1 Piping Live!
Glasgow, until Sunday
Glasgow's annual bagpiping festival - the world's biggest, naturally - continues at venues across the city centre. As is customary, Saturday's climactic World Pipe Band Championship takes place on Glasgow Green, and features hundreds of pipe bands, a food and drink festival and fun-packed kids zone. Elsewhere, amongst the usual programme of concerts and competitions, look out for free live performances at the National Piping Centre's pop-up Street Cafe, daily parades between the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall steps and Candleriggs, a nightly festival club, and free whisky tasting sessions with Glenfiddich.
www.pipinglive.co.uk
2 The Generator
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sunday
The National Gallery complex on the Mound has been running a children's arts lab for most of the summer - and there's still a few days left to catch one of these free, interactive afternoon drop-in sessions before they finish. Inspired by Generation, a huge programme of contemporary art currently featuring in galleries across the country, activities include photography, dressing up, painting to music, sculpture making, and helping create a giant wall mural. As an added bonus, any participant completing four activities wins a prize.
www.nationalgalleries.org
3 Science in a Sports Kit
Satrosphere, Aberdeen, daily
Another end of the holidays option, taking a look at the science behind sport at Aberdeen's Satrosphere science centre. A daily programme includes activities testing speed, reactions, coordination and rhythm, as well as opportunities to meet specialists such as physiotherapist Jo Gordon, who'll be on hand to discuss her work on Saturday at 3pm. Visitors can also complete challenges for prizes, which include vouchers for adventure sports centre Transition Extreme. Running until the schools go back (plus weekends until late September), tickets are £4.50-£5.75.
www.satrosphere.net
4 Aviemore Activity Centre Open Day
Macdonald Aviemore Resort, Saturday
Sessions at the Macdonald Aviemore Resort's new children's play centre usually cost £10 - but to celebrate its opening officially, on Saturday entry is free. In exchange for a small donation to Aberdeen-based kids hospital charity The Archie Foundation, young visitors will have access to the centre's nine interconnected, age appropriate areas which include a sensory room and outdoor play zones. Suitable for children up to 16, the event also features face painting, games, a bouncy castle and circus skills demonstrations.
www.macdonaldHotels.co.uk/ActivityCentre
5 August Big WOW Weekend
Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park, Renfrewshire, Saturday and Sunday
Catch up with the Windows On Wildlife conservation project, which uses an array of hidden outdoor cameras to film animals their natural habitat in Clyde Muirshiel Park. Over the past two years, vast amounts of footage has been captured featuring normally shy species such as otters, badgers, roe deer, barn owls, and weasels - view some of the best and find out more about the project on Saturday at RSPB Lochwinnoch Reserve, or on Sunday at the nearby Castle Semple Visitor Centre.
www.clydemuirshiel.co.uk
6 Vintage Bus Open Weekend
Scottish Vintage Bus Museum, Lathalmond, Fife, Saturday and Sunday
Scottish Vintage Bus Museum throws open its doors for a weekend of motoring nostalgia showcasing historic buses and commercial vehicles from all over the UK. The Fife-based vehicle restoration charity has around 190 exhibits ranging from a rare 1880s tram to farm vehicles, classic cars, and heritage railway stock, plus more old buses than you can shake a tyre iron at. Entry is £5-£7, with a half-hourly vintage bus service running to and from nearby Dunfermline on both days.
www.svbm.org.uk
7 Galloway Country Fair
Drumlanrig Castle, Thornhill, Dumfries, Saturday and Sunday
Delve into regional food and drink, country sports, rural crafts, and children's activities with the return of this annual country fair held 17 miles north of Dumfries. With more than 200 exhibitors on site, there's ample opportunity to shop, eat and try range of sporting activities. Attractions also include falconry and animal shows, a demonstration kitchen, and entertainment from motorbike and equestrian display teams. Tickets are £12 (children £5), with a three-night camping option.
www.gallowaycountryfair.co.uk
8 Cycle Glasgow
Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow, Sunday
Saddle up for the University of Glasgow's 12th sponsored cycle, a family-friendly event suitable for all levels of ability held in support of the Paul O'Gorman Leukaemia Centre. Starting at 10am, there's the option to complete one or two laps of a 13 mile course which heads out to Clydebank and back, mainly along car-free stretches of the Kelvin Walkway and Forth and Clyde Canal. Online registration has closed, but if there's room, you can still enter on the day (adults £13, under 16s £5).
www.gla.ac.uk/events/cycleglasgow
9 Film In the Old College Quad
University of Edinburgh, from Sunday
A free family-friendly lunchtime showing of animated hit Shrek marks the start of a week of open-air films at Edinburgh University's Old College Quadrangle on Sunday. Entry to a kids matinee showing of How To Train Your Dragon a week on Saturday is also free, with tickets for all other screenings in the series on sale for £5. Among favourites lined up are James Bond thrillers Goldfinger and Skyfall, 1980s classics The Breakfast Club and Ghostbusters, and the Edinburgh-set Restless Natives and Trainspotting.
www.ed.ac.uk/news/events/festivals
10 Subway Helping Hearts 5K
Strathclyde Country Park, Motherwell, Sunday
This sandwich retailer-endorsed 5K sponsored fun run is one of 12 taking place across the UK over the summer to raise funds for Heart Research UK. Open to all ages and abilities, participants can run, walk, or even push a buggy around the course, with all finishers landing a goody bag, t-shirt, and lunch. You've got until 9am tomorrow to enter online for a discounted rate, but you can still sign up on the day for £7.99. Kids under 12 are free.
heartresearch.org.uk/events/subwayfamily5k
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