Mike Brown's Scotland

My first visit to Scotland was in 1996, for the 50th anniversary Blair Atholl Scottish International Patrol Jamborette. I've led groups of Boy Scouts to the Jamborette every even-numbered year since. I have separate web pages for the stories of each of the Blair Atholl Jamborette trips - see my Blair Atholl Jamborette main page to link to those pages. Over the course of my trips with the Scouts, I've come to love Scotland as almost a second home. Although the country is relatively small by US standards - about the same size as West Virginia in terms of land area - it has a number of regions which are distinct in history, topography, climate and culture (not to mention accent). Rather than following along with the Scouts, the web pages which follow from this page will present pictures from my Scottish trips arranged geographically. I've chosen to divide the country up roughly by the governmental districts as indicated on the key map at right - although I combined Lothian and the Borders, Tayside and Fife, and Ayrshire and Dumfries/Galloway.  I've also split the Islands into their own pages, separate from the mainland regions with which they are governmentally combined. Orkney and Shetland don't appear on the map to the right - to the disgust of most Orcadians and Shetlanders, they're usually put into boxes somewhere to the right of the map rather than well north of the mainland where they belong - but each archipelago has its page on this site.  I've made up YouTube video playlists for our Blair Atholl group with links to videos about the various regions - you'll find links to the playlists on the individual pages for each region. For videos about travel in Scotland in general, see this YouTube Playlist.

The Regions of Scotland Aberdeenshire and the Northeast - Aberdeen, Fraserburgh, Stonehaven and Speyside Argyll & Bute - western Scotland north of Glasgow - Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, Oban Ayrshire and Dumfries/Galloway -southwest of Glasgow to the English border - Ayr, Dumfries, Galloway, Irvine, Stranraer, Strathaven City of Edinburgh Glasgow and the southern Midlands The Highlands - Fort Williams to Inverness, both sides of the Great Glen, and north to John O'Groats, and the Cairngorms Scotland's Islands - The Inner Hebrides Mull, Iona, Islay and Skye Scotland's Islands - the Outer Hebrides Lewis and Harris Scotland's Islands - Firth of Clyde Isle of Arran Scotland's Islands - Orkney Scotland's Islands - Shetland Stirling and northern Midlands - the Forth and Clyde area between Edinburgh and Glasgow - Stirling, Falkirk Tayside, Fife and Perthshire - eastern central Scotland - Perth, Blair Atholl, Dundee, St. Andrews, Kingdom of Fife, the Grampians Lothian and Borders - southeastern Scotland, from the area surrounding Edinburgh (West Lothian, Midlothain, East Lothian) south to the English border Blair Atholl International Scottish Scout Patrol Jamborette

YouTube Video Playlists

• Scotland in General - "best of..." lists, videos about travel in Scotland, things to do and places to go and the like...
• Videos specific to the various regions of Scotland: 
  • The Borders
  • Central Belt and Perthshire
  • Edinburgh and Lothian
  • Glasgow and Southwest Scotland
  • Highlands
  • The Hebrides and Isle of Arran
  • Aberdeenshire and the Northeast
  • Orkney
  • Shetland
• Irn Bru - Scotland's Other National Drink is known for its quirky (and very funny) advertisements ("adverts"). 
• England, Wales and Northern Ireland - Videos about the rest of the nations making up the United Kingdom.
  
• Archaeology in Scotland (or the UK more generally)
• Castles - you can hardly take a trip to Scotland and avoid visiting at least one castle. What are they, and how were they built and used? 
• British Culture and Living - videos about life in the UK or Scotland, and the differences between there and here. 
• History and Geography - Scotland and the UK have a much longer history than you'd think. These videos are about various aspects of that history. 
• Language - the UK and the USA have been described as "two nations divided by a common language". These videos are about how to speak like (and understand) British English and, more specifically, the many flavors of Scottish English and Scots (which is either an English dialect or a separate, related language, depending on who you ask). 

Photos © Copyright 1996-2025 Mike Brown
wb2jwd@gmail.com