Scotland
Dornoch
A medieval cathedral town where Scotland's last witch-burning left scorch marks on history.
The last person executed for witchcraft in Scotland was burned in Dornoch in 1727 — a fact the town carries with neither pride nor evasion. Today it is a quiet cathedral town on the Sutherland coast where world-class golf and medieval history sit within a five-minute walk of each other.
Dornoch's thirteenth-century cathedral was built for the Bishops of Caithness, its warm sandstone gathering the northern light, and the compact centre still preserves the layout of the medieval burgh that served as Sutherland's county town for centuries. Royal Dornoch, founded in 1877, regularly ranks with the finest links courses anywhere, its fairways running along the dunes minutes from the cathedral door. Seals gather by the hundred on the Dornoch Firth's sandbanks — on their own schedule, watchable off the beach — and the Embo dunes to the north give a long coastal walk of dunes and open sky. A town of barely a thousand people, carrying a cathedral, a championship links and a dark little chapter of history with equal composure.
Couple
Royal Dornoch's dune-backed links, a slow walk through the cathedral and the firth turning gold at dusk — a refined Highland weekend without pretension.
Family
The cathedral's manageable scale, Embo's long sands and the firth's seal colonies mix history, wildlife and paddling into one easy family day.
- Scotland's last execution for witchcraft happened here in 1727.
- Royal Dornoch's links rank among the finest golf courses in the world.
- A thirteenth-century cathedral anchors a town of barely a thousand people.
- Seals gather by the hundred on the firth's sandbanks below the town.
Venison and Dornoch Firth seafood — Sutherland's understated larder.
Langoustines from the firth, sweet and simply grilled.
Hirosaki
Japan
Apple orchards around a castle moat where fallen cherry petals form a pink floating carpet.
Ouchi-juku
Japan
Thatched-roof inns lining a mountain highway frozen since the samurai stopped passing through.
Campeche
Mexico
Pastel streets and surviving bastions face the Gulf from a fortified historic centre.
Puebla
Mexico
A Talavera-tiled city where facades dazzle blue and white, and mole poblano carries its name.
Culzean Castle
Scotland
A clifftop castle where Eisenhower kept an apartment and smugglers' caves riddle the rock below.
Eilean Donan
Scotland
A castle on a tidal island where three sea lochs meet, reflected so perfectly it doubles.
Inverewe Garden
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Himalayan rhododendrons and Tasmanian tree ferns bloom on a Gulf Stream-warmed Highland headland.
Plockton
Scotland
Palm trees line a Highland loch shore where seals bask on rocks below the mountains.