Scotland Travel Information

New Glenmore Lodge - Outdoor Pursuits in Scotland website

Glenmore Lodge in Aviemore is Scotland's premier outdoor adventure specialist, providing courses, qualifications, events and holidays in:

• Rock Climbing
• Mountaineering
• Canoeing
• Kayaking
• Skiing
• Mountain Biking

and much more.

Glenmore Lodge also provides excellent self catering lodge accommodation to make it the perfect one stop shop for all your adventure holiday in Scotland needs.

You can find the Glenmore Lodge Adventure Sports website here.

Things to do in Edinburgh

• the Royal Yacht Britannia [1] (http://www.royalyachtbritannia.co.uk) - runner-up Best UK Attraction in 2004

• Edinburgh Castle [2] (http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/edinburghcastle) - tel 0131 225 9846. Edinburgh Castle, home to the Edinburgh Tattoo, is a magnificently situated royal fortress located on one of the highest points in the city. The castle has been continuously in use for 1000 years and is in excellent condition. The audio tour, which costs £3 per headset, is extremely detailed and worth hiring, providing both location based and chronologically based commentary on the castle. The castle opens at 9:30am and closes at 6:00pm April to October and 5:00pm during the rest of the year. Admission is £9.50 adults, £7 concessions and £2 children.

• the Palace of Holyroodhouse [3] (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page559.asp) - tel 0131 556 5100. fax 020 7930 9625. email [email protected]. The Palace is a royal residence, and hosts the Queen's Gallery containing a collection of art from the Royal Collection. The Palace is best known as the home of Mary Queen of Scots and as the site of the murder of Mary's secretary Rizzio by her husband Lord Darnley. The Palace opens at 9:30am and closes at 6:00pm April to October and 4:30pm during the rest of the year. Palace admission is £8 adults, £6.50 concessions, and £4.00 children. Separate admission to the gallery is £5 adults, £4 concession and £3 children. Joint admission to the gallery and the palace is £11 adults, £9 concessions and £5.50 children.

• Museum of Scotland [4] (http://www.nms.ac.uk/scotland/) and Royal Museum [5] (http://www.nms.ac.uk/royal/), Chambers Street, tel 0131 247 4422. fax 0131 220 4819. typetalk 18001 0131 247 4422. email [email protected]. The museum mixes innovative modern architecture with the best of Scotland's heritage. Exhibits include Scottish pottery and weapons from the Roman era and the Renaissance. Opening hours are 10am - 5pm Monday to Saturday with extended opening to 8pm on Tuesdays; and 12pm - 5pm Sundays. Admission is free.

• the Scott Monument - built in 1846 to commemorate the life of Sir Walter Scott after his death in 1832, the Gothic spire monument allows you to climb 200 ft above the city centre to enjoy fantastic views and get a closer look at sculpted statuettes of characters from Scott's works. Open April - September Mo-Sa 9-6, Su 10-6; October - March Mo-Sa 9-3, Su 10-3. East Princes Street Gardens, Tel: 0131 529 4068. Admission £2.50.

• the National Gallery of Scotland [6] (http://www.natgalscot.ac.uk/) holds much of Scotlands fine artwork and carries exhibitions that change seasonally. The new Western Link was opened in 2004 with an entrance from Prices Street Gardens. It joins The National Gallery with the neighbouring Scottish Academy gallery and gives Scotland it's first world class art space. The Mound, Edinburgh, EH2 2EL, tel. +44 (0)131 624 6200

• St Giles' Cathedral [7] (http://www.stgilescathedral.org.uk/), Royal Mile

• Mary King's Close [8] (http://www.realmarykingsclose.com/), Warriston's Close (opposite St Giles' Cathedral), open daily except Christmas Day - a slice of Edinburgh's medieval history, preserved since being closed over in the 18th century - watch out for the haunting....

• Visit Edinburgh Zoo [9] (http://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/), entry £8.50 Adults, £5.50 children
• The Scottish Parliament, just off the royal mile. A unique building with a staggering £ 400 million + price tag which is ten to twenty times the original estimate !

Orginally Published at http://wikitravel.org/en/Edinburgh

Useful Scottish Words

English is the official language of Scotland and is spoken by more or less everyone. Gaelic is also spoken by around 60,000 people, mainly in the highlands and islands, but even there everyone speaks English. In some rural communities in the Lowlands, the Scots language (a language with similar roots as English, and not to be confused with Gaelic) is the common vernacular. The Scots, like most Britons, generally have rather poor foreign language skills, although those in tourism-related industries generally have better language skills. French and German are the most commonly known foreign languages.

Here are some useful Scottish words:

• Ben = mountain (Ben Nevis)
• Burn = stream (Bannockburn)
• Ceilidh = informal celebration, party
• Close = entrance to an alley or courtyard
• Firth = estuary (Firth of Forth)
• Glen, Strath = valley (Glen Coe)
• Kyle = narrow strait of water (Kyle of Sutherland)
• Loch = lake (Loch Ness)
• Wee = small
• Wynd = lane

Originally published at http://wikitravel.org/en/Scotland#Talk

Edinburgh Fringe Festival Photos

Edinburgh Fringe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

(Description taken from Edinburgh Fringe Festival)

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is an arts festival associated with the Edinburgh Festival. It takes place in the city of Edinburgh over five weeks during August, and is the largest arts festival in the world.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, more usually called the Edinburgh Fringe, was started in 1947, the same year that the Edinburgh Festival was started. Eight theatre companies decided to take advantage of the crowds of theatregoers expected to attend the Festival by putting on unofficial performances of their own. Since then the Fringe has outgrown the official Festival, and now has its own staff and coordinating organisation, which sells more than a million tickets each year.

The Fringe is focussed almost exclusively on the performing arts, particularly theatre and comedy. Fringe material can be anything from Shakespeare to the truly experimental. Some Fringe venues are established professional theatres and regularly sell hundreds of tickets to a performance; others are converted church halls or even living rooms, and attract single-digit audiences.

The prestigious Perrier Comedy Awards are announced at the festival.

The Edinburgh Fringe has inspired a world-wide circuit of festivals in many Canadian, American, Australian and European cities. Fringe Theatre Festivals are distinguished by their unjuried selection process, allowing artists to produce a wide variety of interesting works.

Official Edinburgh Fringe web site

Introduction to Scotland

Scotland is one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The capital of Scotland is Edinburgh.

Scotland is overwhelmingly rich in history, much of which is preserved in historic buildings throughout the country. It is a country that can be explored without prior trip-planning as Scotland has always either some touristic attraction close by or incredibly beautiful landscape to offer.

Throughout history many battles were fought against the English in order to gain independence. Scotland's national identity is very important to the people and they are generally very proud to be Scottish. You will find that a few people in Scotland express their dislike of the English, but that should not always be taken serious.

Scotland has two flags. The national flag, a diagonal white cross on blue ground — known as the saltire, is one of the oldest flags in the world. It is also incorporated into the Union Flag of the United Kingdom. The second flag which is often seen around Scotland is the Lion Rampant, a red lion on yellow ground. It is the royal banner of Scotland and actually should only be used by a Scottish monarch.

If you are entering the United Kingdom from another country you may need to obtain a visa. EU citizens do not need a visa and can live and work in Britain as long as they want. Visitors from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA can stay in Scotland for up to six months without a visa, but are not allowed to work without one. All other nations need to obtain a visa.

There are four international airports in Scotland: Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Glasgow Prestwick. London Gatwick, London Heathrow and London Stansted are often places to change to a plane that heads to Scotland. London Stansted and Glasgow Prestwick are the airports used by low-fare airlines like Ryanair and Easy Jet, but they lie quite far from the towns they are named after. It takes about 50 minutes by train to arrive in Glasgow Central Station from Prestwick airport.

Orginal information from Wikitravel.org