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A Fortnight in Fife
I’ve recently returned from an amazing holiday in Fife with my family. I say holiday… I ended up working throughout, but in my defence it was the perfect opportunity to do some research for an upcoming project that I have to keep under my hat for now! We’ve been holidaying in this particular cottage for…
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Muir of Dinnet
One of my favourite places to write about for my book was Muir of Dinnet, a nature reserve near Ballater in the Cairngorms National Park. Within a pretty small area, there are lochs, streams and patches of woodland, grassland and bog with a handy boardwalk for wildlife watching with dry feet. I always spend the…
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Book Teaser
My Slow Travel Guide to North East Scotland will be published exactly two months today! To celebrate what I’m considering to be the start of The Final Countdown (cue Europe), here’s an exclusive sample from the book about the town of Banchory, 18 miles west of Aberdeen. Banchory is the last major town before you…
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My Top 5 North East Beaches
Extending from Moray’s western border near Nairn, along the Moray Firth and all the way around the right-angled wedge of Aberdeenshire, the North East coast of Scotland covers over 200 miles of coastline. Read on for my top five beaches along this stretch, from west to east, where you can spend the day foraging for…
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Celebrating Scotland
Yesterday I attended a conference in Kingussie, down in the Cairngorms National Park, about Scottish community tourism. It was hosted by SCOTO, a collaborative group of community tourism enterprises from all over Scotland. One of my favourite speakers was Calum Maclean – a presenter, writer and Gaelic language activist who’s probably best known for his…
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Lochans and Carved Faces
Monday was the perfect combination of winter chill and dazzling sunshine, so I decided to take my mum and the dog to two of my favourite wild spots down in the Cairngorms. Looking like a blue pawprint when seen on a map, the Uath (pronounced ‘wah’) Lochans are four small pools bordered by pines. Their…
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Calm Before The Storm
After 1145 hours of travelling, researching, writing and proofreading (yes I counted), I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve submitted my book! I could have tinkered and tweaked until the end of time so I’m relieved it’s finally out of my hands. It’ll now be edited by the fab team at Bradt and after I’ve answered…
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Spring draws to a close
I’m currently writing a Slow Travel Guide to North East Scotland, which will be out next spring. The thing about writing this book is I’m spending every working moment on it but won’t have anything to show for my efforts until it’s published. Until then it looks like I’ve fallen off the face of the…
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A Breath of Icy Air
I’m currently writing my first book. It’s a Slow Travel Guide to northeast Scotland, which will be published in spring 2023. The book covers Aberdeenshire, Moray and the Cairngorms National Park, so basically a huge chunk of the country! My daily routine has become a contrasting blend of emailing accommodation providers, walking, writing copious notes…
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Stig, Rex and Misty
