The Little Book of Christmas and Hogmanay: Scotland's Festive Traditions by Anna Marshall (2 October 2025). (Amazon paid link.)
From Celtic druids and Viking Yule to the outright banning of Christmas for 400 years, The Broons, first footing and the Loony Dook, this is a
joyous miscellany that showcases the creative, elaborate and sometimes downright bizarre aspects of Scottish Christmas and New Year, from the
ancient past to the more recent present. It includes different local traditions, from those practised in the Borders all the way to the islands
of Orkney and Shetland.
Read our full review.
Reading the Gaelic Landscape: Leughadh Aghaidh Na Tire by John
Murray (22 April 2014). (Amazon paid link.) How many people have looked at a map of the
Highlands and been intrigued and yet, at the same time, felt excluded by the
wealth and strangeness of the place names recorded? Reading the Gaelic
Landscape is a must for anyone who is interested in the Scottish Highlands and
its ancient tongue. It encourages people to read and understand, and provides
an insight into landscape history.
Read our full review.
Whatever the Sea: Scottish Poems for Growing Older by Lizzie MacGregor (1 September 2016). (Amazon paid link.)
Age comes to us all. It is not unique, but it is personal. Poetry gives us a fresh way to think about
growing older, and these poems, introduced by Sally Magnusson, celebrate maturity, widen perspectives and confront the inevitable.
Edited by Lizzie MacGregor, this book is published in association with the Scottish Poetry Library.
Read our full review.
Literature of the Gaelic Landscape: Song, Poem and Tale by John Murray (23 August 2017). (Amazon paid link.)
With the aid of this book, the reader can travel to the Breadalbane and Argyll of Duncan Ban Macintyre; the Skye and Raasay of
Sorley Maclean; and the Caithness and Sutherland of Neil M. Gunn. Photographs, maps and place-names linked to key passages in
the texts will immerse readers in the landscapes of songs, poems and tales. For those who wish to brave the weather and the
insects the book can be used as a field guide taking the same walks followed by the author.
Read our full review.
Scotland: Mapping the Nation by Chris Fleet, Charles W. J. Withers
& Margaret Wilkes (1 September 2011). (Amazon paid link.) This is the first book to take
maps seriously as a form of history, from the earliest representations of
Scotland by Ptolemy in the second century AD to the most recent form of
Scotland's mapping and geographical representation in GIS, satellite imagery
and SATNAV.
Read our full review.
Abbotsford to Zion: The Story of Scottish Place-Names Around the World by Elspeth Wills (14 July 2016). (Amazon paid link.)
Over the centuries countless Scots have travelled to every conceivable corner of the globe, some to start a new life, others as
entrepreneurs, explorers, missionaries, colonial administrators or soldiers. This book takes the reader on a journey around the world, to places that have
one thing in common, the fact that they were named by, or after, Scots.
Read our full review.
Scotland: An Encyclopedia of Places and Landscape by David Munro
& Bruce Gittings (October 2006). (Amazon paid link.) This authoritative and comprehensive
gazetteer includes over 8,500 entries on cities, towns and villages, mountains,
lochs and rivers, visitor attractions and monuments...
Read our full review.
