The Most Beautiful Medieval Places in Scotland
5 places · updated 14 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful medieval places in Scotland are Dunnottar Castle, Iona Abbey and Edinburgh Castle. The list covers 5 medieval places. Last updated 14 October 2026.
Medieval Scotland was a kingdom of clans, monasteries and contested borders, and its castles and abbeys stand in the dramatic places that this history demanded: on volcanic crags, sea cliffs and islands in lochs. Stone tower houses guarded glens and waterways, and the western isles carried the faith of the Irish monks who brought Christianity to the north. Many of these places are ruins, which leaves their silhouettes against water and hills all the more striking.
Edinburgh Castle crowns the plug of an extinct volcano above the city, and its small St Margaret's Chapel, from the early twelfth century, is the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh. On the tiny Hebridean island of Iona, where Saint Columba founded a monastery in the sixth century, the restored medieval abbey stands near the burial ground of early Scottish kings. On the north-east coast, the ruins of Dunnottar Castle cover a flat-topped headland joined to the mainland only by a narrow neck of land.
In the west, two castles rise from the water. Castle Stalker is a tower house on a tiny islet in Loch Laich, a branch of Loch Linnhe, with the mountains across Loch Linnhe behind it. Kilchurn Castle, built by the Campbells of Glenorchy in the fifteenth century at the head of Loch Awe, stands as a roofless ruin on a peninsula that was once almost an island.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dunnottar Castle | Castle ruin | |
| 2 | Iona Abbey | Abbey | |
| 3 | Edinburgh Castle | Castle | |
| 4 | Castle Stalker | Fortified tower | |
| 5 | Kilchurn Castle | Castle ruin |
01 Dunnottar Castle
United Kingdom · 22.9 km from Aberdeen56.946° N 2.197° W
Image by Collie581 from Pixabay Dunnottar is a clifftop fortress on a detached-looking headland on the north-east coast of Scotland, about 3 km south of Stonehaven. 4-hectare summit is a natural citadel. Walls, towers and roofless halls are spread across the top, and the approach along the cliff path shows them outlined against open sea long before you reach the gate.
Did you know? The Scottish crown jewels first arrived at Dunnottar in 1651 hidden in sacks of wool, brought by a woman named Katherine Drummond.
02 Iona Abbey
United Kingdom56.335° N 6.391° W
Image by daisiem from Pixabay In 563, the Irish nobleman-turned-monk Columba landed on Iona with twelve companions, having left Ireland — depending on which version of the story you credit — either as a missionary by choice or in penance after a dispute that ended in bloodshed.
03 Edinburgh Castle
United Kingdom · 1.1 km from Edinburgh55.949° N 3.201° W
Image by Walkerssk from Pixabay Edinburgh Castle is less a building than a crown worn by a rock. Castle Rock is the plug of a volcano that went quiet some 350 million years ago: hard dolerite that the ice sheets could not grind away, leaving cliffs up to 80 metres high on three sides and a single gentle tail of rock running east. That tail became the Royal Mile, and the whole Old Town grew down it like a spine.
Did you know? In 1314 thirty men under Thomas Randolph scaled the north face at night, guided by a former garrison soldier who knew a way up.
04 Castle Stalker
United Kingdom · 32 km from Fort William56.572° N 5.386° W
Ymblanter · CC BY-SA 4.0 Castle Stalker is a four-storey tower house standing on a small tidal islet in Loch Laich, an inlet of Loch Linnhe on the coast of Argyll. It owes its fame almost entirely to its setting: a single grey keep rising from a rock just big enough to hold it, reflected in still water,. The image is so complete that it has become one of the best-known views in the Highlands; at high water the castle seems to float.
Did you know? The 20th-century restoration of the ruined tower was carried out largely by the Stewart Allward family's own labour.
05 Kilchurn Castle
United Kingdom56.404° N 5.027° W
Steve Partridge · CC BY-SA 2.0 On a low spit of land at the head of Loch Awe, the broken tower and walls of Kilchurn stand almost at water level, so that on a still day the whole ruin is doubled in the loch. It is one of the most photographed castles in Scotland, and the reason is obvious from the first glimpse: grey stone, dark water, and mountains closing in on every side.
Did you know? The site belonged to Clan Gregor before Colin Campbell took it around 1440.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful medieval places in Scotland?
- On our list, Dunnottar Castle ranks first, followed by Iona Abbey and Edinburgh Castle.
- What is the oldest building in Edinburgh?
- St Margaret's Chapel inside Edinburgh Castle, built in the early twelfth century by King David I in memory of his mother, Queen Margaret, is the oldest surviving building in the city.
- Where were the Scottish Crown Jewels hidden from Cromwell?
- During Cromwell's invasion, the Honours of Scotland were held at Dunnottar Castle while it was under siege in 1651 and 1652. Before the castle surrendered they were smuggled out and buried beneath the floor of the nearby Kinneff Old Church.
- Which Scottish castle appears in Monty Python and the Holy Grail?
- Castle Stalker appears at the end of the film as the Castle of Aaargh, while Doune Castle near Stirling was used for many of the other castle scenes.
- How many medieval places are on this list in Scotland?
- The list covers 5 medieval places.