pouring them individually into moulds. The conversion of a smooth hot liquid into a solid soap, cool to the touch, takes about 8 hours. It always seems totally alchemical and magical to me.

Can you tell us a bit about the area you live/work in?

I live in Portobello, Edinburgh. We’re lucky enough to live right by the sea and enjoy the constant shift of light as it plays on the sea and sky.

The huge public space of the beach is a wonderful resource, lit by bonfires at Hogmanay and the summer solstice and increasingly busy with wild-swimmers taking a dip in the (sometimes) blue water.

The community in Portobello is second to none, there are several events throughout the year often based on or around the beach and the prom. During the COVID lockdown in 2020 it’s been a great place to find some space and stretch your legs on an evening stroll – keeping your eyes peeled for seals popping their heads up, or even the occasional dolphin!

What would you recommend doing/seeing in your area to someone visiting?

Go for it and take a dook in the sea! The beach is gently shelving sand and it’s a really safe place to try a bit of wild swimming. There’s nothing that compares to immersing yourself in such a vast amount of water. It’s awe inspiring. And although blue still days with a clear sea are amazing, I recommend going in when it’s wavy – the waves distract from the cold and it’s brilliant fun to bob up and down in the waves. Even in the rain, it’s a wonderful experience. I’ve never regretted a swim!

We have a small selection of Dook Products left in stock, if you would like to buy one then find out more here or visit Dook’s website.

Last few remaining
Hidden Scotland 2025 Calendar

Enjoy a selection of stunning photography that captures some of Scotland's best bits throughout the year.

The A3 landscape wall calendar is printed on a beautiful matt art paper stock that makes the images really stand out. The landscape layout allows for an A4 image on one side, which can be utilised as a print afterwards.

As well as a square for each day for you to add those all important events and special dates you have coming up in the new year. There is also a notes section for any additional information you need to jot down for that month.

This weekend only for £17.00 £20.00

If you would like to email us about any suggestions or feedback please email [email protected] with the subject feedback. Thanks!