Scotland
Explore our expedition voyages to Scotland, all designed to engage your heart, mind, and spirit through the duration of the journey.
Visit Scotland's highlands and lowlands with serrated mountains, grassy hills with roaring sheep, low-hanging clouds, and mirror-shiny lakes.
Scotland is the homeland of the kilt and the bagpipe, and this is where you get the golden drops of the famous Scotch whiskey. Some have sweetness and taste of flowers; others taste smoky or a bit like medicine.
The secret behind the Scottish whiskey is the clean, soft water, the cool climate, the protein-rich malt and the smoked peat - and so many years of experience.
Area of Scotland
77,900 km²
Population of Scotland
5.5 million people
Facts about Scotland
- that Scotland has the highest proportion of redheads globally, with 13% of the population having red hair?
- that the University of St. Andrews is Scotland's oldest university and the third oldest in the English-speaking world?
- Scotland
- Europe
History of Scotland
Scotland is today a partially autonomous nation under Britain.
The nation's written history dates back to the Roman Empire, but people have lived on Scottish soil for about 10,000 years.
Scotland's history and culture are a mosaic of immigration from Ireland, Scandinavia, Indo-European tribes, clan wars, and battles against invading Romans, Normans, and English.
The Scots have never entirely accepted the union with England and the common kingdom from 1707, although they have had widespread autonomy with their own parliament, church, and judiciary.
Only with the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 did the people feel more liberated, and in the September 2014 referendum, only a narrow majority voted to remain part of Britain.
Geography of Scotland
Scotland can be geographically divided into three areas: the northern and southern highlands, which are separated by the central lowlands.
The northern highlands are mountainous with large, deep lakes. Large areas are covered with grass and partly bare mountains, but there are also areas with forests.
In the central lowlands are Scotland's most fertile lands and the largest population concentrations. The southern highlands are not as high as the northern. Here you can find rushing rivers and grassy, rounded mountains suitable for sheep farming. The west coast is rocky and full of caves and fjords, while the east coast is smooth and straight. Scotland also controls almost 1,000 islands, including the Hebrides and the Orkney and Shetland Islands.
Climate of Scotland
Scotland has a temperate oceanic climate. The Gulf Stream, which is a detour from the Atlantic Current, provides frequently changing weather and causes the western part of Scotland to be slightly warmer than the east-facing part. In Scotland, a distinction is typically made between the lowlands of the south and the highlands of the north. While by far the most precipitation falls in the Scottish Highlands, the mildest weather is in the southern lowlands.
Scotland has a temperate oceanic climate. The Gulf Stream, which is a detour from the Atlantic Current, provides frequently changing weather and causes the western part of Scotland to be slightly warmer than the east-facing part. In Scotland, a distinction is typically made between the lowlands of the south and the highlands of the north. While by far the most precipitation falls in the Scottish Highlands, the mildest weather is in the southern lowlands.
Temperatures are generally lower than in the rest of the UK, with the average winter temperature of 6 °C, and summer averaging 18 °C in the Lowlands. In the Inner Hebrides, Tiree is one of the sunniest places in the country: it had more than 300 hours of sunshine in May of 1975. Rainfall varies widely across Scotland. The western highlands of Scotland are the wettest, 3,000 mm/year, while lowland Scotland receives less than 800 mm annually.
Our Scottish Expeditions
As a tiara of rough dark-brown rubies, small islands adorn the Scottish coastline all the way from Glasgow in the west to Aberdeen in the east.
And none of these fascinating history-filled islands are easy to get to.
On our special "Jewels of the Scottish Isles" voyage, you will get a unique chance to visit no less than seven Scottish islands. Each one is begging to tell you stories about a dramatic past reaching back millions of years to their birth from hot molten lava, millenniums to stone age dwellings – or just 12 years to create splendid single malt whiskies.
Our journey begins in the port of Greenock on the Scottish West Coast. Embarking on Albatros’ expedition vessel Ocean Atlantic we head for our first landing on the island of Islay, home to several world famous brands of peaty whiskies. Further north to Oban and Iona and onwards to Staffa and Rùm with their dramatic displays of volcanic eruptions. During evening lectures on board, your will get to understand their geological history.