I’m sure there are plenty, but I quite like history, love a castle etc but when I went looking for the remains of the Antonine wall I was greatly disappointed. Field. Nothing even remotely wall like, not even a ruin. Not sure if I was experiencing it right, but had a decent run about with the pup anyway.
John O’Groats. A 90s shopping crescent of mostly closed down tourist tat shops, and a signpost that a guy will appear and charge you a fiver if you try and take a photo near it.
I traveled throughout Scotland last year on my honeymoon (missing Scotland rn) and this wasn’t on my list to see but…
Greyfriar’s Bobby Statue in Edinburgh. I was making my way to Greyfriars Kirkyard Cemetery and saw groups of people spilling into traffic, surrounding a statue of a dog.
Went on Google later and thought the statue was cute. I read up on the story behind it too, it was nice. But I don’t know if it warranted a crowd of people blocking traffic and pedestrians. I think there were also concerns about the people continuously rubbing its nose???
People seem to like attaching significance to old bits of stone.
the centre of Scotland stone a bit of disappointment
I remember seeing a giant yellow kettle in Gourock. It was out of place, as Scotland’s coast is beautiful even without a giant kettle.
The Kelpies, while large and impressive for that, I found them really cheesy and not worth the stop the tour made there.
If you count the Fringe Festival then that would tick the box. Once a place for genuine artistic innovation, sharing of ideas and mingling of different people, now just an overbloated, overpriced phoney fest geared at squeezing the most money out of people including residents and merely a high-bar for any wealthy comedian to jump over if they want to make it big. After CoE Council’s suggestion that residents should give up spare rooms for ‘struggling’ artists, it won’t be long before they start implementing a resident tax in August.
I was at the Falls of Braan (right next them) about 25 years ago when an American tourist came and asked me how much further it was to the falls… The look of disappointment on his face when I told him he’d made it was heart-breaking.
[deleted]
The gravestone of King Duncan in Inverness. Hidden behind a petrol station. 😂
I would say the Kelpies, just 2 creepily big statues. Not anything ancient, not anything natural, just a metal sculpture.
Storybook Glen. I went as a kid in the early nineties, so it may have improved since, but I can still feel the brutal, unparalleled disappointment like it was yesterday.
Personally I felt a bit let down by the Glencoe visitor centre. They could’ve really went for it on the history of 1692 and I don’t recall seeing a thing. Mostly geology.
Rob Roy statue next to a cave he apparently hid in just as you leave Aberdeen going out royal Deeside.
In fairness this is far better than the original statue that was there
Edinburgh castle. At least, the few bits that are publically accessible anyway.
” Electric Brae ” – does not work !
I think emerging from Stirling Station to the view of the bins at the back of McDonald’s and Argos is pretty embarrassing.
Nessieland, no contest.
The Mel Gibson statue?
Skye’s Fairy Pools. I like water falls and pools, but there are plenty of places acrosd Scotland that have better falls and with fewer tourists and midgies.
Not sure about disappointing as I had no real idea what to expect – Taste of Scotland Show at Prestonfield House in Edinburgh.
My missus is not from Scotland. She worked in a B&B her first couple of years in the country and had heard from some guests that this show was good so decided to book us tickets. I went along having no real idea what to expect. It’s supposed to be a Scottish dinner and show, I kind of thought naively that it would just be like a Burns supper with some ceilidh tunes, haggis, neeps, tatties and whisky tasting. Oh no… it’s a full on over the top, camp, tartan cabaret. We ate the starter and just about finished the main but left well before the desert. Fucking horrendous, playing up to tartan stereotypes and shite repeated true Scotsman jokes, for a room full of yanks who were absolutely lapping it up.
No idea what it cost but I still hold it against my wife to this day, 14 years later. That is my worst “tourist” experience worldwide, let alone in Scotland. Genuinely feel we’d have got better value taking the bairns to the Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow.
The loch Ness visitors center. When I brought my Canadian wife back on our honeymoon (many moon’s ago), the visitor center was free, a bit basic, but full of friendly folk. We were back two years ago with my grown daughter and it appears that its been turned into a money machine.
We never went through it.
Ibrox.
Have you seen, the Hill O’ Many Stanes?
Now, I actually love the Hill O’Many Stanes cause after numerous occasions of passing the signs and not really thinking about it, one day we followed them and I actually laughed quite a lot at it.
But I can imagine if you were expecting….anything at all really… you may be disappointed
(It is exactly as described. A hill with many stanes. They aren’t even big ones)
32 comments
What is this attraction ?
I’m sure there are plenty, but I quite like history, love a castle etc but when I went looking for the remains of the Antonine wall I was greatly disappointed. Field. Nothing even remotely wall like, not even a ruin. Not sure if I was experiencing it right, but had a decent run about with the pup anyway.
John O’Groats. A 90s shopping crescent of mostly closed down tourist tat shops, and a signpost that a guy will appear and charge you a fiver if you try and take a photo near it.
I traveled throughout Scotland last year on my honeymoon (missing Scotland rn) and this wasn’t on my list to see but…
Greyfriar’s Bobby Statue in Edinburgh. I was making my way to Greyfriars Kirkyard Cemetery and saw groups of people spilling into traffic, surrounding a statue of a dog.
Went on Google later and thought the statue was cute. I read up on the story behind it too, it was nice. But I don’t know if it warranted a crowd of people blocking traffic and pedestrians. I think there were also concerns about the people continuously rubbing its nose???
Got our own stone (replica)🫣
https://preview.redd.it/q78n0t87jyof1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3db1a258058d7d0e927e4e660c8b2fad7569b12e
Glasgow Science Centre
m&ds
Cumbernauld …
Reminds me of the Lang Stane in Aberdeen…
… and the London Stone.
People seem to like attaching significance to old bits of stone.
the centre of Scotland stone a bit of disappointment
I remember seeing a giant yellow kettle in Gourock. It was out of place, as Scotland’s coast is beautiful even without a giant kettle.
The Kelpies, while large and impressive for that, I found them really cheesy and not worth the stop the tour made there.
If you count the Fringe Festival then that would tick the box. Once a place for genuine artistic innovation, sharing of ideas and mingling of different people, now just an overbloated, overpriced phoney fest geared at squeezing the most money out of people including residents and merely a high-bar for any wealthy comedian to jump over if they want to make it big. After CoE Council’s suggestion that residents should give up spare rooms for ‘struggling’ artists, it won’t be long before they start implementing a resident tax in August.
I was at the Falls of Braan (right next them) about 25 years ago when an American tourist came and asked me how much further it was to the falls… The look of disappointment on his face when I told him he’d made it was heart-breaking.
[deleted]
The gravestone of King Duncan in Inverness. Hidden behind a petrol station. 😂
I would say the Kelpies, just 2 creepily big statues. Not anything ancient, not anything natural, just a metal sculpture.
Storybook Glen. I went as a kid in the early nineties, so it may have improved since, but I can still feel the brutal, unparalleled disappointment like it was yesterday.
Personally I felt a bit let down by the Glencoe visitor centre. They could’ve really went for it on the history of 1692 and I don’t recall seeing a thing. Mostly geology.
Rob Roy statue next to a cave he apparently hid in just as you leave Aberdeen going out royal Deeside.
In fairness this is far better than the original statue that was there
https://preview.redd.it/gg1vt6heuyof1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a3422707874009f9d97a69267b0745c845a7691c
Edinburgh castle. At least, the few bits that are publically accessible anyway.
” Electric Brae ” – does not work !
I think emerging from Stirling Station to the view of the bins at the back of McDonald’s and Argos is pretty embarrassing.
Nessieland, no contest.
The Mel Gibson statue?
Skye’s Fairy Pools. I like water falls and pools, but there are plenty of places acrosd Scotland that have better falls and with fewer tourists and midgies.
Not sure about disappointing as I had no real idea what to expect – Taste of Scotland Show at Prestonfield House in Edinburgh.
My missus is not from Scotland. She worked in a B&B her first couple of years in the country and had heard from some guests that this show was good so decided to book us tickets. I went along having no real idea what to expect. It’s supposed to be a Scottish dinner and show, I kind of thought naively that it would just be like a Burns supper with some ceilidh tunes, haggis, neeps, tatties and whisky tasting. Oh no… it’s a full on over the top, camp, tartan cabaret. We ate the starter and just about finished the main but left well before the desert. Fucking horrendous, playing up to tartan stereotypes and shite repeated true Scotsman jokes, for a room full of yanks who were absolutely lapping it up.
No idea what it cost but I still hold it against my wife to this day, 14 years later. That is my worst “tourist” experience worldwide, let alone in Scotland. Genuinely feel we’d have got better value taking the bairns to the Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow.
The loch Ness visitors center. When I brought my Canadian wife back on our honeymoon (many moon’s ago), the visitor center was free, a bit basic, but full of friendly folk. We were back two years ago with my grown daughter and it appears that its been turned into a money machine.
We never went through it.
Ibrox.
Have you seen, the Hill O’ Many Stanes?
Now, I actually love the Hill O’Many Stanes cause after numerous occasions of passing the signs and not really thinking about it, one day we followed them and I actually laughed quite a lot at it.
But I can imagine if you were expecting….anything at all really… you may be disappointed
(It is exactly as described. A hill with many stanes. They aren’t even big ones)
That looks like Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts:
[https://www.tripsavvy.com/visit-the-plymouth-rock-1599133](https://www.tripsavvy.com/visit-the-plymouth-rock-1599133)
*(edited to add; it’s lame AF, too)*
Honestly I’ll get a lot of flak for this but considering how many tourists go to Fort William, it really sucks. Inverness isn’t too hot either
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