It's all about choice. It's all about you!

Why choose a self-catering holiday cottage or vacation home? What better way to benefit from the freedom to come and go as you please, meet friendly Scottish people, and embrace the real Scotland?

Part of the charm of self-catering is that there is a great variety of properties to choose from, and over 2,500 quality-assured properties on the EmbraceScotland website. Our properties are located throughout Scotland and offer you a vast range of accommodation styles and locations. Choose from luxurious and elegant city flats, rural country cottages, historic mansions, seaside fisherman’s cottages, castles, lodges, chalets, and so many, many more!

Self-catering is ideally suited for couples, families and groups who just want to be left alone to enjoy their holiday together. In fact, self-catering suits just about everybody!

Self-catering properties can offer families a home away from home. There is added space for your family to relax and be themselves. For families there is a wide choice of locations, extra facilities such as swimming pools, adventure parks, working farms, or just plain space for children to play in and have fun.

Couples can choose from total privacy in remote cottages, distant lighthouses, or island properties to the sophisticated pleasures of a luxury city apartment. Find your romantic retreat in a self-catering accommodation!

There are a multitude of pet friendly properties which allows the visitor to bring a valuable member of the family along. This not only adds value to the holiday since boarding facilities are quite expensive, but also offers less stress on the pet its owner.

So what are you waiting for? Book your ideal self-catering holiday home today!

Doors Open Days – Sept. 2008

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the doors of buildings you see every day?

Then Doors Open Days is your chance to find out. A series of events on each weekend in September giving free access to some of Scotland's most historic and extraordinary places, many of which are not usually open to the public.

Doors Open Days first took place in Glasgow and Ayr in 1990 where it formed part of the European City of Culture celebrations. The success of the event encouraged other areas to participate the following year and has now grown to cover almost every area of Scotland. More than 800 buildings are expected to open, generating over 200,000 visits to sites and hidden architectural gems of all kinds in locations throughout Scotland

The event brings together people from all walks of life in celebration of the fascinating architecture that surrounds us and the stories that these buildings can tell. Last year over 4000 volunteers gave their time to run tours, steward sites and activities.

Mark your calendar and plan to attend this extraordinary event!

Island Hopping in Scotland

Are you ready to try something different? Would you like a holiday far from the norm? Why not try Island Hopping? Or ‘Island Hopscotch’ as termed by Caledonian MacBrayne?

Island Hopping in Scotland on the Inner Hebrides and Western Isles is fun and takes the visitor to the most beautiful and remote islands in Scotland.



Many travellers want to distance themselves from their usual lives. They savour the quiet thrill of escaping by boat, and take time to enjoy the peace and the islands and their rugged scenery. For the motorist or cyclist, there is hardly a road that does not offer great views. For those wanting to walk, climb, fish, or take to the, water, all are quiet and easily reached. And for those days when the views aren't all they might be, there is the attraction of a peat fire, a good book and a dram of Islay single malt whisky ( in a quality self-catering cottage of course).

A frequent service of ferries plying to and from this patchwork of islands, mainly under the flag of Caledonian MacBrayne ( Calmac ), make island hopping practical and easy. They offer a variety of mountain and coastal landscapes, and are rich in wildlife, from birds of prey to deer and dolphins.Calmac sails to 24 destinations on Scotland's West Coast, from Arran in the south to Lewis in the north.


Northlink Ferries take you on a voyage of discovery to the islands of Orkney and Shetland. There are spectacular cliffs, wide skies and huge horizons. The Orcadians are great craftspeople, with a strong tradition of jewellery making as well as fine knitwear, weaving and pottery.

As you plan your temporary escape from your normal life, be sure to arrange for a place to rest your head at the end of the day. Why not organize a series of short stays at self-catering properties along the way? With the help of the EmbraceScotland website, planning your Island Hopping holiday is simple.

Scotland and the Independent Golfer

Most of the Scotland golf courses that visitors have heard about are those on which The Open is played such as Carnoustie, Troon, Turnberry, Muirfield, and, of course, the Old Course at St. Andrews. In recent years because of their fame, these golf courses have become quite expensive and overcrowded.

Across the grand and scenic landscape of Scotland stretches a rich string of golf courses, each with its own character and each waiting to enchant the Independent Golfer who is willing to break away from the crowds and venture off the well-trodden packaged tour paths.

There are 556 registered Scotland golf courses. Each course is a proud "home" of local players who take their golf seriously. Most are owned and run by clubs of golfers, some are municipal courses and a growing number are privately owned for public play. They range in quality from lovely and remote Dunaverty in the far northwest of Scotland to tiny Tarbert that has no staff but maintains an "honesty box" into which you drop your £10 to cover green fees for the day.

An excellent resource for planning your golf holiday is the Open Directory for Golf which lists 75 of the smaller but no less quality courses. Another good search facility with over 550 courses listed is the Scottish Golf Course Search by VisitScotland. VisitScotland also offers a free guide, ‘The Official Guide to Golf in Scotland’, to help in organizing which courses to play. This booklet contains an A to Z golf course listing with contact details and information for all of Scotland's courses. Plus information on the six golf regions of Scotland, practice facilities, golf passes, travel tips, and events.

After a long exhausting day of playing golf (and visiting the 19th hole), why not relax in a holiday cottage where there is room – more than just a room with a bed. The EmbraceScotland website can help find this perfect home away from home.

The Caledonian Canal, a spectacular masterpiece

Stretching from Fort William to Inverness, the Caledonian Canal is 60 miles long of which 22 miles are man-made. The rest are natural lochs, namely Loch Lochy, Loch Oich, the famous Loch Ness and Loch Dochfour. Widely considered a masterpiece of canal engineering, the Caledonian is on a scale incomparable with almost anything else in Britain. It has survived in part due to its continuing importance in the Highland economy, and partly because it is quite simply spectacular.

Over the past few years the 200 year old network has undergone a transformation and today more visitors to Scotland are discovering that canals are the perfect way of exploring Scotland's wonderful countryside.

Fort Augustus, at the heart of the Great Glen, is a hive of activity, bustling with boaters, locals, and visitors. The Fort Augustus flight of locks is worth exploring even if only for the fascination of watching the boats come and go. The canal side walk to Kytra Lock, delightfully set among the hills, shows you how the Canal ousted the River Oich from its original channel. Also not to be missed is the Caledonian Canal Visitor Centre which is a small but unique venue showcasing the history of the Caledonian Canal from its beginnings to its present day refurbishment.

So whether you have a planned day out or a well deserved holiday, make sure you stay in a quality-assured self-catering cottage with the help of the EmbraceScotland website.

Dundee Flower & Food Festival

Do you love food festivals? How about gardens? Well come to Dundee 5th – 7th September, 2008 for a great festival that celebrates both.

Dundee Flower and Food Festival show cases fabulous floral and garden displays and competitions and cookery demonstrations by famous-name chefs. Set in the magnificent grounds of Camperdown Country Park, the event has become a high- profile, popular and very successful three-day lifestyle event.

Garden and food enthusiasts travel from miles around for a feast of activity and the opportunity to see some fantastic displays. There are also talks from experts, cookery demonstrations, floral art displays, craft fair, children's themed activity marquee, live bands and entertainers.

The Food Festival element has grown to provide visitors with a chance to see a high quality three-day cookery demonstration programme, featuring celebrity and top Scottish chefs. Visitors can also purchase top quality local, national and international produce.

Why not enjoy yourself. Try a short break in a self-catering property close to the festival, and have a great family weekend together.

Gardens of Scotland

What is about gardens that draw our fascination? Could it be a way of getting back to nature, or the sense of tranquillity that they tend to give us?

Well if you are on holiday in Scotland and you love to visit gardens, the choices are limitless.

The place to start your tour would undoubtedly be the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh (RBGE). The Botanics captures the imagination of everyone who visits and is world renowned for its horticultural excellence. Over 70 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds provide a tranquil haven just one mile from the city centre.

If private gardens intrigue you, Scotland’s Gardens Scheme (SGS) raises funds for other worthy charities by facilitating the opening of large and small gardens of horticultural interest throughout Scotland to the public. The gardens that open for SGS include Scotland's finest, are mostly privately owned and are normally inaccessible to the public at other times.

Another great resource for planning your garden holiday is the National Trust for Scotland (NTS). The NTS looks after around 35 major gardens and designed landscapes and over 30 smaller gardens. Almost every style of Scottish garden history is represented - from late medieval to modern creations in older settings. Their gardens play host to events, lectures, conferences, musical performances and much more throughout the year, offering many ways to enjoy these gems and celebrate Scotland's garden heritage.

One of the most famous of the NTS gardens is Inverewe Gardens designed by Sir Osgood MacKenzie, and situated in North West Scotland amid scenery of great natural beauty. Because Inverewe Gardens is warmed by the Gulf Stream, it is able to sustain plants from many temperate regions of the world.

While you are planning which gardens to visit, the EmbraceScotland website can help you find your self-catering home away from home with its own lovely garden for you to enjoy.

Off the Beaten Track

Do you need to recharge your batteries? Are there times that you would like to get away from it all? What you need is a rural retreat to escape the busy and hectic city life.

One such area is the Knoydart peninsula, known as the last wilderness area in Great Britain. Knoydart is accessible by boat from Mallaig or by a 20 mile hike on foot. Knoydart is a wonderful area for walking and camping, and is truly a miles from anywhere The Old Forge in the village of Inverie is classed by the Guiness Book of Records as the remotest Pub in Mainland Britain.

Another great destination to get away from it all is Glen Affric and the Strathglass area. The Glens surrounding Strathglass are a walker’s paradise offering some of the most spectacular routes in the Scottish Highlands. While many visitors come to climb the Munros, those wishing less strenuous walks are well catered for by a combination of forest tracks and old stalkers paths. The mountain ridge separating Glen Affric and Glen Cannich boasts the highest mountains north of the Great Glen - Mam Sodhail (1181m) and Carn Eighe (1183m).

If the above areas are still not quite ‘remote’ enough for you, try taking a walk on the wild side on the remote and windswept island of Jura. The words 'wild' and 'remote' tend to get overused in describing the many Hebridean islands, but in the case of Jura they are, if anything, an understatement. The short ferry crossing from neighbouring Islay takes you into another world to be rewarded with stunning scenery and almost haunting silence.

No matter where you choose to get-away from it all, the EmbraceScotland website will easily assist you in your search for that secluded and charming self-catering cottage.

'The advantages of not going abroad? No airports is number 1 – and 2 and 3'

The following is a wonderful article about enjoying your family holiday with each other, & not having to travel abroad to do it. Some of the best holiday locations lie right at your door step waiting to be discovered. Enjoy the article.

Published in ‘Scotland on Sunday’
Sunday, 13th July 2008

'The advantages of not going abroad? No airports is number 1 – and 2 and 3'
by Fordyce Maxwell

FRIENDS used to ask our advice on holidays. Because of our disastrous record they wanted to know where we were going and when so that they could avoid it.
There was the week trapped by floods in Puerto Pollensa as trees bent double in the gale. The 11 days in Majorca when the sun shone once, we were the only family ever in the pool and Tom got hypothermia. Or the Vendee fortnight of flooded tent and digging beach foxholes to avoid sandblasting.

More recently our luck has turned and our family week at St Monans earlier this month could be the best week of this so-called summer. It wis braw.

Sitting on the terrace of the Seafood Restaurant, temperature in the 20s, sun on deep blue water, the Bass Rock in view, reflecting on the kind of oysters and monkfish every Scottish restaurant should produce and so few do, celebrating our son-in-law's new job, it was hard to think of anywhere we would rather have been.

There are other advantages in not going abroad. "No airports" is number one. It is also number two and number three. Taking all you need in a car is so much easier. Coping – even if as grandparents we only do the best bits – with four-month-old Ebba is easier.

Language is less of a problem, although a chat with a local fisherman about haddock tested that theory as we got about one word in three. But we understood enough to know we were buying quality for home cooking. And apart from the Seafood Restaurant, twice, let's not forget those fish suppers.

Food figures large on a self-catering holiday and we enjoyed it all. Everything we bought was fresh and good quality, from the Ardross farm shop steaks and broccoli to rolls from the friendliest Spar I've ever been in.

Not that we ate all the time. Not quite. There were pre-breakfast strolls, walks to the windmill, reading in the sunshine and time spent watching youngsters making their own fun by jumping repeatedly into the harbour.

We walked to Elie and Kilconquhar – I know, say Kinnyeuchar – and I was probably the best-supported walker ever to take the coastal path from St Monans to Crail, met every mile or so by Team Maxwell with fresh supplies and a smile from Ebba.

One sun-baked afternoon we played 36 holes at St Andrews for £2 – a putting green is still good value – and tracked down Scotland's Secret Bunker via a circuitous route or, as we might say, a wrong turn or two.

Making our own fun, I won the stub-your-toe-most-often-in-a-strange-house contest while Liz won for most deft handling of an incontinent teapot.

But on the last morning we walked to the kirk, claimed as the closest to the sea in Scotland, with its reminder that coastal village life was not always about good food and morning rolls for visitors, the sea not always blue, the sun always shining.It is the story of November 1875 when five boats from St Monans went down; 37 men died; 72 children were orphaned; one woman alone lost a husband, two sons, two brothers, three nephews and a brother-in-law. Who would grumble about the price of fish?

Celebrate the Summer with August Events

Are you still looking for something to do in August?

Have a look at the Events Listings on the EmbraceScotland website, to help you in your search.

One fantastic event that might catch your eye is Hydro Connect Music Festival 2008, 29 – 31 August. Hydro Connect is Scotland’s most beautiful festival held in the stunning grounds of Inveraray Castle near Loch Fyne, Argyll. Come revel in the stunning countryside around Loch Fyne, take a walk through the enchanted forest and dance to a disco under the stars.

If music festivals aren’t your cup of tea, The Arbroath Sea Fest in Angus, 16 & 17 August, is one of Scotland's premier sea-related events. With fresh fish markets, boat trips around the cliffs and the historic lighthouse as well as cookery demonstrations, family-orientated displays and exhibitions, there is something for everyone at this popular festival of the sea.

So whatever you fancy, there is sure to be an event that fits the bill on the EmbraceScotland website. And while you’re at it, why not find the perfect self-catering property to go along with your choice.