5 Things To Do In The Highlands In Winter

If you can brave the icy winds, relentless chills and 4pm darkness, then the Scottish highlands can be a beautiful wonderous land of fresh air, blogging inspiration and an endless amount of forest animals walking in your back garden

The Highlands offers plenty of culture and heritage during the summer months, but come the winter tourist hotspots close their gates and shops bring down the shutters just that bit earlier. So what is there to do then, I hear you ask.

Well I’ve constructed this little list for anyone going to a remote location up North and struggling to get creative with things to do.

1. Go seal watching

I recently visited Golspie and one of the main attractions of the area was to go down by the water and spy Seals in their natural habitat, yes even in winter! We saw a little pup being lazy on the beach while the mother glided up and down the water, being sure to keep one eye on her baby.


2. Go a guided walk

And by guided walk I don’t mean meet up with a knowledgeable guide and get shown the path. No, get your old trainers or wellies on and follow that little path that has been etched out by the soles of other dedicated walkers. There are so many great routes throughout Scotland. But just be careful, in winter the sun goes down around 4pm. Don’t get caught out!


3. Go for a Whisky (18+ only ya cheeky chancer!)

While up north, I noticed that most, if not all, hotels were open all year round. Nothing heats you up after a long walk than a chest-tingling whisky. (May I reccommend Glenmorangie!)

4. Visit a Distillery

Go one better than just having a dram, visit the place where it is produced. There are plenty distilleries peppered across the Highlands, their tours are relatively cheap (Glenmorangie was £5 as of Nov 2015) and you get a sample at the end – drivers get to take theirs away with them. (No photography allowed inside!)


5. Visit John O’Groats

John O’Groats is the highest point in Scotland (and Britain, therefore). Its a very remote location as you can imagine so theres not a lot to do, but it was definitly one of the things on my bucket list. Check! Im going to do a post on John O’Groats soon so look out for that!



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Things to do in the Scottish Highlands in Winter

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