Tour a Campbeltown distillery — Springbank (founded 1828) or Glen Scotia (1832) — in the town that once hosted dozens of distilleries

Visit the Campbeltown Picture House, the cinema opened in 1913

Walk a stage of the Kintyre Way out of Campbeltown

Walk the loch front past the Wee Picture House to the 14th-century Campbeltown Cross

Campbeltown was once said to be the whisky capital of the world, with more than thirty distilleries working at the head of its loch; three survive, among them Springbank, founded in 1828 and still floor-malting all its own barley. The Picture House on the front opened in 1913 and is one of the oldest purpose-built cinemas still running in Scotland.

Campbeltown: The Whisky Town at the End of Kintyre

Walk down towards the Mull of Kintyre lighthouse at the peninsula's south-western tip, first lit in 1788, on the headland Wings sang about in 1977

Look across the North Channel to Northern Ireland, about 12 miles away, on a clear day

See the footprints carved in the rock at Keil near Southend, said to be those of St Columba

See Dunaverty Rock at Southend, site of a massacre in 1647

The Mull of Kintyre lighthouse, first lit in 1788 and rebuilt in 1821–30, stands at the south-western tip of the peninsula, with Northern Ireland about 12 miles across the North Channel on a clear day — the headland made famous by Wings' 1977 song 'Mull of Kintyre'. At Keil near Southend a pair of footprints carved in the rock are said to be St Columba's, and Dunaverty Rock was the site of a massacre in 1647.

Mull of Kintyre: Lighthouse and St Columba's Footprints

Walk Achamore Gardens, begun in 1945 by Sir James Horlick, the 20-hectare garden known for its rhododendrons and azaleas

See Kilchattan Church, with its carved medieval grave slabs, and the undeciphered Ogham stone near it

Visit the community-owned island bought by its residents through the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust in 2002 for £4 million, arriving from Tayinloan on Kintyre

Gigha's residents bought their island in 2002 for £4 million through the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust. It is a short ferry from Tayinloan on Kintyre. Sir James Horlick began Achamore Gardens in 1945, and they cover 20 hectares and are known for their rhododendrons and azaleas; at Kilchattan Church are carved medieval grave slabs and an ogham stone no one has deciphered.

Gigha: The Island Its People Bought

Climb Goat Fell (875m), the highest peak on Arran

Tour Brodick Castle, the National Trust for Scotland property with 13th-century origins that was pictured on the Royal Bank of Scotland's old £20 note

Tour the Isle of Arran Distillery at Lochranza, opened in 1995

Walk among the six Neolithic and Bronze Age stone circles of Machrie Moor

Arran packs a lot into a small island. Goat Fell, 875m, is its highest peak, and below it Brodick Castle, now the National Trust for Scotland's, has origins in the 13th century and was pictured on the Royal Bank of Scotland's old paper £20 note. At the north end the Isle of Arran Distillery at Lochranza opened in 1995, and on the west side Machrie Moor holds six Neolithic and Bronze Age stone circles.

Arran: Goat Fell, Brodick and Machrie Moor

Walk through the Cornish-style village Clough Williams-Ellis designed

Find the caves near the village used in Game of Thrones

Look across the North Channel to the Mull of Kintyre

Find out how Shane O'Neill died here in 1567

Walk up to the Carnanmore passage cairn on its hilltop

Cushendun, at the mouth of the River Dun and Glendun, one of the nine Glens of Antrim, was designed by Clough Williams-Ellis for Ronald McNeill, later Lord Cushendun, in the style of a Cornish village; the National Trust has cared for most of it since 1954. Scotland's Mull of Kintyre is only about fifteen miles across the North Channel and easy to see on a clear day. It was here that Shane O'Neill, chief of the Tyrone O'Neills, was killed by the MacDonnells in 1567. The caves near the village were used as a backdrop in Game of Thrones, and four miles north the Carnanmore passage cairn sits on its hilltop.

Cushendun: The Cornish Village in the Glens

Tour Laphroaig, Ardbeg and Lagavulin, the three southern distilleries near Port Ellen famous for Islay's smoky, peaty style

Visit the Kildalton Cross, the carved eighth-century cross in the grounds of Kildalton Chapel

Visit the memorial on the Mull of Oa to the troopships Tuscania and HMS Otranto, both lost off Islay in 1918

Three distilleries stand within a few miles of each other on the south coast of Islay east of Port Ellen — Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg — and between them they make the smoky, peaty whiskies Islay is best known for. Beyond them, in the grounds of Kildalton Chapel, the Kildalton Cross is a carved cross of the eighth century, and out on the Mull of Oa a memorial remembers the troopships Tuscania and Otranto, both lost off Islay in 1918.

Islay's South Coast: Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg

Take the ferry from Ballycastle across to Church Bay

Get out to the West Light and watch the puffins from the RSPB viewing platforms

Find out why they call the West Light upside-down — its light sits at the base of the tower rather than the top

Find out what happened on Rathlin in July 1575

Look for Irish hares along the island's walking trails

Rathlin is the only inhabited offshore island of Northern Ireland, home to about 150 people, and the ferry crosses from Ballycastle to Church Bay, six nautical miles away. At the far west end, four and a half miles from the harbour, the West Light was built into the cliff face from 1912, finished towards the end of 1916 and first lit in 1919 — Ireland's only upside-down lighthouse — and the RSPB seabird centre there looks out onto stacks where puffins, guillemots, kittiwakes, razorbills and fulmars breed. Robert the Bruce took refuge on Rathlin in 1306, and Bruce's Cave is where he is said to have watched the spider that persuaded him to keep fighting. In July 1575, on the orders of the Earl of Essex, Francis Drake and John Norreys took Rathlin and killed hundreds of the MacDonnells' people, among them women and children.

Rathlin: Puffins, Bruce's Cave and the Upside-Down Lighthouse

Visit Kilmartin Museum, which interprets the glen's archaeological landscape — more than 800 ancient monuments within six miles, 150 of them prehistoric

Walk the linear cemetery, five burial cairns in a three-mile line, and look inside Nether Largie South, the Neolithic chambered cairn with a chamber over 6m long

Visit the standing stones at Temple Wood and Ballymeanoch

See the cup-and-ring carvings at Achnabreck

Climb Dunadd hillfort, the Dál Riata stronghold with its carved footprint

Kilmartin Glen holds more than 800 ancient monuments within six miles, 150 of them prehistoric. Five burial cairns run in a line three miles long down the glen, including Nether Largie South, a Neolithic chambered cairn probably built in the fourth millennium BC, with a chamber over 6m long; there are standing stones at Temple Wood and Ballymeanoch, cup-and-ring carvings at Achnabreck, and at the south end Dunadd, the hillfort of the kings of Dál Riata, with a footprint carved into the rock just below the summit enclosure.

Kilmartin Glen Prehistoric Trail

Tour Bowmore Distillery, said to date from 1779 and the oldest working distillery on Islay

Tour Bruichladdich on the Rinns, founded in 1881, which makes unpeated Bruichladdich and the heavily peated Port Charlotte and Octomore

Watch the barnacle and white-fronted geese at the RSPB Loch Gruinart reserve in winter

Bowmore, said to date from 1779, is the oldest working distillery on Islay, and Bruichladdich, founded in 1881 on the Rinns, makes both unpeated Bruichladdich and Octomore, billed as the most heavily peated single malt in the world. At Bridgend the Islay Woollen Mill still weaves, and at Loch Gruinart the RSPB reserve takes the Greenland barnacle and white-fronted geese that winter on Islay in their tens of thousands.