Scotland’s top 10 attractions in pictures

Scotland’s top 10 tourist attractions have been revealed.

Historic Environment Scotland say their most-visited staffed site was Edinburgh Castle with 2,111,578 visitors. Stirling Castle was the second-top visited site with 605,241 visitors, followed by 518,195 visitors to Urquhart Castle. This is the first time Urquhart Castle has welcomed over 500,000 visitors in a single year.

HES looks after 300 heritage sites, including 77 staffed Historic Scotland attractions. Despite the ‘Beast from the East’ having an impact on sites at the beginning of 2018, there has been a steady increase in footfall, with half of the heritage body’s staffed sites seeing record visitor numbers last year.

The 2018 calendar year top ten staffed heritage attractions (location, visitor numbers, increase/decrease in visitors) are:

1, Edinburgh Castle, 2,111,578 visitors

2, Stirling Castle, 605,241 visitors

3, Urquhart Castle, 518,195 visitors

4, Glasgow Cathedral, 482,783 visitors

5, Doune Castle, 142,091 visitors

6, Skara Brae, 111,921 visitors

7, Linlithgow Palace, 94,718 visitors

8, St Andrew’s Castle, 91,302 visitors

9, Fort George, 71,906 visitors

10, Iona Abbey, 64,183 visitors