Scotland with Hannah… at home!
Well, 2020 was shaping up to be a pretty fun year until about six weeks ago! By now, I should already have been out on the road showing people around Scotland – just last week, I should have been taking a family around the historic abbeys and grand houses of the Scottish Borders. But 2020 isn’t like other years, so instead I’m sitting at home (like most of the rest of the world) and trying to figure out ways to carry on doing what I love.
It’s a strange time here in Edinburgh. Covid-19 has shut everything down, put a halt to the tourism industry and cancelled the August festivals in the city. Although my job is probably gone for the year, there’s nothing to be done but accept the situation. I’ve been counting my blessings – my lovely wee garden, my proximity to spaces for walking in nature, my partner to keep me company and keep me sane – and trying to figure out ways to keep myself entertained. So there seemed like no better time to research the things I love to share with tourists and think of different ways to help people learn about Scotland!
Before I became a tour guide, I didn’t know much about Scottish history. I always loved studying history at school, but we didn’t go into a lot of depth about our own country’s background. One of the things I love most about this job is the way it constantly pushes me to learn new things and to place them within the broader context. It’s given me a deeper understanding of where I’m from and how that’s influenced what being Scottish means today. Because it isn’t tartan and clans and the Kirk, but modern Scotland does have its roots in all those things and more. It is one of the great joys of my life to help visitors discover my country honestly, for all the things it has been and all the things it is.
Scotland can seem like a fantasy, a place of almost unbelievable beauty with a romantic history of being the underdog. And there is an element of truth to that, but like anywhere we have a complicated story that is often bloody, unjust and nuanced. And to truly celebrate Scotland, we have to understand all of it. This tiny wee country has given the world celebrated writers and artists, made a disproportionate contribution to science and medicine, and features some of the most beautiful scenery on Earth (although not the finest weather). But it has also seen deep inequality and injustice, endured extreme religious zealotry, and profited enormously from slavery and conquest during the British Empire. The Scotland we live in today is a product of all of those things, good and bad, that make up our history.
And Scotland today is a modern, ambitious wee nation, and a place that I hope is becoming fairer and more just through the decades as we learn from our history to create our identity in the 21st century. Because being Scottish now isn’t only tartan and kilts and castles (although it sometimes is those things, and it doesn’t feel like a wedding without a ceilidh!) – it’s also music festivals and haggis pakora and Pride parades.
There are a million reasons I’m proud of Scotland, so I’m going to use the coming months to research some of them and share them with you here. If there’s any aspect of Scottish history or modern Scotland you’d like to learn about, get in touch here or on social media and let me know!