Read Around the World February 2023 – Scotland

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February 2023 and we are off to the beautiful Scottish Isles….

Fun facts from this website 34 FUN Scotland Facts You Can Impress Friends With (theworldpursuit.com)

• Scotland Is One Of The Celtic Nations
• The Scottish Highlands Are Home To The Highest Peaks In The UK
• Glasgow Used To Be One Of The Largest Cities In The World
• A Scottish Guy James Watt Invented The Steam Engine. He also gives his name to a unit of energy and is credited with coming up with the measurement of horsepower
• There Are 790 Islands That Are Part Of Scottish Land
• The Orkney Islands Weren’t Scottish Until The 15th Century
• Arthur’s Seat In Edinburgh Is Actually An Extinct Volcano
• Edinburgh Castle Is Also On An Extinct Volcano
• There Are Three Official Languages Recognized In Scotland. The first is English, the second is Scots, and the third is Gaelic
• Scotland Boasts One Of The World’s Best Neolithic Settlements. Skara Brae, and it dates back to around 3,180 BC. That makes it older than both Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza
• Robert Burns’ Most Famous Poem Is About A Haggis
• Irn Bru Is The Most Popular Soda In Scotland
• Scotland’s National Animal Is A Unicorn
• Scotland Is Home To Its Very Own Olympics

I chose to visit Scotland via The Dark Remains by William McIlvanney & Ian Rankin. The first in the Laidlaw series of books. A Glaswegian gangster is killed and the body found on the premises of a rival gangster but who is really responsible and what does the bodies location reveal.

Laidlaw works in all the areas of grey to ensure a gang war doesn’t break out.

Laidlaw is a force to be reckoned with and one who doesn’t mind crossing the line, he is unconventional and doesn’t respond well to authority but is that a help or a hindrance?

I have also spent the last several months visiting Scotland in various time periods via the Outlander series of novels by Diana Gabaldon. This book involve standing circles and time travel and do actually tell the reader a lot about the historical situation in the highlands and what happens to the highlanders when rebellion fails.

Other readers visited in the following ways:

Currey From Litsy – Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart this was rated a pick.

Did you join us on our travels? Let us know what you read.

Next up The Seychelles let us know your reading plans!