Friday, August 14, 2009

Unusual Things To Do In Scotland

By Andrew Kelly

The country of Scotland offers the most breathtaking countryside in the UK making it a highly popular vacation destination. Many visitors to Scotland opt for Edinburgh for their main destination, whereas others decide upon something a bit different. The following article takes a look at vacations in Scotland and a selection of things to do while in Scotland. The article also introduces the Wickerman Festival.

With such an amazingly diverse countryside the range of things to do is endless. Climbing mountains is tremendously popular, as are cycling vacations. The most common holidays are golf or fishing. With Scotland being the place of origin of golf it should not surprise you that that you are never too distant from a minimum of one excellent golf course. With the River Tay and the River Spey you can be certain of an amazing day fishing. But what if you want an alternative vacation?

An increasing number of folk are choosing music festivals their annual vacation. Even though the majority of music festivals are incredibly large with a focus upon making cash, you can find a small number of music festivals geared towards families, such as the Wickerman Festival.

More of a music and arts festival, the annual Wickerman festival takes place on farm land near Dundrennan in Dumfries & Galloway about five miles away from the Scottish town of Kirkcudbright. The festival theme is the cult classic British movie, "The Wicker Man" which the stars Sir Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento and Ingrid Pitt.

The very first festival was held in 2002 and was created by a local man called Sid Ambrose. With little experience of putting together a very large event it is surprising that it is still held today, especially when you consider the present economic climate. Wickerman has altered slightly each year and has an almost cult following itself.

Wickerman is hugely family friendly it features many child orientated activities for example, a fairground, a mountain biking trek, various workshops and face painting. This fact can be verified easily by searching Yahoo, MSN or Google for 2009 photos of the Wickerman Festival or simply visit the official Wickerman Festival Gallery.

Near to the festival site is Kirkudbright where you will discover many locations used in the film for example Harbour Cottage which was used for the bakery and High Street Gallery (post office and sweetshop). You will find that there are many places worth visiting in Dumfries and Galloway and it is really worth taking a short break here so that you can visit all of the tourist attractions. Popular places in which to stay include Castle Douglas and Dumfries. Scottish bed and breakfast is nearly always excellent and is also fairly priced and much less costly than staying in a hotel.

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