Scotland Off the Beaten Track

Angus | Angus Glens | Full day walk | ★★★★

The pair of Munros on the plateau between Glen Clova and Glen Prosen boast extensive views over the southern Cairngorms, with short-cropped grass and gentle gradients making for swift progress between the two. The immediate surroundings are scenically unremarkable - but Mayar has an ace up its sleeve in the form of Corrie Fee. This dramatic natural amphitheatre is probably Scotland's most celebrated coire, and the closest the generally quiet southeast side of the Cairngorms National Park has to a honeypot site. The rocky bowl was scooped out by a glacier in the last Ice Age, and today hosts rare alpine and arctic plants, golden eagles, a spectacular purple heather coat in late summer, and a steady stream of hikers. A willowy waterfall cascades down the cliffs at the rear. Corrie Fee's accessibility enhances its popularity: it's a straightforward tramp from the car park to the foot of the coire along a good track. The cirque is hidd…

Aberdeenshire | Peterhead | Museum | ★★★

HMP Peterhead was Scotland's only convict prison, where inmates were sent for hard labour from 1888. In 2013 it was replaced by the neighbouring HMP Grampian - but the old site re-opened for tourists in 2016, giving a chance to find out more about life inside what was once claimed to be Scotland's toughest jail, and finally gifting the large town of Peterhead with its first significant tourist attraction. The tour is a self-guided audioguide affair, and is a very different experience to that which is offered at the older Inveraray Jail in Argyll. Cell blocks are mostly preserved in their modern (i.e. 2013) state, and a great number of "behind the scenes" areas can be visited, including the kitchens, laundary, showers, hospital, officers' rooms and exercise yards. The main cell block has been decorated with objects thrown onto the wire netting between floors, recreating a major riot in 1987. Finally, a large hangar houses a…