My Personal Blog

Britain in 1638 was a powderkeg awaiting a spark. In Scotland King Charles I had, in the teeth of local Presbyterian opinion, decreed that all religion must follow the Book of Common Prayer. This was a high-Anglican pattern book that had been introduced into churches in England. The spark had a name - Jenny Geddes. A market stall owner in Edinburgh's High Street, the minister in St Giles Kirk

It's a town straggling eastwards down a hill with a castle on top. Edinburgh? Stirling? No - Clackmannan. The town gets its name (Clach Mannan = Mannan Stone in Gaelic) from the stone raised on a plinth outside the old tollbooth. The Mannan Stone: I was keen to see the Mannan Stone and visited this hilltop village after the Stirling 10k. There's a Co-op... a post office... a pub... some

It would be the height of folly to climb the Aonach Eagach in Glencoe whilst drunk. This isn't the aim of the Glencoe Pub to Pub Traverse - just one pint in the Kingshouse, which should be sweated sober well before tackling the Aggy Ridge's scary bits, then a final triumphal pint in the Clachaig - a fun challenge combining Glencoe's two famous hostelries plus her most notorious ridge traverse.

Thousands of Puffins. Thousands of them! And they are right there in front of you. Literally at your feet. You approach Skomer hoping that you might see a puffin or two. A dozen maybe would be quite a result. They start appearing before you even land. Out at sea, fishing, returning to their burrows... And then you realise just how many of them there are... Puffins! Skomer is

You like Cornwall, but not its summer crowds? Well the great news is there's a solution just across the Bristol Channel - Pembrokeshire. Like Cornwall, Pembrokeshire - Sir Benfro in Welsh - is a county of surfing beaches: Quaint creeks like Solva: A rugged coast: Moorland walks with Marilyns and prehistoric remains (Mynydd Carningli): A county town with a cathedral (

At the eastern end of the Highland Boundary Fault a stone fist punches out to the North Sea. The Highlands squeeze the Lowlands to a narrow coastal strip at Stonehaven and, just at its narrowest point, geology has provided a near-impregnable citadel of rock, surrounded on three sides by the sea. On top of this rock sits Dunnottar, the Stirling Castle of Aberdeenshire. Dunnottar: Dunnottar

I have supported independence most of my adult life. The reason is mundane - I am Scottish. Some people think that support for self-determination is small-minded. And it is natural and unsurprising that people who identify as British think this. For me, wanting your country to run its own affairs, and being outward-minded, are not necessarily mutually exclusive. There are uncertainties about