Tag Archives: Tourists

Just a Wee Blether…

About having plenty history here thanks

For eleven years, Americans came to visit us in Scotland. They brought ‘bucket lists’ with them, places they wanted to visit, food they wanted to eat; experiences they had read about, regarded as uniquely Scottish, and wanted to sample.

In no particular order they included whisky distilleries (complete with a dram or two of real Scotch whisky), castles and palaces, standing stones, anything Braveheart or Harry Potter-related, scenery, train journeys (most visitors had never been on one), hillwalking or hiking – and of course, if they dared to taste it, haggis.

Some wanted a little bit of golf memorabilia, others wanted to sample beer from a Scottish micro-brewery. Some even wanted to go to England, and we were able to accommodate them. The fact there was an overnight sleeper from Glasgow to London – with a bar – was an eye-opener.

Without exception, every visitor from the States loved Scotland. We took photographs of them at Stirling Castle, Linlithgow Palace, the Swilken Bridge at St Andrews golf course, Rosslyn Chapel, Glengoyne Distillery in Stirlingshire, hillwalking in the Cairngorms, on the Harry Potter train crossing Glenfinnan Viaduct, cycling round Cumbrae, and many more places.

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In most cases, we made a point of taking people to the Highlands – Aviemore, Fort William and Oban were our go-to spots. Family members were introduced to the game of shinty, taken up the gondolas at Aonach Mor, and sailed over the sea to Mull. Even old graveyards – the ones in Scotland are really old in American terms – were a great source of interest.

Stirling Castle

Showing off your own country to others is a lot of fun, as well as a source of pride. Our American friends and family were always appreciative, they still talk about their memories of the places they visited and the characters they encountered on their Scottish travels.

The greatest sense of wonder was that our history stretched back so far. People would say America is still a “young” country and the old buildings, the ancient history and culture that we take for granted in Scotland simply don’t exist there.

I don’t subscribe to that for a second. Obviously there are centuries of Native American tradition but, apart from that, it is wrong to suggest that the United States somehow “lacks” history. On the contrary I find the culture and history that has evolved here rich and varied, even if it is all relatively recent compared with Scotland.

A few weeks ago we took a day-long drive, part of which involved a visit to a national monument called Tuzigoot, an old Native American pueblo near the Arizona town of Clarkdale. Indian tribes started building the community around the year 1125. If that’s not ancient history I don’t know what is.

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On the same trip we stopped in the city of Prescott. It is Wild West to the core. The Palace Bar on historic Whiskey Row was the haunt of Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp and Virgil Earp. It was used for the filming of the Western movie Junior Bonner starring Steve McQueen, and it contains an ornately carved wooden bar on which bartenders would slide glasses of beer down to waiting patrons.

We also visited Jerome, an old mining town where some of the richest copper deposits in America were discovered and where thousands of people, including many Scots, made a small fortune; we passed through the town of Payson where the author Zane Grey wrote many of his Western books; and we checked out the oldest schoolhouse left standing in Arizona, in the village of Strawberry.

That was a fair amount of history and culture for one short day trip and it gives the lie to the theory that there is no history in America. It’s very easy to bash the US and say it’s a ‘mongrel’ civilisation made up of a hodge-podge of immigrants. But the country is old enough now to have a history of its own – no-one else can claim the Wild West after all.

I will forever cherish Scotland, its people, history and culture as the greatest on earth. And don’t worry, I’ll still regale them with Tam O’Shanter on Burns Night. But I love everything about the often chequered history of my adopted land. It’s fascinating beyond belief.

  • The pics show Rosslyn Chapel, Stirling Castle, and the Tuzigoot National Monument