Join us on a journey of discovery.
Hidden Scotland is an independent publisher with one mission: to discover hidden corners and rediscover time-trodden trails. From Royal Deeside we make a biannual print magazine, a shelf of guidebooks and a weekly newsletter — designed and published in Aberdeenshire, printed in Glasgow, and posted to readers all over the world.
Photographed for Hidden Scotland by Conor Gault
"Our mission is to discover hidden corners as well as rediscover time-trodden trails."
That's the line printed inside every issue, and it's a fair summary. Some of what we cover is genuinely unknown. The last soutar's shop in rural Scotland, say, or a sauna on a Shetland shore. Some of it is famous and deserves a better telling.
Either way, the approach is the same. We go there. We sit at the kitchen tables of the people we write about, walk the routes we recommend, eat the food, and photograph most of it ourselves. It's slower and dearer than the alternative. The pages show it.
Along the way we try to encourage conscious travel: the kind that puts something back into the small communities and family businesses that make these places what they are.
From 2016 to today
It starts with a name
Hidden Scotland begins as a way of sharing the country's lesser-known corners, one photograph and one story at a time. Independent from day one, and still independent now.
The magazine goes to print
The first issue of Hidden Scotland Magazine arrives: 160 pages of original photography and writing, designed, published and printed in Scotland. A biannual rhythm settles in, April and October, and hasn't been broken since.
The guidebooks arrive
The Best of Edinburgh joins The Best of Skye on the shelf. Hundreds of hand-picked listings per book, every one visited and written by us, with QR codes linking to maps and extra material online. Nobody pays to be in them.
Twelve issues and counting
The magazine is stocked by independent bookshops, farm shops, galleries and hotels the length of the country, and posted to readers all over the world. The office is still in Aberdeenshire. The kettle is still on.
Made the long way, on purpose.
Six things we won't budge on
Independent
No publishing group, no outside owners. We answer to readers, which is exactly how we like it.
Made in Scotland
Designed and published in Aberdeenshire, printed by J.Thomson Colour Printers in Glasgow. The whole thing happens here.
First-hand
If we recommend it, we've been. Listings and features are researched on foot, not from a desk.
Photography-led
Original commissions from photographers who know their patch, printed at a size that does them justice.
Conscious travel
We'd rather send ten curious people to a place that will love having them than a thousand to a car park.
Slow by design
Two issues a year, one print run each. When it's gone, it's gone. Scarcity isn't a tactic, it's a consequence of doing it properly once.
A small team and a big address book
The core of Hidden Scotland fits round one table in Aberdeenshire. The rest of it is scattered across the country, behind cameras and keyboards.
Jack Cairney
FounderKarla Rose Hall
Editor & DesignerRecent issues carry words and pictures by Ben Lerwill · Lucy Gillmore · Anna Levin · Emily Rose Mawson · Graeme Johncock · Beth Reid · Rosie Steer · Rachel Rowley · Laurie Goodlad · Elle Duffy — with photography by Simon Hird · Bret Charman · Fran Mart · Kim Grant · Richard Gaston · Grant Anderson and many more.
What we make
The Magazine
160 pages, twice a year, April and October. Original features, regional guides, folklore and the people behind Scotland's best small businesses. £15 in print, £10 digital.
Browse the magazineThe Guidebooks
The Best of Edinburgh and The Best of Skye, with more to come. Hand-picked listings, illustrated stories and QR codes linking through to maps and extras.
See the guidebooksThe Weekly Newsletter
A free letter from Aberdeenshire every week. New places, old stories, and what we're working on. The best way to hear about new issues before they sell through.
Sign up freehiddenscotland.com
Guides, journals and a hand-picked collection of characterful places to stay across the country, chosen the same way as everything else: in person.
Explore the siteThe best introduction is an issue in your hands
Paper says it better than a webpage can. Start with the current issue, or say hello and tell us where you're from. We do read everything.