Aberdeenshire: See
Castles: Balmoral on the road up the valley above Ballater is a grandiloquent Victorian pile of a castle, the prototype of the "Scottish Baronial" style, all mock-turrets and stags heads looming over the stairways. Completed in 1856, it remains the Royal Family's summer holiday home.
Among the many other castles are Dunottar at Stonehaven; Crathes, Craigevar and Drum castles around Banchory, and Tolquhon and Fyvie around Ellon.
Peterhead Prison was notoriously bleak and harsh. It's now a museum.
Tiny fishing villages include Gardenstown, Crovie and Pennan which is the one with the red phone box in the film Local Hero.
Scotland's Gardens opens up private gardens once a year in summer, with all proceeds going to charity. There are about 20 participating gardens in this area, dates staggered so there's one open most weekends.