Celebrating Scotland’s national tourism stars

The spotlight shone on the individuals and businesses working across Scotland’s tourism industry at the national final of the Scottish Thistle Awards. Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018, Paisley Halloween Festival and Aberdeen International Airport were among those honoured with the highest accolade in the Scottish hospitality and tourism sector. The National Final of the Scottish Thistle…

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Tickets still available for Hippfest silent film festival

Tickets are still available for the acclaimed Hippfest silent film festival, which is taking place later this month. The tenth festival, running from 18-22 March, celebrates the new Roaring Twenties – in 2020! Falkirk Community Trust announced details of the festival, held at Scotland’s oldest purpose-built cinema in Bo’ness. Affectionately known as HippFest this annual…

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Celebrating the work of Gerda in textile panels

The ‘ground-breaking’ work of award-winning Scottish writer, actor, director and singer-songwriter Gerda Stevenson has inspired a new exhibition of 40 stunning textile panels. In response to poems from Stevenson’s fabulous collection: Quines: Poems in Tribute to Women of Scotland, Edge Textile Artists Scotland members were asked to select a poem and to interpret it in…

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Exhibition celebrates national treasure John Byrne

A 30-year portfolio of John Byrne is being staged in Edinburgh this month. Dear John, by David Eustace, is an exhibition that brings together two outstanding talents: national treasure, the artist, writer and playwright John Byrne, and the internationally acclaimed photographic artist David Eustace, at the Scottish Gallery. Sir Angus Grossart, former chairman of the…

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Explore Scotland’s inspirational literary locations

Sir Walter Scott, JM Barrie, Irvine Welsh and JK Rowling are among a few of the greatest writers influenced by Scotland’s beautiful landscapes. The mysterious closes of Edinburgh, the untouched wilderness of Dumfries & Galloway and the romantic Shetland coastlines have all painted literature for generations. From page to place, come to Scotland and discover the locations where the stories of famous characters Peter Pan,…

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Johnnie Walker ‘crown jewels’ displayed for first time

Treasured historical artefacts from the roots of the world’s number one Scotch whisky, Johnnie Walker, are to go on public display for the first time in Kilmarnock – the town where the story began 200 years ago. It was in Kilmarnock in 1820 that young John Walker set out in business with the opening of…

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Scotland’s poetry festival celebrates Gaelic language

StAnza, Scotland’s International Poetry Festival, is celebrating the Gaelic language through a number of events and readings at this year’s annual festival. StAnza’s 2020 programme includes a Gaelic Writers Showcase, with readings from Deborah Moffatt, Eòghan Stiùbhart, Sandy NicDhomhnaill Jones and Niall O’Gallagher, celebrating the breadth of talent writing in Gaelic today. The Green Plain…

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Second series for the Big Scottish Book Club

BBC Scotland’s The Big Scottish Book Club is getting bigger in 2020. The series had a debut run on the channel in late 2019 with four episodes. IWC, a Banijay Group company, has now been commissioned to make another eight hour-long episodes for a second series of the arts show, The Big Scottish Book Club,…

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Outlander author recalls her favourite Scots locations

Outlander author Diana Gabaldon says she was ‘enchanted’ by Inverness on her first visit to the city and could see herself living there, in an exclusive video by VisitScotland released to mark the premiere of Outlander: Season 5. The writer, who hails from Arizona in the USA, recalls her visit to the capital of the…

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Ripping up the rulebook with a life less ordinary

The unconventional life of Laurence Oliphant took him from priviliged son of the British Empire via mysticism to Zionist pioneer. Seldom has there been a more romantic or amply filled career; never, perhaps, a stranger or more apparently contradictory personality,’ declared an obituary, published in The Times in 1888 for Laurence Oliphant, a man who…

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