The September 2021 edition of Scottish Field is now available – and we’re celebrating the south of the country.
Editor Richard Bath takes us on a tour around the new South West Coastal 300 driving route, and reveals some impressive gems which you may never have heard of or noticed before.
We also celebrate one of the most famous sons of the south, as we celebrate 250 years of Sir Walter Scott, the man who ‘invented’ Scotland.
We learn how textile designer Bernat Klein put the Borders front and centre, on the fashion stage, author and
historian Alistair Moffat tells us how he is always happiest in his Borders home, our gardens feature looks at an abundance of wild flowers bloom in the beautiful gardens at Leadervale House in the Borders, while our interior of the month is a converted stable block on Galloway House Estate, which makes an amazing family home.
Richard said: ‘It remains an enduring mystery to me that the south of Scotland – that vast swathe of countryside from St Abb’s Head in the east to the Mull of Galloway in the west – is so underappreciated and so little visited.
‘It’s an area I used to live in and which I know pretty well. I’ve simply never understood why visitors from south of the border drive through it at warp speed, while the default setting of those in the Central Belt is to always look north rather than venture south.
‘So this month we’ve attempted to restore some balance to often skewed perceptions of the belt of countryside which follows the border before disappearing into the heartlands of Dumfries and Galloway, and encroaching into southern Ayrshire.
‘Part of the rationale is the growing prominence of a new driving route, the South West Coastal 300 (or SWC300), but mostly it’s about revealing the many secrets held in this enchanting area of Scotland. There may be no major cities – the sleepy market town of Dumfries is about as big as it gets – but there is no end of drama and history if you know where to look.
‘So, I’ve toured the South West and expounded at length about the places I love to visit, while we’ve also enlisted the help of Borders luminaries like Sir Walter Scott, textiles designer Bernat Klein and Kelso renaissance man Alistair Moffat to provide light and shade.
‘Hopefully, together we can coax more of you to the beautiful south.’
In our other features, the Mystery Diner finds that nothing keeps a great chef like Nick Nairn down,
In our regular columns, Guy Grieve wonders what a small business needs to do to get paid, Fiona Armstrong brazens her way out of what could have been an unforgiveable fashion faux pas, Cal Flyn finds out what lies beneath in Adam Nicolson’s fascinating man-made rockpools, and Alexander McCall Smith waxes lyrical on a sailing trip to the Small Isles.
Blair Bowman revels in the eclecticism of the latest batch of inaugural whisky releases, while Scotland’s
street food vendors share some of their most mouth-watering recipes.
All this and much more, in the latest Scottish Field, priced £4.75, which you can buy HERE.
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