Last year over 45 million people visited the country's attractions, with Edinburgh Castle and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum attracting the biggest crowds.

Top of the list of paid attractions again for 2006 was Edinburgh Castle followed by Edinburgh Zoo with Edinburgh Bus Tours third, according to VisitScotland's Scottish Visitor Attraction Monitor.

The top free attractions were Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum with 1.88 million visitors followed by the National Gallery of Scotland Complex and the National Museum of Scotland.

Across the whole of Scotland there was a rise in the number of visitors to attractions to 45.3 million visitors - an increase of 6.0 per cent compared with 2005.

The mountain railway was the only attraction in Badenoch and Strathspey to feature in either of the two top 20s.

Mr Philip Riddle, VisitScotland's Chief Executive said: "Scotland's wide range of visitor attractions are a crucial part of our tourism industry, attracting visitors from Scotland, the rest of the UK and around the world.

"Whether it is castles, museums, art galleries or monuments – Scotland has some of the best in the world. They all play an important role in helping the tourism industry to reach its shared ambition of growing revenues from tourism by 50 per cent by 2015.

"Last year was particularly exciting, with the reopening of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum delighting visitors. It is encouraging to see overall growth in the number of visitors across the board."

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