Best for background research before you go, the Insight guides are strong on giving a feel for the culture and people. For me, the short chapters on hunting, fishing and golf were not as interesting as the very good essays about how the Scottish church moulded the temperment of the people, and the bit about Scottish painters. A variety of topics like these are covered in the first 150 pages, the next 160 or so goes into the various locations, with a sense of the area combined with acutal landmarks, their description, location, hours of operation. The books are jammed full of photographs of decent quality. A different approach than the Eyewitness guides, worth looking at both before you go.