A new compendium of adventures, from the best-selling Wild Guide series (winner of travel guidebook of the year 2015). This guide to Scotland and the Scottish highlands and islands, one of Europe's fastest growing adventure holiday destinations, explores the hidden parts of its better known tourist areas, as well many more remote regions, rarely visited by tourists. Guiding you to over 800 wild swims, ancient forests, lost ruins and hidden beaches. Including inns, wild camping, local crafts, artisan whisky distilleries and wild places to stay.
Essentially a travel guide for wild campers and swimmers. I definitely won't be doing either but the photos were wonderful, and brought back memories of places visited.
I bought this book some time ago, but I've only just got around to reading it - it was torture to contemplate it during the height of the lockdown, as we couldn't go anywhere. Now travel restrictions have been lifted, and tourist businesses are about to re-open, I was keen to get some ideas on places to go. I'm itching to get out into the wilds again.
Although the photography in this book is absolutely stunning, I found the text rather lacking in substance, and therefore a little disappointing. Each region of Scotland has an introduction, but there's not a huge amount of information in it, and the bulk of the book is just a bunch of listings that aren't very user-friendly. It's hard to work out if this is meant to be a guide book, travel literature or a piece of promotional material for a bunch of tourist businesses. It tries to be all three, and doesn't work brilliantly for any of them.
Although it's hardly the writers' fault, I also suspect a lot of the information in this book will be useless after the lockdown, as the Scottish government's spectacularly heavy-handed and over-the-top restrictions will have trashed most of the country's tourist infrastructure, so many of the businesses mentioned will never re-open.
A bit disappointing, really. Two and a half stars. Looks great, but lacking where it matters.
I read this book before my trip to do the NC500 and it was fantastic for giving ideas for where to sleep, eat and where to visit. The pictures were visually striking too. However I hadn't highlighted or bookmarked places so when it came to trying to find things again it was a nightmare. Just a little index at the back would have made the world of difference instead of having to go through it all again.
Oops I failed to notice that it only covers Scotland’s Highlands and Islands which doesn’t cover the area I was buying it for. That said, for the areas it covers it looks great - lots of different places to visit, photos to support and a map for each of the 26 regions showing the proximity of all their suggestions
Neither a travel book not a brochure, this guide highlights the natural best-ofs for each region of Scotland north of the Central Belt. I’m not sure why the Borders and Southern Uplands were left out, but it is a definite weak point. Otherwise, the short synopsis and lovely pictures of the 30 odd highlights per region were just enough of an appetizer to want to delve deeper.
This Wild Guide makes me want to take a year to explore Scotland's wilds starting right now! Love the regional organization of the book...breaks the Highlands into manageable chunks. Some great travel ideas...added many new places to my dream itinerary!
Alba pulses through the veins here, with a masterly masterclass of every nook & cranny that you never knew about in Northern Northern England. Bourdain meets Bear Grylls.
Who are the shadowy authors? And who are their friends?
An excellent guidebook and source of trip-inspiration. Great for lusting over all of the places I hope to go once lockdown eases up... The only thing that I wish it included was information on the Borders/Southern Uplands. I know this area isn't quite as wild as the north, but there are still a lot of tucked-away gems that I feel the book could have captured and shared.
I love this book. I have been marking off places in it for years. This year however I read it cover to cover and have found so many gems that I had missed before. Wondering if it is worth buying the updated edition 🤔👍