Welcome: The Scotsman recommends

SCOTLAND is a wonderful place to live – and we all have our favourite little pieces of it. Whether it is a gorgeous secluded beach, a fantastic drive or a friendly restaurateur who can’t do enough for customers, we remember these places and people for a long time.

Recommends is an opportunity for Scotsman readers to tell us about their favourites – the city centre taxi driver with a great line in patter, the ruined castle, the country pub. What they share is that little something that is guaranteed to lift the spirits.

As well as your choices, we want your comments on what our writers say – do you agree with Ian Stewart’s selection of mountain bike trails or David Robinson’s book-shops? Are Jim Gilchrist’s folk music venues or Liz Leydon’s cocktail bars the places you would go – or do you have very different ideas?

We want to open discussion about what is great about Scotland, so feel free to start your own categories. See how you can make your selections at the bottom of each page – online, by e-mail, or by post. So get recommending!

HELLO, good morning and welcome to issue No 30 of your favourite eight-page best-of supplement which appears in the middle of The Scotsman every Wednesday. OK, it's a niche market, but we all have to find our place. Personally, I can't believe we have made it to issue No 30 - and there were those who said we wouldn't last a month.

This week, I received some feedback on Recommends from readers. Some said they wanted it to be broader and to cover a wider range of subjects; others wanted it to be less eclectic as they were never quite sure whether they would find what they were looking for.

That just goes to prove you can't satisfy anybody all of the time. To me, it is the sheer variety of Recommends that makes it interesting. I am not sure from one week to the next how the following issue will turn out and the often discordant mixture of subjects is, I feel, a strength. While some might say the selections are random, I would prefer to keep using eclectic.

I am interested to hear your views on this - too broad or not broad enough? Too many ideas for days out and meals - or not enough? I appreciate some entries are "best of" categories rather than recommendations, but I feel it all adds to that rich tapestry of life. You may feel I am talking rubbish; if so, please tell me.

Also, please let me know what you would like more of - or less of - in Recommends. Even if you don't want to send in a top five, let me know which topics you would like to see covered and I'll do my best to oblige. See the bottom of pages 4-8 to get in touch.

And the usual sorry - The Scotsman is not responsible for disappointment arising from recommendations.

To have a chance of winning a case of wine, add your recommendations online or email [email protected]