Scotiana

In 2000, when we first visited Melrose Abbey, we did not know that the heart of Robert the Bruce, the famous Scottish King who defeated the English army at Bannockburn, on 24 June 1314, was buried there. Indeed, we didn’t know much about Scotland and its history for it was our first journey there, only [...]

Melrose Abbey is a religious, historical and architectural landmark in Scotland, one you must not miss when you visit the Scottish Borders, together with the three other very beautiful  Border abbeys : Dryburgh, Jedburgh and Kelso. They are in ruins but we love them all,  especially Melrose and Dryburgh where Sir Walter Scott is buried [...]

Hey Mairiuna, hope you don’t mind if I talk again today about our favorite crime writer, Ian Rankin. I’m just kidding, as i know you will be thrilled to read about the subsequent books that were published after the “Rebus finale“. Upon the publishing of his final book featuring Detective Inspector John Rebus, Exit Music, [...]

Ian Rankin’s Exit Music, published in December 2007, was to be the final instalment of a series of eighteen ( if we include Death Is Not The End, a novella that was further expanded in the novel Dead Souls) crime novels featuring the well known and charismatic Edinburgh’s Inspector  John Rebus. Book reviews quoted Exit [...]

We are very  pleased today to introduce our dear Scottish friends, Margaret and Iain McEwan, as our first “Guests Bloggers” on Scotiana. In this Letter from Scotland, Iain will guide us to the St-Valentine relics that remain in Glasgow, a very timely and interesting subject to read on the eve of worldwide celebration of St-Valentine’s [...]