Lord of the Rings

John Thompson proudly counts among his Scottish forebears a band of bold Border Reivers including one outlawed for taking arms against the Red Coats sent to crush the Jacobite rebels of the Forty Five. The Thompsons fled the Borders in the late eighteenth century and like so many other Scots, seized upon the wisdom of Dr Johnson’s advice that “the noblest prospect for a Scotchman is the High Road to London.

Return of the Native

John Cairney has left an indelible mark on the Scottish psyche. For as long as anyone can remember, the veteran actor, now in his 78th year, has been regarded as the living embodiment of Robert Burns, so much so that year after year, he has been called home by popular demand, to appear in concert as the Bard, to recite his works, and to pay tribute to his Immortal Memory.

Hamish MacInnes

It is four in the morning in Glencoe and in the utter darkness the towering, snow-covered mountains loom like a huddle of brooding giants silently watching over the cloud-veiled rock faces and plunging gullies of what must surely be Scotland’s most spectacular Highland landscape. In the entire glen, light shines from only one solitary house, Tigh A’Voulin, a lovely white-washed cottage by a lochan, home to the country’s most famous mountaineer, Hamish MacInnes.

Shetland's Ark

Tommy Isbister is a latter day Noah. For 30 years, he and his wife, Mary, have been gathering about them all the creatures of Shetland that once seemed destined to be swept away on a fl ood tide of human indifference. They’ve turned their seaside croft at Burland, on the island of Trondra, into a kind of Ark, a safe haven in which they’ve rescued birds, animals and even rare native plants from the brink of extinction.

St Columba Lands At Iona