A few years ago, I walked the West Highland Way, Scotland’s best-known and most popular long distance walking path. Since then, I’ve completed many long day walks but nothing of comparable scale. One of the issues with other long-distance paths in Scotland is that there aren’t the same facilities for walkers at the end of […]
In the first self guided tour I took you through all the essential spots in the city centre, Our second meander took you out to the North of the city so this time we are going to visit some spots on the ‘Southside’ As well as the usual essential items for any visit to Scotland you […]
A few weeks ago my son and I decided to create a circular route around the centre of Edinburgh that took in as many as possible of the ‘essential sights’ This week we came up with a plan to create a second walking tour but this time one that explored the New Town and covered […]
Edinburgh became the sister city of San Diego, USA in 1977. Sister cities were the result of an initiative by President Dwight D. Eisenhower who believed that twinning cities and connecting people at the community level would forge strong international relations and build trust which would result in a more peaceful world. These two cities shared […]
Let’s take a look at 12 amazing facts about the lochs of Scotland, and we’ll start with a wee bonus fact: did you know there are over 760 lochs in Scotland? With that many of them we could give you interesting facts about them all day, but here’s what we thought the best were…
The thistle is the national flower of Scotland, much like the rose is the national flower of England and the United States. Today we’re going to look at two interesting things about this flower, the tale as to why it became the national flower and also the unofficial national anthem it inspired. There are several […]
Painting the Peats is a project that began when artist Damian Callan and his family started helping crofter Chris Spears stack his peats at his peat bank on North Uist. The experience led to a series of ink and wash studies that combined groups of working figures in the Hebridean landscape and were developed into […]
Recently people living in Scotland witnessed spectacular displays of the Northern Lights far more than previous years. Even here in Edinburgh we saw them. Tim Peake up in the international space station also watched them. The northern lights are also known as ‘Aurora borealis’ and the southern lights as ‘Aurora australis.’ In Roman mythology Aurora […]
One of the things that discourages individuals from recognizing and exploring, not to mention enjoying, their Scottish Gaelic heritage is the widespread view that the only distinct aspect of Gaelic culture was, and is, its Celtic language. Many people consciously and unconsciously are assured that beyond “Ceud Mile Failte” and “Slainte”, Gaelic culture is basically little […]
Some of the advantages that accompany engagement with one’s Gaelic heritage are the wonderful and useful bits of relevance that a Gaelic past brings to modern life. That’s right. Lessons learned from a Gaelic perspective can be productively relevant to difficult problems we face today. Consider the following: Gaelic tradition introduces community oriented and inclusive perspective in an increasingly exclusive and inward looking […]
