As Scotland celebrates the Year of Food and Drink 2015, we suggest 20 great Scottish-themed foodie things to do. So, when you are planning your next campervan or motorhome holiday in Scotland you can see how many of this top 20 that you can tick off.
1) Crunch on Hawick Balls! Hawick Balls are hard-boiled sweets that taste kind of minty and buttery at the same time. For the ultimate treat head to the oldest old-fashioned sweet shop in Scotland, Glickman’s Confectionery, 157 London Road, Glasgow. There are plenty of other traditional sweet shops dotted throughout Scotland.
2) Taste fresh-from-the-sea Scottish scallops on the beautiful Island of Mull. See Isle of Mull Scallops.
3) Ask for a deep-fried battered Mars bar at a willing chip shop. Deep fried Mars bars are a world-acclaimed Scottish way to eat chocolate.
Scottish porridge with a modern twist. Pic credit: David Blaikie on Flickr
4) Eat porridge for breakfast.
5) Pop a square of tablet on your tongue and let it melt in your mouth for a pure sugary sensation. Tablet can be bought from most sweet shops and many supermarkets.
6) Eat an Arbroath Smokie. The smoked haddock has made the coastal town of Arbroath famous and you can still buy the fish widely in Arbroath. See Arbroath Fisheries.
7) Visit Islay, the island of so many whisky distilleries.
Large whisky dram. Pic credit: Sayot on Flickr
8) Sip a dram of your favourite whisky on top of a Munro.
9) Learn how to pronounce soor ploom. These green, hard-boiled sweeties take their name from sour plums but that’s not how the Scottish pronounce it.
10) Visit the most remote mainland pub in Scotland, the Old Forge Inn. It is located at Inverie, on the wilderness peninsula of Knoydart in north-west Scotland, which is accessible only by boat or on foot.
11) See the famous Horseshoe Bar – claimed as Scotland’s biggest bar – in Glasgow.
12) Eat at the world renowned Michelin-starred The Three Chimneys on the Isle of Skye.
13) Ask a Scottish person to say Curly Wurly, and hear how deliciously the “rs” are rolled.
14) Have afternoon tea at the Willow Tea Rooms in Glasgow. This famous building was designed by acclaimed Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
15) Eat an Ashvale Whale. This is a one-pound cod fillet from the famous Ashvale chip shops in Aberdeen, Brechin, Dundee, Elgin, Ellon and Inverurie.
16) Choose from a mesmerising range of different flavours of ice cream at Nardini’s of Largs.
17) Enjoy a curry at the Wee Curry Shop in Glasgow.
18) Toast your holiday with cocktails at Rogano, which is Glasgow’s oldest restaurant.
19) Eat haggis, neeps and tatties. Look out for this traditional Scottish meal on pub menus or buy “real” Haggis of vegetarian “Haggis” at a butcher’s, deli or supermarket and cook it yourself.
20) Visit Cocoa Black, in Peebles, the luxury chocolatier and patisserie by Ruth Hinks, UK World Chocolate Master & UK Confectioner of the Year.