Everything Scotland

Lesley Kennedy
  • 5.0 (6)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

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. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. Sep 17

    The Unicorn, the Thistle and Scotland's National Symbols

    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.

    The Unicorn, the Thistle and Scotland's National Symbols

  5. Sep 10

    Outlander, Braveheart and Hollywood's Scotland vs the Real Thing

    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.

    Outlander, Braveheart and Hollywood's Scotland vs the Real Thing

  6. Sep 3

    Scottish Inventors and Innovations: The Small Country That Changed Everything

    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.

    Scottish Inventors and Innovations: The Small Country That Changed Everything

  7. Aug 27

    The Kilt: History, Myths and What's Really Worn Underneath

    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.

    The Kilt: History, Myths and What's Really Worn Underneath

  8. Aug 7

    The Islands: Skye, Orkney, Shetland, the Hebrides & Iona

    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

    The Islands: Skye, Orkney, Shetland, the Hebrides & Iona
See All (20)

5
out of 5
6 Ratings

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
    20
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Lesley Kennedy
  • Show Website
    Everything Scotland

You Might Also Like