Coastal villages
Escape the hustle and bustle in these most idyllic of villages. A friendly welcome is assured
Plockton
A Highland gem seven miles over the hill from Kyle of Lochalsh, clustered around inlets of a wooded bay on Loch Carron. Cottage gardens down to the bay and their much-admired palm trees! Great walks over headlands. Plockton Inn and, on the front, Plockton Hotel have rooms and pub grub; there’s also the estimable Plockton Shores. calums-sealtrips. com are a treat (seals and dolphins almost guaranteed).
Corrie
The bonniest bit of Arran (apart from Kildonan and the glens and the rest), happily reached by bike from Brodick (six miles). Many walks from here, including Goat Fell but nice just to sit or potter on the foreshore. Animal sculptures and even the boats in the slips of harbours are aesthetic.
Isle of Whithorn
Strange faraway village at end of the road, 21 miles south of Newton Stewart, four miles Whithorn. Mystical harbour where low tide does mean low, saintly shoreline, a sea angler’s pub, the Steampacket – very good pub grub. Ninian’s chapel round the headland underwhelming but you pass the poignant memorial to the Solway Harvester. Everybody visiting IOW seems to walk this way.
Rockcliffe
From Dumfries, 15 miles south on Solway Coast road, A710. On the Scottish Riviera, the rocky part of the coast around to Kippford. A good rock-scrambling foreshore, the village with few houses, and repair to the Anchor in Kippford for grub and ale.
Aberdour
Between Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy, six miles east from junction 1 of M90 or go by train from Edinburgh (frequent service: Dundee or Kirkcaldy); delightful station. Walks round harbour and to headland, Silver Sands beach.
Peter Irvine is the author of the essential travel guide Scotland the Best published by Collins, priced £15.99