Tuesday 27th September 2011
Scottish attractions included in world's top sites
Scotsman
THEY are been much-visited destinations for both overseas visitors and "staycation" Scots.
Now ten Scottish attractions, including Shetland's Up-Helly-Aa festival, the Scott Monument in Edinburgh and Eilean Donan Castle in the Highlands, have been included in a list of the world's top 1,000 sights.
A book, 1,000 Ultimate Sights, published by travel guide Lonely Planet, has compiled 100 top-ten lists of the world's most impressive natural and man-made sights, broken down into categories such as "most bizarre", "strangest optical illusions and mirages" and "spookiest".
Glasgow's historic Willow Tea Rooms, featuring Rennie Mackintosh designs, is ranked with Paris's Metro signs as one of the world's best "art nouveau" icons.
Eilean Donan Castle is deemed by the book to be "the castle that launched a thousand tourist brochures" and is rated as one of the top "fairytale-like" castles, next to the Schloss Neuschwanstein in Bavaria and Prague Castle.
Find out more about visiting Scotland for yourself .