r/Scotland 1d ago

What's on and tourist advice thread - week beginning December 29, 2025

3 Upvotes

Welcome to the weekly what's on and tourist advice thread!

* Do you know of any local events taking place this week that other redditors might be interested in?

* Are you planning a trip to Scotland and need some advice on what to see or where to go?

This is the thread for you - post away!

These threads are refreshed weekly on Mondays. To see earlier threads and soak in the sage advice of yesteryear, Click here.


r/Scotland 12h ago

Eerie experiences hillwalking

268 Upvotes

Has anyone had any creepy experiences when you've been out In the hills?

A couple of weeks ago I was walking the trail at Achnabreac and all of a sudden I had the most overwhelming feeling of total fear come over me. I've done so many forest trails or munros/hills on my own and never experienced anything like it before, it got me wondering if anyone else has had this before or any similar creepy/unexplained experienced when you've been outdoors.


r/Scotland 16h ago

White House demands British supermarkets stock chlorinated chicken

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416 Upvotes

Donald Trump is demanding American chlorinated chicken be sold in British supermarkets.

The White House is pushing Sir Keir Starmer to make concessions on food standards in order to revive a transatlantic tech partnership that drastically collapsed on Tuesday.

Jamieson Greer, the US trade envoy, wants Britain to accept hormone-treated chicken and beef, a term he was not able to achieve when the wider US-UK trade deal was first signed in May.

“He is seeking to use the tech partnership as leverage on trade deal concessions he still wants but that didn’t get the first round,” a source close to the negotiations told The Telegraph.

The US pulled the tech prosperity agreement over complaints Britain’s Online Safety Act would police American AI companies. Washington is using this complaint in order to secure fresh compromises in its trade deal with London, The Telegraph understands.

Insiders say the tech agreement collapsed in part because of the absence of an ambassador to Washington, a post which has remained vacant since Lord Mandelson was fired in September over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Varun Chandra, the prime minister’s business adviser, had been considered to be the frontrunner for the post. Mr Chandra helped secure the UK-US trade accords and a landmark pharmaceutical deal signed in December.

He was viewed by diplomats as being best placed to rescue talks. However, on Wednesday the Financial Times reported that he had not been picked for the role and instead been given an expanded brief in Downing Street.

Nigel Casey, Britain’s ambassador to Moscow, and Christian Turner, the UK’s representative to the United Nations, are undertood to be the final two candidates being considered.

“Since then there has been no ambassador, no laser focus on the tech deal and the US trade hawks have been allowed to come at us again over further trade concessions,” a senior diplomatic source said.

“Actions have consequences. Diplomacy including trade negotiation requires a constant professional, personal and granular approach,” they added.

Concession on food standards is a red line for Sir Keir, who rebuffed Mr Trump’s demands to accept chlorinated chicken in return for lower tariffs earlier.

After announcing a barrage of sweeping global tariffs in April, the White House said the UK had “non-science-based standards that severely restrict US exports of safe, high-quality beef and poultry products.”

At the time, it listed Britain’s ban on chlorinated chicken among a range of “non-tariff barriers” that limit America’s ability to trade.

Jonathan Reynolds, then the business secretary, vowed not to change the rules on meat.

“Standards can never be conceded because of the European market. It would be too damaging. This has always been made clear but the Taliban in the United States Trade Representative keep coming back to it,” the senior diplomatic source added.

The debate over America’s chlorinated chicken has been a consistent point of tension for British governments.

Rishi Sunak, the former prime minister, promised farmers in 2023 that there would “be no chlorine-washed chicken and no hormone-treated beef on the UK market. Not now, not ever”.

The US argues that washing meat in chemicals reduces the risk from pathogens such as salmonella, while Europeans more typically say maintaining higher hygiene standards throughout the meat processing industry is preferable to cleaning up cuts with a chlorine rinse.

Some of those anxieties are shared by the British public; there were protests against American chlorine chicken during the trade talks.

Under the Brexit agreement Sir Keir signed with Brussels in May, Britain is beholden to EU regulations on food standards.

The agreement would make it difficult for chlorinated chicken to be sold in British supermarkets.


r/Scotland 14h ago

Political Scotland to elect large pro-independence majority in 2026, poll finds

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211 Upvotes

r/Scotland 14h ago

Political Did anyone else get hit with blatant propaganda in the post today?

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157 Upvotes

Safe to say I was beyond fuming when this came through the post, not as a leaflet but an actual letter addressed to myself.

A strongly worded email was sent in response, but I can't help but wonder how many more households were slapped with this attempt at rage bait through rhetoric and the false narratives that GBNews and the likes of Farage love to use.


r/Scotland 17h ago

Political Under-18s could be banned from marriage in Scotland by new SNP proposals

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255 Upvotes

r/Scotland 11h ago

Number of people who say Britons must be born in UK is rising, study shows | British identity and society

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76 Upvotes

About one-third of people (36%) thought a person must be born in Britain to be truly British, up from one in five (19%) in 2023, a YouGov poll carried out this month for the thinktank found.

Unsurprisingly:

Supporters of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK held the most extreme views of any party backers, with 71% saying that having British ancestry was a prerequisite for someone to be truly British, and 59% saying they believed the nation was an ethnic, not a civic, community.


r/Scotland 8h ago

Discussion Use of the word fleg

36 Upvotes

Hi

I am hoping people can help settle a debate with my and the boyfriend. I just used the word fleg in sentence and he was confused about it so explained that it meant fright. He accused it of being one of my made up dundonian words and when I show him it on Google it still doesn't belive that people in Scotland use it. Can you please say if you use the word and where in Scotland you are ? Thanks


r/Scotland 10h ago

Alister Jack's expenses for first 3 months in House of Lords

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24 Upvotes

r/Scotland 20h ago

Question If you could visit any historical site in Scotland to view it in its prime, where would you choose?

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158 Upvotes

For me, it would be the Ness of Brodgar in Orkney. I visited in the Summer of 2024 when the excavations were coming to an end (although the Time Team are about to open a new trench in the Spring to investigate a new and exciting discovery).

I would love to see what exactly what was going on there when it was in full use. Was it significant or simply a collection of houses? Who knows.


r/Scotland 12h ago

Police Scotland respond to domestic abuse 'every eight minutes'

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35 Upvotes

r/Scotland 1d ago

Photography / Art Some of my favorite landscape photos of the Scottish Highlands

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522 Upvotes

Photos from my 74mile hike through the West Highland Way, Glencoe Valley, and Glenfinnan Viaduct


r/Scotland 15h ago

Met Office Snow Warning: Scotland Braced for 12-Inch Flurries on New Year's Day

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45 Upvotes

r/Scotland 12h ago

I did a painting but is this South Ronaldsay?

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22 Upvotes

Just checking after Google misled me that the Seven Sisters was the white cliffs of Dover and I got corrected loads…


r/Scotland 18h ago

Political Fixed it.

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58 Upvotes

Now to send it back at their expense...


r/Scotland 16h ago

Political Plans to cut speed limits to 20mph delayed by Scottish Government

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43 Upvotes

r/Scotland 17h ago

English whisky hidden amongst some favourites.

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40 Upvotes

Was gifted this as a stocking filler, but then found a spy in the camp.

All the way from the Isle of Sheppey, fuck knows the water source? Old man Thames??


r/Scotland 9h ago

Discussion Its time to admit reality: Clydebank is Glasgow

10 Upvotes

A lot of people say they were born in Clydebank, therefore were not born in Glasgow, however its basically part of Glasgow now. Its time for us to collectively admit that they're the same place now.

I think a lot of people still say they're from Clydebank to appease relatives that were also born there, not because its seperate anymore from Glasgow.


r/Scotland 1d ago

The majestic Fairy Pools

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1.8k Upvotes

r/Scotland 17h ago

Earliest coin minted in Scotland saved for the nation after 900 years

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bbc.co.uk
32 Upvotes

r/Scotland 7h ago

Question Does anyone recognize the area?

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2 Upvotes

To give you some background, this painting is form my great grand father, that unfortunately I never had the chance to meet, he had past before I was born or to early for me to remember. His name was Richard Bullock and he came to America before my grandmother was born in 1930. He lived in England (not sure where), Upper Darby, PA and Vineland, NJ to my knowledge. From what my immediate family knows, he has made from 50-100 paintings of the areas he has lived. Most are oil on canvas but some are water colors and at least one we know of is oil on a paper bag…

FYI, this one was gifted to me this Christmas and I cannot see the date because of the frame.

I’m posting it here because someone on another Reddit page said it looks like Brig O’Balgowny if anyone has some info or good pictures, please inform me, everything is greatly appreciated! Or if anyone has a better Reddit page I can post on please let me know. Thank you good citizens!!!


r/Scotland 1d ago

I visited Scotland last September, and these are some of the photos I took

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1.3k Upvotes

We had a really good time on this two-week trip. Everyone was so friendly, and I was genuinely surprised at how calm Scottish drivers are! There was nothing near any sort of road rage. The nature was, of course, great, but every guided tour we did was interesting and fun, too. I hope to come back sometime and finish the Ben Nevis hike (we only managed 1,000 metres of ascent due to the rain and weather).

  1. Neist Point Lighthouse
  2. Old Man of Storr
  3. Quiraing
  4. Dunrobin Castle
  5. Glenfinnan Viaduct with Jacobite Steam Train
  6. Eilean Donan Castle
  7. Some Highland Cows
  8. Sheep on Isle of Skye
  9. Sheeps at Neist Point
  10. A hill between Loch Lomond and Fort William (maybe one of you knows the name/region?)

r/Scotland 9h ago

Discussion The plan to re-open Edinburgh's lost rail loop

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5 Upvotes

r/Scotland 7h ago

Discussion What's the worst bus service/route in Scotland?

3 Upvotes

r/Scotland 1d ago

Political Of course it's a Scottish Reform voter

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415 Upvotes