Scottish Travel

Dear San Diego Scottish Highland Games, Thank you so much for your generous donation toward my travel expenses to perform in the 2017 Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Scotland.  It was an extraordinary experience and you helped make that dream come true!  The band I was a member of in the Tattoo was the Royal […]

by Todd Wilkinson While the Kirkin’ o’ the Tartan service celebrates Scotland and Scottish heritage, it is a truly a Scottish-American custom. If one searches the Internet for information, stories abound of the Kirkin’s roots being in days of the Act of Proscription, when the wearing of the kilt was banned in the Highlands –

Upon that night, when fairies light On Cassilis Downans dance, Or over the lays, in splendid blaze, On sprightly horses prance; Or for Colean the route is taken, Beneath the moon’s pale beams; There, up the cove, to stray and rove, Among the rocks and streams To sport that night. Among the bonny winding banks,

Dogs figure prominently in tales from Scotland.  There are the sheepdogs (who are so entertaining at the San Diego Highland Games).  There are the ghost dogs which warn people of danger.  There are faithful dogs who bring joy to their families. But surely no dog is better known in Scottish lore than Greyfriars Bobby. John

Bruce’s Cave Lace up your walking boots and pack a lunch for a visit to Robert the Bruce’s cave, which is up a steep path above Kirtle Water, near Kirkpatrick Flemming. Legend says that Robert the Bruce hid from the English armies within these gloomy walls, and watched a spider repeatedly attempting to spin a