Gowk Day is Scotland’s take on April ‘Fools Day and is also celebrated on the 1st of April. In Scots ‘gowk’ has a double meaning. It can be a cuckoo or a fool. However, the cuckoo also features prominently in Scottish folklore and even has connections with the Standing Stones of Calanais. Gowk Day: Hunting [...]
Anyone who has lived in Scotland can tell you that the Winter Solstice can be a tough time of the year, with barely any daylight hours. On 'driech' rainy days, there may be little light at all. Most people feel that they would gladly join the hibernating hedgehogs and bats in their sleep. This must [...]
The turning of the wheel of the year is something which is always with us. At the summer solstice, I stood watching the sunset at the Browland Standing Stones in Garmouth, one of the villages on the Spey Estuary. The standing stones make a four-poster circle which is an unusual stone circle configuration for the [...]
Many people visit the Calanais Stones, on the Isle of Lewis at sunrise on the Summer solstice. They have heard a legend about the arrival of the ‘Shining One’ and go there in the hope of catching a glimpse of this being. But what is the story behind the myth and why are the Calanais [...]