Scotland - A wealth of Stately homes and Castles

City and countryside combine for an experience of Scotland which is packed with interest. Explore the varied strands of Dundee's story - but take time to discover another Scotland, in the quiet glens of Angus.

The city of Dundee offers many themes to explore, with the varied strands of its heritage including textiles, jam-making and whaling. A good starting place is the award-winning Discovery Point, where the Royal Research Ship Discovery is berthed as the focal point of a fascinating visitor attraction.

The ship was built here, using Dundee's expertise from its earlier involvement in building sturdy whaling vessels capable of withstanding the polar ice. RRS Discovery took Captain Scott to Antarctica, a story dramatically told in a series of stunning displays and presentations in the centre.

The ship itself is also open to view. Another strand can be explored at the Verdant Works, where the city's jute-manufacturing role is portrayed in a former 19th-century jute mill, one of the very few surviving and complete examples of its type. Children love the hands-on and interactive displays.

Another great place for families is Sensation, Dundee's innovative science centre housed in a striking building. Over 65 fun interactive exhibits bring science to life, based round the exploration of the senses, with something for all ages. Dundee's past goes hand in hand with its present upbeat air, thanks to its rich cultural life.

The city's "cultural quarter" continues to develop, with the flagship venue, the popular Dundee Contemporary Arts as a gallery, studio, exhibition space, cinema and cafe-bar meeting place all at once.

For more cultural fixes, the McManus Galleries holds a superb Scottish Victorian art collection, while Dundee's Repertory Theatre is home to Scotland's only permanent ensemble company. With a choice of cinemas, an excellent range of restaurants and pubs, nightclubs and sport and leisure facilities, Dundee is an increasingly popular choice for a city-based break.

The old county of Angus lies to the north, where the wide reaches of Strathmore (Gaelic for big valley) with its farms and woodlands lie between the Highland-edge hills and the rolling coastlands. Take the coast road to discover an Angus bound up with the sea at towns like Arbroath, home of the famous delicacy, the Arbroath smokie (a split, smoked haddock).

At Arbroath Museum, the epic story of the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse in 1811 on an offshore reef is told. Arbroath also lends its name to the Declaration of Arbroath of 1320. This document asserted Scotland's right to freedom and, it is said, was the basis for the American Declaration of Independence.

The story of Arbroath Abbey, one of Scotland's most important historical sites, is interpreted in the Abbey Visitor Centre. Northwards on the coast, past the picturesque old fishing village of Auchmithie, and the long sandy sweep of Lunan Bay, Montrose is another prominent coastal town, with its own art gallery and museum.

Behind the town is an important site for wildlife, which can be viewed at the Montrose Basin Wildlife Centre. There are live pictures of the estuary birds, and displays on ecology and migration. Away from the coast, old-established towns like Brechin are set amidst the fertile wooded Strathmore landscapes.

On the edge of the town, Pictavia is a visitor centre taking its theme from the Pictish tribes who left their traces, such as standing stones, in the area. This prehistoric theme can also be explored by a trip to see the Caterthuns, Iron Age forts set high in the lonely Grampian foothills to the north. (This little trip should also take in the tower house of Edzell Castle with its unique walled garden of 1604.) Forfar, another former market town for this agricultural area, also makes a good base for exploring the Angus countryside.

Lying closer to the hills, Kirriemuir, with its winding streets and red sandstone houses, is an attractive Angus town. The playwright and creator of Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie, was born here. The Kirriemuir Gateway to the Glens Museum, housed in Kirrie's oldest building (1604) tells the story of the town and interprets the life of the glens, past and present and makes an excellent starting point for any exploration of this area. Kirriemuir as the "Gateway to the Glens" is really the gateway to a whole different view of Angus, where long glens run deep into the hills.

These glens have quiet roads leading up them and each glen has its own heritage, its own community and special character. You simply choose your glen and step beyond the Highland line into this secret world: for example, Glen Prosen, with its pinewoods, birch and rowan, grazing land and moor - and, above all, the high and silent slopes of the Grampian heartlands to the north.

This glen offers stunning panoramas, as well as an unexpected association. Look for the roadside memorial which relates how the last Antarctic expedition of Captain Robert Falcon Scott was planned with Doctor Edward Adrian Wilson on the verandah of a bungalow situated nearby, just by the entrance to the glen.

Queen Victoria was only one of the many travellers to enjoy the grandeur of the countryside around Glen Clova and Glen Esk. Today, from the Kirriemuir direction, you can travel by car, bike or on foot far up Glen Clova, till the hills close in around the car park at the road-end beyond Braedownie at the mouth of Glen Doll.

This is the starting point for birdwatchers, walkers or mountain bikers, or anyone who enjoys wild places - especially botanists. A certain George Don, an 18th century, Forfar-born, botanist, wrote: "Not even Ben Nevis, Ben Lawers and Ben Lomond, and the high mountains of the Cairngorms, taken altogether, can furnish such botanical treasures as are to be met with on the mountains of Clova."

The most easterly of the Angus Glens, Glen Esk, has another road where you feel you are being drawn far into the uplands. Birchwoods and pine, a guardian castle and the tumbling River North Esk set the scene in the upper glen. The Glenesk Folk Museum, also well into the hills, reveals much of the secret life of the Glens. But remember that Isla, Prosen, Clova and Esk are just the main glens - there are many more to explore, besides the attractive swathe of countryside overlooking the edge of the Angus hills.

The area also teems with wildlife interest, and there are nature reserves, such as the Loch of Kinnordy, managed by the RSPB, while near the Loch of Lintrathen, you can enjoy one of the most spectacular of Scotland's waterfalls. The Reekie Linn is on the River Isla, where the river tumbles out of the hills by way of a spectacular rocky shelf, creating an 80ft waterfall. In spate, the spray rises like smoke - hence the "reekie." (Take great care with children on the path through the woodlands.)

Between them, Dundee and Angus cover just about every possible holiday leisure pursuit. Carnoustie is the flagship destination for golfers in the area - though Barry, Arbroath and Montrose also feature classic coastal links. Letham Grange is called Òthe Augusta of Scotland", while places like Edzell offer relaxing golf over a mature heathland course.

The glens are made for ponytrekking and riding, while walkers can enjoy superb high-level hiking. At a lower level, there is a choice of angling in loch and river. In short, the city and countryside here offer everything thatÕs best in Scotland for a great holiday.