Welcome

I WAS going to describe a great weekend away in Gairloch but have so much else to say that it has to wait. First of all, see the back page to find out how to get the Scotland Recommends book, the compilation of some of the best and most useful contributions to this supplement. To those of you who have kept every copy and see no need to buy it, I have three comments:

1) It has a shiny cover and feels lovely and smooth to touch.

2) We have removed some defunct businesses, added some new info and lots, lots more contact details.

3) The book is much easier to carry around than more than 50 supplements.

Sorry, four things – the book is really, really good.

Secondly, thanks very much to the talented Ross Russell, The Scotsman design guru, for today's cracking cover – if you look closely, it's made up of lots of wee images used in Recommends over the last year.

Thirdly, thanks to the ever-entertaining Thomas Murray of Perth and his obsession with points of the compass. In response to best place for a picnic, he takes issue with our claim Vatersay is an uninhabited island: "Actually, Vatersay is permanently inhabited. Excluding Northern Ireland, it is the most westerly permanently inhabited place in the UK."

Thanks also to Allan Mason for his close reading of best tunnel': "The Union Canal tunnel does not, and never has, run under Callendar Park. Above, but slightly to the north of the tunnel, lay The Callendar Policies. This was a mine, rail sidings and a bing consisting of the diggings from lots of mines around the Glen area. You could walk all around the park and never find the canal, never mind the tunnel."

Finally, thanks so much to those who responded to "top horse song" last week, proving that sometimes the weirdest categories truly are the best.