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This week’s email takes you from a quiet Burns Supper at home to the extraordinary spectacle of Up Helly Aa in Lerwick, where Shetland’s Viking fire festival lights up the streets each January. Graeme Johncock shares the journey north, the rough winter crossing, and the atmosphere of a night built around torches, tradition, and community.

Our Sunday Special Offer is The Best of Edinburgh guide for £10, and we’re also sharing a closer look at Kabn on Loch Fyne, two off-grid cabins set up for slow days, big views, and time outdoors. The accommodation pick this week is Airdit in Fife, a peaceful base with easy access to St Andrews and the East Neuk.

Enjoy the quiz, and good luck.

Graeme Johncock, the travel blogger and storyteller behind Scotland's Stories, is now bringing his adventures to us in a weekly column. He will journal about his explorations around Scotland, sharing fascinating stories and highlighting unique places to visit. Accompanied by his dog Molly, Graeme continues to uncover and share the rich history and beauty of Scotland.

January is always a cold, dark, bleak month to deal with in Scotland. The fun- filled festivities of Christmas and Hogmanay have faded away, leaving empty pockets and sore heads behind. We’ve had storm after storm to handle, keeping most of us indoors and keeping me from doing much exploring!

However, there are two big events that really defined my January – one that I’m very familiar with and another entirely new to me.

The 25th of January is Burns Night for most of Scotland and many around the world. It’s a celebration of Scotland’s National Poet – Robert Burns. From humble beginnings, this farmer from Ayrshire became a celebrity toasted at the dinner tables of Scotland’s high and mighty thanks to his poetry.

Burns’ work revolved around everyday themes, written by a regular guy, which allowed it to speak to people more than a classically trained poet ever could. That’s the real reason we still celebrate it in the modern age and while I’m usually hired to perform at a big hall or public dinner, I decided to go back to the real roots of Burns Night this year, enjoying a quiet Burns Supper at home with friends.

The very next day, I found myself on a 12-hour ferry heading to Shetland in the very far north of Scotland. It was as rough a journey as I’ve ever experienced, the boat tossed around in stormy waters all through the night. There was a good reason I made the trip in such poor weather – it was Up Helly Aa time!

On the last Tuesday in January every year, Lerwick celebrates its annual fire festival. There are actually a dozen different Up Helly Aa events in different communities around the Shetland Isles, but Lerwick’s is by far the biggest and most famous. After experiencing it for the first time, I can testify that it lives up to its reputation.

Rushing off the boat, I made it in time for the first procession of the day, when the Guizar Jarl and his squad of 65 Vikings parade through the streets. This is the first look for most people of their expertly crafted armour, weapons and scale longship, based on a figure from the Norse sagas, which has remained a closely guarded secret all year.

The festival celebrates Shetland’s Scandinavian connection, having been part of the Kingdom of Norway for centuries. Up Helly Aa itself only goes back to the late 1800s, created as a way to channel the pyromania of local youths into something more productive.

Luckily, I had a local guide in the shape of Shetland With Laurie, who made sure I didn’t miss any of the day’s highlights. She led me through the streets to get the best view as Lerwick was suddenly lit up by the flames of a thousand torches. This is the pinnacle of the night, around 50 squads in fancy dress, carrying torches on their way to burn the Viking galley.

It was nothing short of incredible, but the celebration wasn’t over yet. We retired to one of the dozen party halls where the drinking, eating and dancing were broken up by the arrival of those squads to perform questionable party pieces. Even though I was an outsider, I was welcomed with open arms by the friendliest of locals.

They were far tougher than me though, still partying strong when I trudged to my hotel at 5am. What a way to bring warmth, light and laughter to the darkest of months!

Written by Graeme Johncock To check out more of Graeme’s Scottish Itineraries, click here.

Tartan might feel like one of Scotland’s most familiar symbols today, worn proudly at weddings, Highland games, and formal occasions around the world. Yet for a time, it was seen as something far more threatening. After the Jacobite uprising and the defeat at Culloden in 1746, the British government moved quickly to dismantle the Highland clan system, which they viewed as a source of rebellion. Part of that effort included banning Highland dress, including tartan and kilts, under the Dress Act of 1746.

The law made it illegal for most Highland men to wear “the Highland clothes,” with punishments ranging from imprisonment to transportation. Soldiers in Highland regiments were exempt, meaning tartan survived in military use even as it disappeared from everyday life. The ban lasted for 35 years, only being repealed in 1782, by which point much of the traditional clothing culture had already been disrupted.

In the decades that followed, tartan returned in a very different form, embraced during the Victorian revival of Highland imagery and eventually becoming the celebrated national icon it remains today.

The Best of Edinburgh: A Hidden Scotland Guide
Get today for £10

Welcome to Hidden Scotland’s guide to Edinburgh, a city unlike any other. Scotland’s capital fits all manner of descriptions – time capsule, trendsetter, visitor magnet, festival heartland – but above all it simply is what it is: a place apart. Topped by a fortress and stuffed with big sights and mazy stories, it successfully straddles the last millennium and a half by somehow being both locked in the past and fixated on the future.

Drawing inspiration from African safaris, Kabn delivers a connection to nature that is luxurious, restorative and responsible, with two Japandi off-grid cabins on the shores of Loch Fyne. Stays offer an almost instant exhale of tension, writes Emily Rose Mawson, as she meets Kabn’s founders to discover the journey that brought them here.

A Google search for the address of Kabn, two “luxury loch view cabin suites” on the eastern shores of Loch Fyne, reads: Unnamed Road, Cairndow. It’s suitably non-specific for a place that is swallowed by natural beauty, seven minutes along a private track from the main road in the Ardkinglas Estate, on the edge of a woodland of Scots pine and silver birch trees, on one of those crinkly coastlines that Argyll is renowned for. It’s a sound bath of birdsong, rustling leaves and lapping water, with air that carries the salty tang of seawater and the earthy scent of pine after rain.

“Visually, there’s this breathtaking contrast,” says Kabn co-founder Amber Pledge, of the cabins in their setting. “The wild beauty of Loch Fyne stretching out in front of you, shifting with the light throughout the day, and then the warmth and simplicity of the cabin waiting for you – natural wood, soft textures and huge windows that frame the landscape.” She pauses, then adds: “I think what captivates most people isn’t just what they see, smell or hear; it’s what they feel.”

The idea for the cabins started on safari in Africa, where Amber and her husband Charlie, then working in “structured corporate careers” as a debt finance lawyer and an insurance underwriter, saw “how beautifully luxury hospitality and sustainability can exist side by side in the wild”. These experiences don’t just offer comfort in extraordinary settings, says Amber. Instead, “they actively contribute to safeguarding wildernesses. There’s something profoundly visceral about being in the wild there. It’s a reconnection to what it really means to be human.”

Many conversations followed – “about the kind of life we wanted to build and about our shared love of travel and luxury hospitality” – before Amber and Charlie, who had spent a lot of time visiting Scotland over the years, settled on the “breathtakingly beautiful” location of Loch Fyne and started developing Kabn, with conscious intention. Design is purposefully understated, mixing Japanese minimalism with Scandinavian aesthetics and lots of glass, including a glass-slatted gable in Shio Kabn and a panoramic glass corner in Teru Cabin. With construction, the couple drilled down to the most sustainable details: the cabins were prefabricated off-site to minimise construction impact, they sit on light-touch, removable foundations, and are clad in charred timber, a naturally antifungal, eco-friendly alternative to chemical treatments. And amenities are thought through, too, with complimentary organic herbs and spices, handmade ceramics and organic, fair-trade linens – small touches that balance sustainability and comfort, according to Amber. “Ultimately, we want guests to feel that every choice we’ve made is done with intention,” she reflects. “It’s not just about being off-grid; it’s about creating an experience that feels luxurious, restorative and responsible.”

This article continues on our website, where you can read the full piece.

Photographer Robert Andrew has spent over a decade working in Scotland’s mountains, documenting the labour-intensive craft of upland path building. Armed with a manual Hasselblad and a deep respect for the terrain and the people who work it, his work captures a demanding, often overlooked world shaped by weather, effort, and endurance.

For just over ten years, I’ve lived and worked all over the Scottish mountains with a small close-knit team of men and women who toil their hearts out to construct, maintain, and improve a network of safe upland routes for all who enjoy the wilderness of the Scottish landscape. I’m a trained photographer, among other things; my first photograph of these characters was made shortly after being handed a pair of gloves on a cold morning in February 2012 on a snow-covered field in Balmaha, Stirlingshire, with the task of bagging 180 tonnes of quarried rock for the path rebuild on Conic Hill. In pursuit of these photographs, I stick to using an analogue 6 x 6cm Hasselblad camera – a system that has neither electronics nor batteries to succumb to the cold, wet, harsh environments of the mountain altitudes.

In many ways it has been a very rewarding experience. Learning the craft of upland path construction has afforded an excellent opportunity to build up an extensive archive of photographic material that, I hope, will offer viewers a unique insight into a little-known occupation, considered to be one of the most physically demanding out there. The photographs I’ve made are inseparably threefold in genre - landscape, portrait, and documentary. A 1st place award I received from the 2020 Scottish Portrait Awards may be somewhat testament to the interesting portraiture aspect of these photographs.

The path-work itself is an ancient craft using fairly primitive tools – heavy hammers, iron bars, buckets and spades. The tools are carried up into remote locations where they will remain until a project is complete, and then they are carried back out. The work is very physically draining, often involving long daily walks of up to 25 kilometres. On top of the physical nature of the work, one must be prepared to endure whatever the weather may bring, with nowhere to shelter when the weather turns severe. Whilst working in Scottish mountain environments, I’ve had to endure blizzards, savage gales, endless heavy rain, hail-storms, -20 degrees celsius wind chill, as well as fizzing clouds of the dreaded Scottish midges – the worst of all!

I keep journals of these exploits, and have many times tried to write something that might capture the essence or accurately describe aspects of this occupation. An excerpt from a journal kept during work on a path to the summit of Ben Alligin reads –

“It’s raining, and before we exit the vehicle guys are doing things in order to delay the pending misery ahead...fumbling in dry-bags, eating a snack, checking phones, rolling smokes, chatting...

Walking uphill our oilskin garments are not breathable and quickly build up moisture and condensation on the inside, which soaks into the wearer’s dry clothes underneath. A rainy trek in oilskins is particularly disheartening, because one way or another, dampness and discomfort is absolutely guaranteed.

It is difficult to describe how a very tired body actually feels while it is perspiring profusely inside a rubber suit, carrying tools and a weighty pack, on an uphill trek on relentlessly steep rough ground – often being blown in the opposite direction by strong gusting winds. It is not a fun time. Sticky, damp, overheating, sweating, breathing heavily, drained, exhausted, pursued by bloodthirsty horse-flies, but alive. On so many occasions such as these, I have seriously questioned the value of going through with this suffering.”

Despite days like these, the Scottish mountains have a sublime quality that seems to redeem them no matter what, for they are timeless masterpieces of nature. Even in the foulest weather, they inspire awe; they behold an endearing majestic beauty that has beckoned me back time and time again with spade, pinch-bar, bucket, and my old veteran Hasselblad camera.

Read the full article online.

To find out more about Robert click here.

This week's accommodation recommendation…

A stay at Airdit offers a perfect place to slow down and soak in the stunning Fife countryside. Tucked away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, yet with easy access to the likes of St Andrews, Dundee and The East Neuk, Airdit is a beautiful getaway for a break from the norm.

Find out more

Hidden Scotland is delivered twice a year, arriving with the first look at each new issue before it reaches the public. Subscribers receive every magazine hand wrapped in tissue, with a bookmark and an A5 print of the cover image included as a small extra. Each edition is a carefully curated guide to Scotland’s makers, places to stay, evocative journeys, and the quieter corners that are easy to miss. Subscriptions are billed just before dispatch in April and October, making it a simple way to keep Scotland’s best stories arriving straight to your door.

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