The best of Scotland isn't on the high street.
It's the harbour café that opens when the boats come in, the weaver working out of a shed on Harris, the distillery down a single-track road. ScottishLocal is a free guide to the hidden gems of Scotland's towns — and the independent businesses most search engines bury.
Pick a region, find its hidden gems
Every region has its own page — the towns worth stopping in, the landmarks worth the detour, and the independent businesses trading in both.
Highlands & Skye
Inverness · Portree · Ullapool · Plockton
Edinburgh & Lothians
Leith · Stockbridge · North Berwick
Glasgow & the West
West End · Southside · Oban · Arran
Loch Lomond & Trossachs
Balloch · Luss · Callander · Aberfoyle
Fife
St Andrews · Anstruther · Crail · Elie
Aberdeenshire & North East
Stonehaven · Ballater · Dufftown
Stirling & Central
Stirling · Dunblane · Doune · Callander
Outer Hebrides & Islands
Stornoway · Tarbert · Portree · Castlebay
Great businesses lose to bigger marketing budgets every day.
Search for anything in a Scottish town and you'll get chains, aggregators and ads. The family-run place three doors down — often better, almost always cheaper — sits on page four because nobody there has time to fight Google.
- Organised by town and region, so you find what's actually nearby.
- Independent and family-run only — no chains, ever.
- No booking fees and no commission — you deal with the business directly.
A few of the gems
A sample of what's in the directory right now. Search all listings →
The directory is open and empty
We've written the guides for 49 towns and villages across Scotland. What we don't have yet are the businesses in them — because we'd rather list real places than pad this out with filler.
If you run an independent business in Scotland, you can be the first in your town. It's free, and it stays free.
Add your business free“The best thing you'll find in any Scottish town is almost never the thing it's famous for. It's the place a local sends you.”
— Why we started ScottishLocal