101 places to go – St Andrew’s Day 2012

We’re not exactly short of reasons to visit Scotland here at cottages4you, so we’re the first to recommend a trip up north when a celebration takes place. That’s not to take anything away from the St Andrew’s festivities, however. Every year Scotland plays gracious host and puts on a wonderful array of events offering music, food and celebrations of heritage. And though the St Andrew’s celebrations may be a warm up for the other winter festivals of Burns Night and Hogmany, the upshot is less crowds to hinder your exploration and enjoyment of Scotland.

We’ve suggested a few specific festivities below but we think just visiting Scotland itself is one of the best ways to make the most of St Andrew’s Day. When you’re enveloped by the stunning highlands, dense forests, soaring mountains, deep lochs, rivers and historic cities of Scotland, you can’t help but feel humbled by the wealth of history and heritage that surrounds you.

There’s no time like the present to celebrate Scotland and its patron saint! St Andrews Day is on 30 November. Find holiday cottages in Scotland on cottages4you.

• As part of Scotland’s Winter Festivals programme, Historic Scotland is giving away free tickets to up to 40 of Scotland’s heritage attractions over the St Andrew’s weekend. To get free tickets to Blackness Castle, St Andrews Cathedral and many more attractions simply register on the ticket giveaway site.

• Alongside free entry to its iconic castle, Edinburgh will be marking St Andrew’s Day with free lantern making on the Esplanade from 11am to 4pm and a Night Time Spectacular from 7pm-8pm. In addition, we expect there will be dozens more impromptu celebrations over the weekend.

• It should come as no surprise to find that the town of St Andrews throws a very large shindig in honour of its namesake. 2012’s St Andrews Festival promises to be bigger and better than ever with a food festival, whisky-tasting events, live music, fireworks and more. It runs until 3 December.