Handpicked Books: Scotland
In our ever–connected world, the escapism of a good book is a pleasure that shouldn’t be cast aside. Read well and your trip will be deeper and more rewarding.
Between Mountain and Sea: Poems From Assynt
Norman MacCaig
A collection of poems from Norman MacCaig, one of Scotland’s best loved poets. MacCaig wrote wonderfully spare and ambivalent poetry about place– and no other place shaped his poetry more than Assynt in Sutherland.
Bothy: In Search of Simple Shelter
Kat Hill
Bothys are that rare thing from the past that hasn’t changed–remote huts in the wilderness whose doors are always unlocked. Kat Hill explores the history of these wild shelters and her fellow wanderers – past and present.
The Living Mountain
Nan Shepherd
An extraordinary book written in 1944 about Nan Shepherd’s experiences in the Cairngorm Mountains. Each time I read it, like Shepherd's landscape, I am renewed: "However often I walk on them, these hills hold astonishment for me. There is no getting accustomed to them."
The Outrun
Amy Liptrot
At the age of thirty, Amy Liptrot finds herself washed up back home on Orkney. She swims in the bracingly cold sea and tracks wildlife as tries to come to terms with the addiction that has swallowed the last decade of her life. A powerful read on how the wild can restore life and renew hope.
The Way of the Hermit: My 40 years in the Scottish Wilderness
Ken Smith
Ken Smith has spent four decades in the Scottish Highlands, living alone in a cabin near Loch Treig, known as 'the lonely loch'. Ken reflects upon the reasons he turned his back on society, the vulnerability of old age and the awe and wonder of a life lived in nature.
The Hidden Ways: Scotland's Forgotten Roads
Alistair Moffat
Through 12 walks, Alistair Moffat traverses the lost paths of Scotland that shaped and were shaped by the lives of the people who trod them. Moffat charts a powerful, surprising and moving history of Scotland: a great read.