12 Cozy Scottish TV Shows Set in Villages, Islands & Glens
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Last Updated on September 25, 2026 by Stefanie Hutson
English villages are cozy, to be sure, but there's something that just hits differently about shows set in the Scottish countryside – especially the Highlands and islands. Below, we take a look at 12 highly re-watchable Scottish series worth checking out if you need a dose of those impossibly lovely landscapes (and one more that's coming soon)
While many are available to stream in the US, several are a bit harder to track down – requiring either imported DVDs (you'll need a region-free DVD player to watch them) or creative Google searches to find “gray market” copies people have uploaded.
Monarch of the Glen (2000–2005)
Archie MacDonald, a young restaurateur in London, is called home to Glenbogle, his family's estate in the Scottish Highlands, after his mother tells him his father is seriously ill. Once he arrives, he learns that his father only has a cold, the estate is heavily in debt, and he's expected to take over as laird. The first five series follow Archie's efforts to keep the estate running. The final two series focus on his cousin Paul Bowman, who takes over the estate and tries to modernize it.
Michael Chaplin created the series for BBC Scotland, loosely basing it on Compton Mackenzie's Highland novels, and it ran for 64 episodes across seven series (but cherish the early seasons because they really are the best ones). Alastair Mackenzie (The Loch) plays Archie, and Richard Briers (The Good Life) and Susan Hampshire (The Forsyte Saga) play his parents. The cast also includes Dawn Steele (Sea of Souls) as Lexie, Alexander Morton as ghillie Golly, Julian Fellowes (who later created Downton Abbey) as neighboring laird Kilwillie, Lloyd Owen as Paul, Martin Compston (Line of Duty) as young ghillie Ewan, and Tom Baker (Doctor Who) as Archie's uncle Donald. Glenbogle House is Ardverikie House in the Badenoch and Strathspey area of the Highlands.
A new version is on the way from Channel 5 and PBS Masterpiece. Julia Brown (World on Fire, Karen Pirie) plays Isla Campbell, a London lawyer who comes home for her estranged father's funeral and inherits the family's Highland estate along with a million-pound debt. Chris Fulton (Outlander) plays her brother Alasdair, and Phyllis Logan (Downton Abbey) and John Gordon Sinclair (Gregory's Girl) are also in the cast. Watch it HERE
Hamish Macbeth (1995–1997)
Hamish Macbeth is the police constable in Lochdubh, a fictional village on Scotland's west coast. He's relaxed about minor offenses such as salmon poaching and after-hours drinking, and he avoids high-profile arrests because a promotion would mean leaving the village. Cases in the series include a theft from the village grocer and the disappearance of a local man known for abusing his wife. Hamish is usually accompanied by his West Highland terrier, Wee Jock.
Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting, The Full Monty) plays Hamish. Ralph Riach plays TV John, who got his nickname by owning the first television in the village, and Shirley Henderson (Harry Potter, Bridget Jones's Diary) plays local reporter Isobel. Valerie Gogan plays Alex, the laird's daughter and Hamish's on-and-off girlfriend. Daniel Boyle created the series for BBC Scotland and wrote twelve of its twenty episodes. He kept only the names of the hero and the village from M.C. Beaton's novels, and Beaton was unhappy with the result, since she'd written Hamish as a tall, easygoing Highlander (and she wasn't too keen on his pot smoking). Lochdubh was filmed in the gorgeous little village of Plockton, which also provided locations for The Wicker Man. Watch it HERE
2000 Acres of Sky (2001–2003)
The primary school on Ronansay, a fictional island near Skye, faces closure because it has only three pupils – so the islanders advertise for a married couple with two children to move to the island and run its bed and breakfast. Abby Wallace, a single mother of two living on a London council estate, applies, and she asks her childhood friend Kenny, a musician, to pose as her husband. Not long after, they're accepted and move to the island, where things get a lot more complicated – because how well can you really hide something like that on a tiny island where everyone is everyone else's business?
Timothy Prager created and wrote the series, which ran for 22 episodes over three series on BBC One. Michelle Collins (EastEnders) plays Abby, and Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones) plays Kenny, with Michael Carter as salmon farmer Douglas Raeburn. Ronansay was filmed in Port Logan, a seaside village in Dumfries and Galloway. Norwegian television remade the series in 2008 as Himmelblå.
This one was streaming in the US for a while (season 1, at least), but sadly, it's no longer available. You CAN track it down on DVD, though.
Doctor Finlay (1993–1996)
After serving in the Second World War, Dr. John Finlay returns to Arden House, the medical practice in the Scottish town of Tannochbrae that he shares with the older Dr. Cameron. The series is set in the late 1940s as the National Health Service is being introduced, and early storylines deal with modernizing the practice, taking on new doctors, and Cameron's reluctance to retire.
The series is based on A.J. Cronin's Dr. Finlay stories, and it picks up where the BBC's Dr. Finlay's Casebook (1962–1971) left off. Scottish Television made 27 episodes over four series for ITV, filming in Auchtermuchty in Fife. David Rintoul plays Finlay, Ian Bannen plays Dr. Cameron, and Annette Crosbie (One Foot in the Grave) plays housekeeper Janet. Jason Flemyng (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) plays Finlay's assistant Dr. Neil, and Jessica Turner plays his later partner, Dr. Napier. Watch it HERE
The Vital Spark (1965–1974) & The Tales of Para Handy (1994–1995)
Neil Munro began writing his Para Handy stories for the Glasgow Evening News in 1905. Captain Peter “Para Handy” MacFarlane and his crew run the Vital Spark, a Clyde puffer, which is a small steam cargo boat that can unload onto beaches and small piers. They carry coal, gravel, furniture, and livestock around Scotland's west coast and islands, and the stories follow their dealings with customers, rival crews, local officials, and their employer. The stories also inspired the 1953 Ealing film The Maggie.
The Vital Spark was BBC Scotland's second version of the stories, following Para Handy – Master Mariner in 1959. Roddy McMillan plays Para Handy, with John Grieve as engineer Dan Macphail, Walter Carr as mate Dougie, and Alex McAvoy as Sunny Jim. It began as a Comedy Playhouse episode in 1965, ran for two black-and-white series in 1966 and 1967, and came back in color in 1974 with remakes of earlier scripts. Only one of the 1960s episodes survives, along with four of the seven color episodes. This one's a bit harder to track down – though it can be found on DVD or with a good Google search.
The Tales of Para Handy sets the stories in the 1930s across nine 50-minute episodes. Gregor Fisher (Rab C. Nesbitt) plays Para Handy, Rikki Fulton (Scotch & Wry) plays Macphail, Sean Scanlan plays Dougie, and Andrew Fairlie plays Sunny Jim. Paul Young plays shipping company owner Andrew Campbell, who employs the crew and is also Para Handy's brother-in-law. David Tennant appears in one of his earliest roles, and Alex McAvoy, the Sunny Jim of The Vital Spark, appears in one episode as a fellow captain. Watch it HERE
Take the High Road (1980–2003)
Scottish Television's soap opera is set in Glendarroch, a fictional village on the banks of Loch Lomond, and follows the families who live and work on the Glendarroch estate. Storylines include crop failures, local politics, affairs, alcoholism, and occasional murders. It began as a daytime programme for the ITV network, was renamed High Road in 1994, and ran for 1,517 episodes. Most ITV regions stopped showing it in the 1990s. After ITV announced plans to cancel it in 1993, hundreds of fans protested in Glasgow's George Square, and it continued in Scotland for another ten years.
Glendarroch was filmed in the real village of Luss. Eileen McCallum (River City) plays Isabel Blair, Gwyneth Guthrie plays Mrs. Mack, Alec Monteath plays crofter Dougal Lachlan, and Derek Lord plays Davie Sneddon. Alan Cumming (The Good Wife), James Cosmo (Braveheart, Game of Thrones), Joe McFadden (Heartbeat), and Natalie Robb (Emmerdale) all appeared early in their careers.
Classic British soaps are notoriously difficult to track down, but if this one intrigues you, you're in luck. They have an official YouTube Channel HERE, and while they don't have all 1500+ episodes there (for now), they DO have enough full episodes to give you a taste. If the channel does well for them, you never know – they might add more.
Hope Springs (2009)
Ellie Lagden and three women she served time with, Hannah, Shoo, and Josie, plan to move to Barbados with £3 million stolen from Ellie's gangster husband. When the plan fails, they hide in the remote Scottish village of Hope Springs under new identities and take over a run-down hotel there.
Ann McManus, Maureen Chadwick, and Liz Lake created and wrote the series. Their company, Shed Productions, also made Bad Girls and Footballers' Wives. Alex Kingston (ER, Doctor Who) plays Ellie, alongside Siân Reeves (Cutting It) as Hannah, Christine Bottomley as Shoo, and Vinette Robinson (Sherlock) as Josie. Annette Crosbie (One Foot in the Grave), Ronni Ancona, and Paul Higgins (The Thick of It) play villagers, and Richard Madden (Game of Thrones, Bodyguard) appears as Dean McKenzie in an early role. BBC One aired eight episodes, and the village scenes were filmed in Wanlockhead in Dumfries and Galloway.
This one isn't currently available to stream in the US, but you can pick it up on DVD.
Brotherly Love (1999–2000)
Frank Robertson, an architect based in London, returns to the Scottish village of Invercorrie for his Uncle Archie's funeral. Dear Uncle Archie has left Frank the heavily indebted village pub, and he also owed money to half the village, including local GP (and Frank's brother) Hector. The brothers have had a strained relationship since they were young, so the whole thing is a bit of a mess.
Tony Humphreys and Bernard McKenna created the sitcom, and McKenna wrote it. BBC One aired a pilot in 1999 and a six-episode series in 2000. Gregor Fisher (Rab C. Nesbitt) plays Hector, James Fleet (The Vicar of Dibley, Four Weddings and a Funeral) plays Frank, and Caroline Langrishe (Lovejoy) plays Kate. Ralph Riach, TV John from Hamish Macbeth, is also in the cast, and Sarah Parish guest stars. Inveraray on Loch Fyne stood in for Invercorrie.
Sadly, we've been unable to find this one on any streaming service or DVD release – but a bit of Googling can point you to some options (at least at time of writing).
Mountain Goats (2014–2015)
In Glencoe, a group of mountain rescuers use The Old Goat pub as their headquarters. The team includes veteran volunteer Jimmy, Bill, Bernie, and younger member Conor, with Jules running the pub. Episode plots include the team retaking its fitness tests to avoid being shut down, and Jimmy getting public attention after he rescues a hiker.
Donald McLeary wrote the series, which BBC Scotland made as a studio audience sitcom. A pilot aired in 2014, and a six-episode series followed on BBC One in 2015. Jimmy Chisholm, one of the best-known faces from Take the High Road, plays Jimmy. Sharon Rooney (My Mad Fat Diary, Dumbo) plays Jules, with David Ireland as Bill, Kathryn Howden as Bernie, and Kevin Mains as Conor.
This one's not streaming, but you can pick it up on DVD.
Rosamunde Pilcher's Shades of Love (2010)
Edmund Aird owns Balnaird House, a large estate in the Scottish Highlands, where he lives with his mother, his American-born wife, Virginia, and their family. He also runs the family business. The series follows a busy period in which Edmund has a heart attack, his son-in-law tries to take control of the company, and an American man arrives believing he's the father of the Airds' youngest daughter. The story continues from Pilcher's novel September.
This is a German co-production with a mostly British cast, and some of the German actors' dialogue is dubbed (which can be a little jarring). Giles Foster directed four 90-minute episodes from scripts by Matthew Thomas. Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) plays Edmund, with Eileen Atkins (Doc Martin) as his mother, Eleonore Weisgerber as Virginia, and Rebecca Night as their daughter Laura. Harriet Walter and Michael Brandon are also in the cast. It was filmed around the Scottish Borders and Midlothian, including Duns Castle, Manderston, St Abbs, and Newbattle Abbey. Watch it HERE
Rambling (2026 or 2027)
This one-off sitcom isn't actually out yet, but it was recently announced as a new commission for BBC Scotland, BBC iPlayer, and BBC One – and we're hopeful it might cross the pond at some point. Ashley Jensen (Shetland, Agatha Raisin) stars alongside Mark Bonnar (Guilt, Line of Duty) in this comedy about two unlikely ramblers exploring the Scottish countryside together.
Jensen plays Cat, a chaotic woman who encounters Gerry (Bonnar) when she's just been kicked out of another walking group. He's on a mission to fulfill a promise to his dead brother. But of course, a bit of walking and good scenery helps them to find a bit of common ground.
We can't offer any guidance on where to watch this one in the States, but we'll be keeping an eye out for more details – and with any luck, maybe they'll pick it up for more than a single episode.
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