Everything Scotland

Lesley Kennedy

Scotland: tiny country, massive opinions, national animal is a unicorn. It has given the world whisky, the steam engine, modern economics, the telephone, and the deep-fried Mars bar. Make of that what you will. Everything Scotland is the podcast that covers all of it, the history, the food, the music, the landscapes, the myths, and the occasional philosophical crisis. Thoroughly researched. Warmly told. One Scots word per episode, whether you want one or not. Come for the castles. Stay for the haggis.

  1. 1d ago

    Gaelic and Scots: Scotland's Living Languages

    Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! Two languages, one country, and centuries of deliberate policy aimed at wiping both of them out. Gaelic and Scots are not dialects of each other, not dialects of English, and not slang, whatever the stereotypes say. In this episode, Lesley untangles what Gaelic and Scots actually are, the deliberate centuries-long campaign that nearly wiped both out (including corporal punishment in schools within living memory), the modern revival that's only recently turned their numbers around, and the Scottish Languages Act 2025, which gave both languages official status for the first time in their history. Plus a tour guide's cheat sheet for Scotland's most mispronounced place names, two listener messages, and a Scots word of the week that ties the whole episode together. Our Scots Word of the Week: Leid.

    Gaelic and Scots: Scotland's Living Languages

  2. Nov 5

    Flamin' Tar Barrels & Fireballs: Scotland's Wild Winter Fire Festivals

    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.

    Flamin' Tar Barrels & Fireballs: Scotland's Wild Winter Fire Festivals

  3. Oct 29

    "Samhain: The True Scottish Roots of Halloween"

    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.

    "Samhain: The True Scottish Roots of Halloween"

  4. Oct 22

    The Dark History and Restless Spirits of Edinburgh

    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.

    The Dark History and Restless Spirits of Edinburgh

  5. Oct 15

    The Haunting of Glamis Castle

    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.

    The Haunting of Glamis Castle

  6. Oct 8

    Scottish Superstitions, Luck and Old Wives' Tales

    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.

    Scottish Superstitions, Luck and Old Wives' Tales

  7. Oct 1

    The NC500 and Scotland's Great Road Trips

    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.

    The NC500 and Scotland's Great Road Trips

  8. Sep 24

    Golf: Scotland's Gift to the World

    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

    Golf: Scotland's Gift to the World
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About

Scotland: tiny country, massive opinions, national animal is a unicorn. It has given the world whisky, the steam engine, modern economics, the telephone, and the deep-fried Mars bar. Make of that what you will. Everything Scotland is the podcast that covers all of it, the history, the food, the music, the landscapes, the myths, and the occasional philosophical crisis. Thoroughly researched. Warmly told. One Scots word per episode, whether you want one or not. Come for the castles. Stay for the haggis.

Information

  • Creator
    Lesley Kennedy
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Lesley Kennedy
  • Show Website
    Everything Scotland

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