This text is intended for all in central Scotland, residents and visitors alike, who wish to know something of the natural and man-made history of the area. It covers from Balmaha on Loch Lomond in the west, to Blacknes on the Forth estuary in the east; from Tyndrum in the north down to Slamannan in the south - an area which is at the heart, yet combines features, of all Scotland.

Enjoy sightseeing and shopping in bustling Edinburgh and Glasgow or explore unspoiled scenery and welcoming towns in the Hebridean Islands, Southern Scotland, Tayside, and the Northeast. Go from the Highlands to the Lowlands. Hike, canoe, or just relax at Loch Lomand. This friendly guide gives you the scoop on: Edinburgh Old Town, with its intriguing winding alleyways Accommodations that range from sumptuous 17th century hotel furnished with Gothic antiques to a secluded seaside escape, and from a 17th century laird’s house to a sleek, modern and minimalist hotel Enjoying a pint of lager in a rustic pub where the barmen wear kilts and you don’t tip or touring distinctive distilleries Cathedrals, castles and historic sites like the Calanais Standing Stones (the "Scottish Stonehenge"), Edinburgh Castle that holds the historic Stone of Destiny and Scotland’s crown jewels, Doune Castle, made famous by the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Glasgow Cathedral Storied golf courses such as Muirfield, Royal Troon, and St. Andrews in the country credited with developing the sport Touring Sir Walter Scott’s mansion, Abbotsford, with it’s incredible library, relics, and mementos, or paying homage to poet Robert Burns at numerous sites Shopping for everything from fine wool knits to Caithness glass paper weights to Edinburgh Crystal to tartans and kilts to Highland Stoneware Like every For Dummies travel guide, Scotland For Dummies, 5th Edition includes: Down-to-earth trip-planning advice What you shouldn’t miss — and what you can skip The best hotels and restaurants for every budget Whether you’re looking for fun nightlife or the legendary Loch Ness monster…whether you want to explore art galleries and museums or walk craggy seacoasts, this guide gives you the flavor of Scotland so enchantingly you can almost hear the bagpipes.

Emblems in the visual arts use motifs which have meanings, and in Emblems in Scotland Michael Bath, leading authority on Renaissance emblem books, shows how such symbolic motifs address major historical issues of Anglo-Scottish relations, the Reformation of the Church and the Union of the Crowns. Emblems are enigmas, and successive chapters ask for instance: Why does a late-medieval rood-screen show a jester at the Crucifixion? Why did Elizabeth I send Mary Queen of Scots tapestries showing the power of women to build a feminist City of God? Why did a presbyterian minister of Stirling decorate his manse with hieroglyphics? And why in the twentieth-century did Ian Hamilton Finlay publish a collection of Heroic Emblems?