Tattoo talk
MILITARY music in the Scottish summer – it’s time to book now for the 58th annual Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which runs from August 3 to 26.
The largest gathering of military musicians in the UK are set to perform at the 2007 showpiece armed service event, staged against the matchless backdrop of Edinburgh Castle. The production will feature a range of superb international performers with the centrepiece of the evening once again expected to be the spine-tingling sights and sounds of the world famous massed Pipes and Drums, one of the finest display anyone can witness anywhere in the world. VisitScotland can recommend deals beginning at £189 ($375.6).
Drink up, drink up
SIXTEEN leading whisky distilleries on Scotland’s west coast, including Laphroaig, Talisker, Jura, Arran, Springbank and Bowmore, are joining forces with local golf courses, hotels and restaurants in a new tourism initiative called The Whisky Coast. The project includes tour companies and other tourist attractions and has been granted funding from Highlands and Islands Enterprise and VisitScotland. It includes a 30-page guide and a website, www.whiskycoast.co.uk. More than one million people visit a distillery in Scotland every year, with distillery visitor centres generating £17.3m in revenues.
Starry politics
ALL of Scotland’s first ministers will be immortalised in bronze as part of a new initiative that will turn Glasgow’s Buchanan Street into a political version of Hollywood's Walk of Fame, Scotland’s Sunday Herald reported. The statue of Scotland's first first minister Donald Dewar, a popular gathering point outside the Royal Concert Hall, is to be joined by a similar tribute to Henry McLeish. The cost of the project, unveiled as part of a 10-year tourism strategy to secure Glasgow’s position as a ‘must visit’ European destination, is so far unknown, but it's likely future sculptures will come at a price close to £30,000 ($59,600) paid for Dewar's.