7 reasons why walking is the best way to explore Scotland

While museums can be wonderful, nothing compares to actually visiting and exploring sites such as historic castles, Roman ruins, and ancient Neolithic villages in the flesh. You can visit medieval castles in the Scottish Highlands, journey back 5,000 years at immaculately well-preserved Neolithic sites in the Orkney Islands, and visit places that are the mythical home of giants and fairies in the Isle of Skye.

While the past is undoubtedly fascinating, present-day Scotland is also vibrant, as you'll discover in charming villages, towns and cities. In communities like Portree on the Isle of Skye or Fort William in the Highlands, you'll come face-to-face with historic architecture, traditional cuisine, and welcoming locals.

From helping prevent conditions like heart disease and high blood pressure to improving your strength, stamina, and energy, there are multiple benefits of walking as a form of exercise. Instead of spending the majority of your time in Scotland sitting in a car, get up and active by going on day hikes or long-distance walks like the West Highland Way, to improve your health while you're on vacation.

And walking is not only beneficial for your health and wellbeing, it’s also good for the environment. By ditching or cutting back on the use of cars, trains and planes while traveling, you're reducing the carbon footprint of your trip and practicing a more sustainable form of travel. As climate change threatens to impact on Scottish landscapes, we all need to do our part to travel more sustainably and help reduce our impact.

Our modern world is one of constant, rapid movement, but travel can be about slowing down and truly immersing yourself in a new place. Slow travel is a growing movement among travelers and the travel industry that encourages travelers to slow down in order to make a better connection with local landscapes, people, and culture. And the best way to do that is by taking your time and exploring on foot. Moving only as fast as your feet can take you provides frequent opportunities to stop, investigate, listen, and learn in ways that you can't if you're in a rush.