Scottish Journeys : Scotland Magazine

Scotland’s whisky islands

The islands around Scotland’s coastline are ruggedly beautiful and home to some of the nation’s best whisky. Dominic Roskrow acts as tour guide

A couple years ago I spent a very pleasurable afternoon drinking whisky with some of the staff of Royal Mile Whiskies in Edinburgh debating which country could claim to be ‘God’s Own’ – Scotland or New Zealand. I had argued for the open spaces of Aotearoa and the fact it divided two very different ...

By Dominic Roskrow from Issue 23 published on 14/10/2005

Time traveller

A journey to Gigha is like a journey to the past. Serena Allott reports

It takes just three hours to travel from Glasgow to the Isle of Gigha, but once on board the Tayinloan ferry, chugging across the icy waters of Gigha Sound, you will journey back in time. Originally named Gudey ‘the Good Isle’ by the Norse King Hakon, this is the southern most of the Hebridean isla...

By Serena Allott from Issue 22 published on 10/08/2005

Adopted by good Scottish folk

In the last issue we looked at some of the best venues for folk music. Here Kathleen Spiessbach sets out in search of Scotland’s best folk music

It all started in Peebles. We had just arrived in this small Borders town on the banks of the Tweed, a sundry group of Yanks under the wing of folklorist Ed Miller. As we watched the setting June sun ignite the Border hills that first night, the air seemed charged with promise. For the next two wee...

By Kathleen Spiessbach from Issue 21 published on 10/07/2005

One man and his boat

The release of a Ewan MacGregor film following the fortunes of a dysfunctional man travelling onthe canal between Edinburgh and Glasgow has prompted us to send our Ewan MacGregorlookalike, Maxwell MacLeod, on the same journey. This is his story

So, picture it if you will... It's mid-August, and you are sitting beside the Edinburgh to Glasgow canal, on the first leg, the 31 mile long Union canal. The sun beats down like a hammer, and many Scots are responding by, well, getting hammered. And there's laughing children pointing at a strange a...

By Maxwell MacLeod from Issue 17 published on 29/11/2004

Great Scott! It's the write way to cross the border

Sir Walter Scott Way is a 93 mile long footpath. Sue Kendrick was among the first to complete it. Here she reports on her amazing journey

The way was long, the wind was cold …” The Lay of the Last Minstrel is one of Scott’s most famous Border poems and this line describes, with uncanny prescience, the Sir Walter Scott Way, a new long distance footpath stretching from Moffat in the Annandale Valley to Cockburnspath on the east coast. ...

By Sue Kendrick from Issue 15 published on 18/7/2004

Head out to the hills

Hiring a car but not sure where to go? Tony Troon offers two more routes that should last about half a day and take you through contrasting areas of Scotland's beautiful landscape.

NORTHEAST: Dornoch, Brora, Bonar Bridge. The only problem about leaving Dornoch is just that: the leaving of it. This is a town of such charm. But this 70-mile circular route through the firthlands and high moors of Sutherland will end there where it began, giving you two chances to enjoy Dornoch’s...

By Tony Troon from Issue 14 published on 2/5/2004

The pipes are calling's

Scotland called is anew company which aims to give tourists an alternative view of Scotland in total luxury. Dominic Roskrow spent three days exploring Scotland's west coast.

It’s an overwhelming experience standing at the top of Bealach Na Ba – Gaelic for cattle pass and a road which can lay claim to being both Britain’s highest road and one its most dramatic. Even on wet and misty days like today the view is truly spectacular and a little disconcerting. Indeed the mis...

By Dominic Roskrow from Issue 13 published on 25/3/2004

It's all uphill for the salmon

Steve Newman looks at he salmon as it returns to the river Tweed, and the animals and hazards it encounters on its way.

The salmon has one of the longest journeys of any animal on the planet. The Tweed has long been recognised as Britain’s premier salmon river twisting its way from the western Border hills to the sea at Berwick. Even before it reaches the estuary of the Tweed the salmon must run the gauntlet of the ...

By Steve Newman from Issue 12 published on 19/1/2004

Scotland Magazine section Scottish Journeys