Scottish attractions most popular in UK

SCOTLAND outperformed the rest of the UK last year with an annual increase of more than 15% in visitors to its attractions.

The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva) said Scottish destinations welcomed 15 million visitors in 2016, one of their best years.

Across the UK, visitor numbers were up 7.2% on 2015 figures, meaning more than 130 million visits were made to the top 241 Alva sites around the country.

The most popular Scottish attraction, and the 15th most visited in the UK, was the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, which opened 10 new galleries in 2016, 1.8 million visitors passed through its doors last year.

This was closely followed by Edinburgh Castle in 16th position with 1,778,548 visitors.