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Glasgow

Long overshadowed by Edinburgh, a mere 30 miles (48km) away, Glasgow actually has a lot to offer. It has left its reputation as a black hole of unemployment, economic depression and urban violence far behind. The 1980s and '90s saw the city reinvent itself culturally and socially. You're in no doubt that this is a Scottish city, brimming with vibrancy and energy. The city centre is built on a grid plan on the north bank of the shipbuilding river Clyde. Sights are spread over a wide area, with Sauchiehall St the place to go for shops, pubs and restaurants.

The oldest part of the city is to the east, around the intact Gothic masterpiece of Glasgow Cathedral, St Mungo's Museum of Religious Life & Art and the oldest house in Glasgow, 15th-century Provand's Lordship. Heading back west, an interesting walk takes you through the gracious houses and commercial structures of 18th-century Merchant City. Busy Sauchiehall St is home to the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Art Nouveau masterpieces of the Glasgow School of Art and the still-operational Willow Tearoom. The Tenement House is an extraordinary time capsule, providing vivid insight into middle-class city life at the turn of this century.

Also not to be missed is Glasgow's top cultural attraction, the Burrell Collection, housed in the Pollok Country Park 3 miles (5km) south of the city. Its idiosyncratic collection includes Chinese porcelain, medieval furniture and impressionist paintings, housed in one of the world's few inspirational buildings to be built in recent times.

St Andrews

This beautiful and unusual town melds the heady concoction of medieval ruins, a golfing mecca, windy coastal scenery and a schizophrenic university. Once the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland, today golfing is the town's religion. It's home to the Royal & Ancient Golf Club and the world's most famous golf course, the Old Course. A ruined castle sits above the bay, around the ruins of what was once the country's largest cathedral: it was pillaged during the Reformation. In the town centre, medieval closes lead off the cobbled streets, with the city gate, chapels, a medieval cross and museums within easy walking distance. Like the contemporary universities of Cambridge and Oxford, the university has no campus and its buildings are scattered in the centre of town.

Inner Hebrides

The Inner Hebrides, off the western coast of Scotland, are the country's most accessible and bewitching islands.

Jura lies near the coast of Strathclyde, yet it is magnificently wild and lonely, with desolate walks, breast-shaped mountains (the Paps of Jura), a whisky distillery and a lethal offshore whirlpool its prime attractions. Islay is the most southerly of the Inner Hebridean islands, and is best known for its smoky, single-malt whisky. The Museum of Islay Life in Port Charlotte relates the island's long history, while the 8th-century Kildaton Cross is one of the finest surviving Celtic crosses. Castle ruins and over 250 species of birds add to its attractions.

Further north, Taransay, where BBC TV marooned a community of volunteers for all of 2000, is one of the Inner Hebrides' most remote islands, an unspoilt place of cliffs, rocky coastlines and sandy bays. Grey seals and wild goats are the most commonly glimpsed inhabitants. Mull is one of the most popular islands, with superb mountain scenery, castles, a railway and small-town charm. The island's capital, Tobermory, is a particularly picturesque fishing port.