Seall
Seall is Gaelic for "look"
Scotland's best spots for tonight's sky
Seall is a free app that shows you where to go tonight. Every viewpoint, castle and dark-sky spot gets a score from 0 to 10, worked out from the cloud, the moon and how dark the sky gets there.
Free for iPhone and Android, with no ads and no account to make.
What Seall does
Open the map and you'll see around 10,000 places across Scotland. Tap one to see its score for tonight, how far you'll walk from the car park, and whether there's room for a campervan.
Stars and aurora
Find dark-sky spots and Scotland's six official dark-sky places. Each spot shows its chance of the northern lights tonight, worked out for that exact place.
Sunsets and views
Viewpoints are scored for sunset: Seall checks the cloud around sunset and which way the view faces, so you know where the light will be good.
Castles and history
Thousands of castles, brochs and standing stones, with links to their official records so you can read more.
Wildlife by month
Puffins, dolphins, ospreys, the red deer rut and more. Each animal only shows on the map in the months it's actually around.
Hills, coast and trails
Munros, Corbetts, beaches, lighthouses, waterfalls, sea caves and 29 long-distance trails, plus cafés and distilleries for afterwards.
Favourites and nights
Save the places you like to their own map. The Nights tab shows the next 14 nights, with darkness times, the moon, meteor showers and space station passes.
How the Tonight score works
The score runs from 0 to 10. Seall looks at the forecast for the hours that are properly dark at that spot and weighs up five things.
- Clear sky40%
- Moon20%
- Aurora chance15%
- Darkness15%
- Calm and dry10%
Cloud is read in three layers (low, middle and high) from the Met Office model via Open-Meteo. Darkness combines light pollution at the spot with how far the sun sinks below the horizon that night.
A night to drive for.
This is how a high score reads in the app. Below it you'll see each part of the score, so you can tell why.
Honest about Scottish summers
From late April to mid August the sky never gets fully dark this far north. Seall tells you so, holds the score down, and shows the date proper darkness comes back.
Thick cloud wins
If the sky is mostly cloud, a new moon and a dark site can't save the night. The score stays low and says so.
Viewpoints get a sunset score
For viewpoints the score is about the sunset instead: clear sky around sunset counts for 55%, whether the view faces the sun going down counts for 30%, and wind makes up the last 15%.
Built for places with no signal
Much of the Highlands and islands has no phone signal, so Seall keeps the important things on your phone.
Works with no signal
- The map of Scotland and all 10,000 places
- Parking, walk-in distances and OS grid references
- Sunset, darkness and moon times, worked out on your phone
- Your favourites
Needs a signal
- Tonight's forecast and aurora chance
- Photos of each place
- Directions, which open in Google Maps
Check the score before you lose signal. If it drops while the app is still open, Seall keeps using the last forecast and shows the time it was fetched.
The built-in map is an overview for finding your way between places. A more detailed map download is coming soon. Always carry a paper map on the hill.
Who it's for
Campervanners
Filter for campervan parking, free parking and official overnight spots nearby. Each car park shows its spaces, fees and any height limit.
Stargazers
Sort the list by darkest sky and check the moon before you set off. Red-light mode keeps your eyes used to the dark while you look at the screen.
Aurora chasers
Seall reads the aurora forecast from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center and gives every spot its own chance, then lets you sort by it.
Walkers
See how far each spot is from the car park, how much climbing there is, and whether it's step-free. Long-distance trails and Munros are on the map too.
Photographers
Sort by sunset to find a view that faces the sun going down, then check the cloud at golden hour. The midge meter warns you about still, damp evenings.
Screenshots
What it costs
Seall
Free
The map, every place, the Tonight score, the offline map, favourites and the Nights tab are free, and they stay free.
Seall Pro Coming soon
£9.99 once
A one-off unlock for alerts when a good night is coming and a home screen widget. You pay once and keep it. Seall will never be a subscription.
There are no ads, and the app has no analytics or tracking code (see the privacy policy).
Support and contact
Get help
Found a wrong car park, a closed road or a spot that shouldn't be on the map? Email [email protected] and tell us the place name.
Press and partners
Writing about Scotland's dark skies, or running a dark-sky park? The press kit has a fact sheet, the launch release and logos. For anything else, email [email protected].
Stay safe. Scores and car park details are estimates and conditions change fast. Some spots are on private land. You're responsible for your own safety and for getting permission where you need it. Read the terms.
Data credits
Seall is built on open data. Thank you to everyone who collects and shares it.
- Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Met Office model data via Open-Meteo is CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Aurora and Kp data courtesy of the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center.
- Sky brightness derived from NASA Black Marble night-time lights (Román et al.) through a skyglow model.
- Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), with tiles built by Protomaps.
- Contains Historic Environment Scotland data and Canmore records © Historic Environment Scotland, Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026.
- Contains NatureScot information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Hill data from The Database of British and Irish Hills v18.4 (CC BY 4.0).
- Satellite views from Sentinel-2 cloudless by EOX IT Services GmbH (CC BY 4.0), containing modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016 and 2017.
- Photos from Wikimedia Commons. Each photo credits its author and licence in the app.
- Dark-sky place designations from DarkSky International. Official overnight sites from Forestry and Land Scotland. Wildlife seasons compiled from NatureScot, RSPB, the Scottish Wildlife Trust and other public sources.
Seall is not affiliated with North Coast 500 Ltd.