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Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Bonfire Night is one night. Scotland's winter fire season runs for months, and barely any of it has anything to do with Guy Fawkes. Grown men swing fireballs round their heads in Stonehaven, a tar barrel gets wrestled through Burghead, and Shetland burns an entire Viking longship that no actual Viking ever built. In this episode, Lesley covers the real story behind the Gunpowder Plot and how Bonfire Night came to Scotland, then takes you through four of the country's own winter fire festivals: the Stonehaven Fireballs, the Comrie Flambeaux, the Burning of the Clavie at Burghead, and Shetland's Up Helly Aa, plus an honourable mention for Biggar's enormous Hogmanay bonfire. She looks at what each one actually claims about its own origins, what's provable and what's a good story that stuck, and what they really have in common underneath the smoke. Plus four listener messages and a Scots word for a fire that's banked down, not out. Our Scots Word of the Week: Smoored.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Ask most people where Halloween came from and they'll say America. They're half right. Long before anybody had heard of a jack o' lantern, the Gaelic world was marking the end of the harvest with a festival called Samhain, and the lantern started life as a turnip with a coal in it. The last stop on Everything Scotland's October run. In this episode, Lesley explains the Gaelic year and its four turning points, what Samhain actually was, and why the sources are harder to pin down than the stories. She covers how the Church's All Hallows gave Hallowe'en its name, the eleven days Scotland lost to a calendar change, and the Victorians' love of a good seance. Then Stingy Jack and his turnip, the will o' the wisp, the pumpkin's crossing of the Atlantic, and what is left of the Scottish version today. Our Scots Word of the Week: Feart.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! There's a street in the middle of Edinburgh that you can't walk down anymore. It's still there. They just built a very large building on top of it. And, if you believe the people who work there, a few of the residents are still in. The third stop on Everything Scotland's October run towards Halloween. In this episode, Lesley tells the darkest ghost stories of Edinburgh: Mary King's Close and the girl called Annie, the South Bridge Vaults, Burke and Hare, the seventeen tiny coffins on Arthur's Seat, Half-Hangit Maggie Dickson, the Covenanters' Prison and the Mackenzie Poltergeist, the piper who never came out of the castle tunnel, and Major Weir, the Wizard of the West Bow. Then a pointer to our haunted Edinburgh guide at everythingscotland.com and two listener messages. Our Scots Word of the Week: Eldritch.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! There is a castle in Angus where, the stories say, a man is playing cards with the Devil in a room that no longer exists, a monster lives in the walls, and a Grey Lady has a seat in the chapel that nobody will take. Part of Everything Scotland's October run on the spooky and scary side of Scotland, in the run-up to Halloween. In this episode, Lesley tells the ghost stories of Glamis Castle the way they were meant to be told, in the dark. The hill that would not be built on. Janet Douglas, the real woman behind the Grey Lady, and the day she was burned on Castle Hill. The room where a party of Ogilvies were locked in and left. Earl Beardie and the Devil's card game. The Monster of Glamis, told through the diaries, memoirs and newspapers of the Victorians who were there: the towels hung from every window, the workman sent to Australia, the Earl found kneeling in the chapel at dawn, the factor who dug a mile through the snow rather than sleep in the castle. The servants who never left: the woman on the lawn, the butler, and the boy on the stone seat. Then, when the lights come on, Lesley tells you what she actually believes. Our Scots Word of the Week: Bogle.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Ask any Scot whether they believe in any of this, and they will say no. Then watch them uncross two knives on the dinner table without even noticing they have done it. This episode opens Everything Scotland's run of October episodes with the gap between what we say we believe and what we actually still do. In this episode, Lesley traces Scottish superstition back through layers of pre-Christian Celtic belief, absorbed Christian tradition, and Norse influence. The full rules of Hogmanay first footing, including exactly why a redheaded first footer was traditionally considered unlucky. A properly thorough run through the daily admin of managing your luck: touching wood, crossed knives, saluting magpies by name, walking round ladders, umbrellas kept outside, and leaving by the door you came in through. Old wives' tales around shoes on tables, the silver darling in a new purse, nail cutting, and the protections built up around childbirth. A tour of the country's very different regional superstitions: the words you could never say on a fishing boat, the quiet caution still shown to seals in Orkney and Shetland, and the fairy thorn trees farmers still build around in the Highlands. A full section on birth, marriage and death, from biting rather than cutting a baby's first nails, to handfasting and the genuinely strange Scottish tradition of blackening a bride or groom before the wedding, to the gentle, practical superstitions built around death itself. And a dedicated look at Halloween itself: Samhain, the real Scottish origins of guising and trick-or-treating, carving neep lanterns before anyone had thought of a pumpkin, and the apple peel, nut roasting and mirror divination games played to find out who you would marry, or worse. Our Scots Word of the Week: Freit.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! In 2015, the North Coast 500 did not exist, not as a named, branded route anyway. Within a few years it was one of the most talked about road trips on earth, and the Highlands have not been quite the same since, for better and for worse. In this episode, Lesley traces the NC500 from its 2015 launch by the North Highland Initiative, backed by the then Prince of Wales, now King Charles, through the actual anticlockwise route: Chanonry Point on the Black Isle, the real most northerly point of the British mainland at Dunnet Head, the Castle of Mey, Smoo Cave at Durness, Cape Wrath, and the Bealach na Ba pass out of Applecross on the way home. The genuine and ongoing argument in the communities along the route about overtourism, single track roads never built for camper van traffic, litter, and the economic lifeline the route has brought to small Highland businesses. A look at Scotland's other great drives, including the South West Coastal 300, the A82 through Glencoe, and Royal Deeside. And practical advice for planning any Scottish road trip, not just this one. Our Scots Word of the Week: Stravaig.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! In 1457, the Scottish Parliament banned golf. Not discouraged it, banned it by Act of Parliament because too many men were on the links instead of practising their archery. It did not work. Six hundred years later, golf is one of the biggest reasons people book a flight to Scotland at all. In this episode, Lesley traces golf's Scottish origins from stones knocked around coastal links land to the Act of Parliament that tried and failed to stamp it out. St Andrews and the Old Course, still public land at its heart, the eighteen-hole standard that exists purely because of a 1764 committee decision, and the Swilcan Bridge that every great golfer in history has stood on. The words the game gave the English language, including links, caddie, tee and fore, most of them Scots in origin. The story of Old Tom Morris and his son Young Tom, the youngest winner in the history of the Open Championship, and the tragedy that ended his life at twenty-four. Mary Queen of Scots as golf's first known female player, the clubs Scottish women built for themselves, and the years it took the sport's own governing clubs to finally let women join. Then beyond St Andrews: Scotland's five hundred and fifty courses, Carnoustie's most infamous collapse, Muirfield's parallel reckoning with its own membership, remote and celebrated Royal Dornoch, and Gleneagles taking the game inland. How golf, once banned for being too much fun, became Scotland's gift to the world. Our Scots Word of the Week: Skelp

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Scotland's national animal is a unicorn. The national flower is a weed. The national emblem's official motto translates as nobody provokes me with impunity. And the national anthem situation involves a song that contains a verse specifically asking God to crush the Scottish people. This is not a country that does things by halves. In this episode, Lesley goes through Scotland's national symbols properly. The thistle and the Viking who stepped on one barefoot in the dark. The Saltire, one of the oldest national flags in the world, and the saint who chose a diagonal cross out of humility. The lion rampant, which is technically the personal property of the Scottish Crown and appears on approximately everything in every gift shop in Scotland. The unicorn, why it was chosen, and why it is chained, which turns out to be the most Scottish explanation imaginable. The Stone of Destiny, its seven hundred years in England, and the four Scottish students who stole it back on Christmas Day 1950. The national anthem question, including the verse of God Save the King that asks for rebellious Scots to be crushed, and why Flower of Scotland is Scotland's anthem, whether it is officially designated as such or not. And a look at the Declaration of Arbroath, which will get its own episode in due course. Our Scots Word of the Week: Vauntie.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Hollywood has been coming to Scotland for decades. Sometimes it gets it spectacularly right. Sometimes it gets it spectacularly wrong. And sometimes it sends thousands of people to a castle in Lanarkshire hoping to find a shirtless man raking hay in the courtyard. He is never there. Lesley has checked. In this episode, Lesley goes through Hollywood's Scotland honestly and with genuine affection for both films. Braveheart gets the fact-and-fiction treatment: the kilts are wrong, the face paint is wrong, Princess Isabella of France was three years old and in France, and the Battle of Stirling Bridge was won because of a bridge that the film removed entirely. Oh, and the title has never referred to William Wallace. That one still stops guests in their tracks. Outlander gets the personal treatment: Lesley was a sceptic who read all the books, manages disappointed guests who come looking for standing stones that don't exist, and has watched Outlander fans arrive at Midhope Castle and completely lose their composure. What Hollywood consistently gets wrong about Scotland (the accents, the history, the kilts, the weather). What it occasionally gets right (the scenery, the castles, and the Scottish humour that creeps in uninvited). Plus Brave, Rob Roy, Brigadoon, Local Hero, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Game of Thrones, and why Glasgow has been quietly playing American cities in blockbusters for years and is very good at it. Our Scots Word of the Week: HAVERING.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Scotland has a population of around five million people. It has also given the world the telephone, the television, radar, the MRI scanner, penicillin, insulin, anaesthesia, the hypodermic needle, ultrasound scanning, the refrigerator, the vacuum flask, the toaster, the raincoat, the pneumatic tyre, the bicycle, the flushing toilet, colour photography, universal standard time, and Dolly the sheep. Among other things. Lesley Kennedy goes through all of it in this episode, including the ones you almost certainly did not know were Scottish and the ones that are going to make you look at your kitchen, your bathroom, and your wallet rather differently. Also in this episode: why Fleming's untidy laboratory was essential to the discovery of penicillin; why John Logie Baird introduced the television using a ventriloquist's dummy called Stooky Bill; why James Goodfellow received five pounds for inventing the PIN number that has since been used billions of times a day; why Scotland named the world's first cloned mammal after Dolly Parton; and why Dundee's claim to marmalade is not up for debate. Our Scots Word of the Week: SMIRR.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Series 2 of Everything Scotland begins with Scotland's most iconic garment. The kilt: where it came from, what the different types are, why the Scotland versus Ireland debate is more complicated than either side admits, and the question that every tour guide in Scotland gets asked eventually. Lesley Kennedy is answering all of it, including the five questions she is asked on every tour, the underneath question, and the definitive answer her husband James has been giving for years to anyone curious enough to ask. In this episode: the origins of the kilt, from the great kilt of the Highlands to the tailored modern version. The Dress Act of 1746 and why banning the kilt made it more meaningful. King George IV in Royal Stewart tartan and how a royal visit cemented the kilt's place in Scottish identity. The different types of kilt, from the great kilt to the dress kilt to the pipe band kilt, and why a well-made wool kilt is worth saving up for. The Ireland question and where Lesley's sympathies lie. Lesley's own custom-made Kennedy weather tartan kilt, James's original kilt passed down to their son, and why three generations of Kennedys now own kilts between them. The five most frequently asked questions on tour and Lesley's real answers to all of them, including whether you can wear a kilt if you have no Scottish ancestry at all. And the common myths about kilts that need addressing once and for all. Our Scots Word of the Week: Yaldi.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Scotland has over nine hundred islands. In the final episode of Series One, Lesley Kennedy goes to the edges of the country, the places where Scotland runs out of land and meets the Atlantic, and talks about them the way she talks about everything: honestly, personally, and with genuine enthusiasm for what makes them unlike anywhere else. In this episode: Skye, including something Lesley has wanted to say for a while about the Fairy Pools in July and why the most beautiful version of Skye is not the one most summer visitors experience. The Outer Hebrides, which she has not visited yet but intends to, with particular excitement about landing on the beach airport on Barra. Orkney, home to Skara Brae and the Ring of Brodgar, two of the most significant prehistoric sites in Europe. Shetland, home to Up Helly Aa, the largest fire festival in Europe, and Lesley's detailed plans to attend it. Iona, which she visited many years ago and has thought about regularly since, and which did something to her she is not entirely able to explain, despite not being a religious person. And the Inner Hebrides: Islay revisited, Mull, Tobermory, and Staffa with Fingal's Cave, which is still on the list. Our Scots Word of the Week: Hame. And a personal note from Lesley about Series One, what it took to make, and what comes next. RTkXCNPkhL9ehAk9OaKD

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Scotland has given the world music that spans centuries and continents. From a folk tradition that predates the printing press to a generation of artists rewriting what Scottish music sounds like. This is the episode Lesley Kennedy has been looking forward to since Episode One. In 2014, during the run-up to the Scottish independence referendum, a man called Gerry Cinnamon posted a song called Hope Over Fear on social media. Lesley heard it, thought it could be an anthem, and then lost track of him entirely. Six years later, during the Covid lockdown, Canter appeared on a random Spotify playlist. She played it on repeat, went looking for more, and only then realised it was the same person. Hope Over Fear no longer exists on any digital music platform, no Spotify, no Apple Music, nothing. It survives only in old YouTube videos if you search hard enough. Lesley talks about what that song meant, what Gerry Cinnamon's music did for her during lockdown, and why his story is one of the most Scottish things in this entire series. The rest of the episode covers the full sweep of Scottish music: the traditional folk tradition and why you should never walk away from a pub session. The Corries, their storytelling, their comedy, and Flower of Scotland. Skerryvore, discovered through a single song called Take My Hand. Biffy Clyro, thirty years of ambition from Kilmarnock. Lewis Capaldi, one of the most successful Scottish artists ever, and the honesty that got him there. Frightened Rabbit, handled with the care their music deserves. The Proclaimers and 500 Miles. Caledonia by Dougie MacLean, the love song Scotland wrote to itself. Annie Lennox, Travis, Simple Minds. Our Scots Word of the Week: Lilt

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Ten episodes of Scottish history, mythology and a three-attempt execution. Time for something to eat. Scottish food has a reputation problem. Too many people hear the words and picture deep-fried everything and a diet that explains certain health statistics. They are wrong, and Lesley Kennedy is here to fix that, starting with haggis, still the most unfairly avoided dish in Scotland, and finishing at a seafood shack on the west coast with langoustines that came off the boat that morning. In this episode: haggis properly explained and properly defended, neeps and tatties, mince and tatties, steak pie with puff pastry only because this is Scotland and we know what we are doing, stovies made from a great-granny's recipe the details of which are not up for discussion, Cullen Skink and the specific kind of place you need to find it in, Arbroath Smokies with a fair warning about the smell, tablet made to a reliable recipe after several attempts some of which are between Lesley and the bin, shortbread, cranachan made sometimes just because, and sticky toffee pudding including a brief but decisive resolution of the jurisdictional dispute. Plus the three seafood shacks on the west coast that Lesley cannot separate and recommends with equal conviction: the Green Shack at Oban, the Inveraray Seafood Shack, and the Shellfish Shack on Skye. Our Scots Word of the Week: Numpty.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Mary Queen of Scots has been romanticised for four hundred years. Lesley Kennedy is not doing the romantic version today. She is doing the honest one: the good, the bad, and the genuinely baffling decisions of a woman who was brilliant in some areas, catastrophic in others, and the master of her own disasters in ways the films tend to gloss over. In this episode: Mary's birth at Linlithgow Palace, six days after which her father died, and she became Queen of Scotland. Her coronation at Stirling Castle at nine months old. Thirteen years in France. The return to a Scotland she barely knew, straight into the arms of John Knox. The three marriages: Francis, who was not her fault; Darnley, who absolutely was; and Bothwell, who finished her. The murder of Rizzio. The explosion at Kirk o' Field. The Casket Letters that proved everything and then vanished in 1584. The escape from Loch Leven in the dark. Eighteen years of English captivity and a twenty-year standoff with Elizabeth I, who she never met. The Babington Plot. And the execution at Fotheringhay, which took three blows, revealed grey hair under an auburn wig, and ended with a small dog emerging from her skirts. Our Scots Word of the Week: Stooshie.