The History of Scotland Magazine

In the drawing room of Dunvegan Castle is the most precious treasure of the MacLeods. It is a flag, rather tattered, made of faded brown silk and carefully darned in places. This is the MacLeods’ Fairy Flag.

Read about the life of Robert Stevenson, the man who lit up Scotland with his lighthouses.

When St. Andrew was being crucified by the Romans in A.D. 60, he met his end on a ‘saltire’, or X-shaped cross (St. Andrew’s cross) which became his symbol. Two separate legends help to explain the association between St. Andrew and Scotland.

The story of the Reivers dates from the 14th century and continued into the late 17th century. It concerns the border between England and Scotland, a frontier lacking law and order.

Nothing defines the sound of Scotland quite like the great Highland bagpipes! How the pipes actually arrived in Scotland however, is somewhat of a mystery…

Common in the highlands, islands and lowlands of Scotland, the prickly purple thistle has been Scotland’s national emblem for centuries. The thistle, which grows to a height of five feet, has no natural enemies because of the vicious spines that cover it.

The story of shortbread begins with the medieval “biscuit bread”. Any leftover dough from bread making was dried out in…

The word “clann” comes from the Gaelic and means children, and its members claimed kinship from the common ancestor whose name they bore, and even the poorest clansman considered themselves of nobler birth than any southerner.