Reading for the Road:
A Few of Our Favourite Books About Scotland
At The Slow Road we answer to many names (wanderers, bon vivants, students of life) but first and foremost, we’re a group of dedicated travellers.
That’s why we love compiling reading lists that include those books—from novels to memoirs, and everything in between—that have really opened up our favourite regions.
In this post we’ll round up a few of our favourite books about Scotland, an austere land marked by wide-open spaces, domineering cliffs and a persevering, excessively hospitable people.
The Best Books About Scotland
Findings 
By Kathleen Jamie
With the eye of a poet (an award-winning one at that), Jamie roves the wild and human landscapes of Scotland examining the ordinary: watching birds, chasing dolphins or simply examining a gannet’s skull on a beach. In vivid and precise language her travels reinforce the tension between destruction and conservation, vitality and decay.
At the Loch of the Green Corrie 
By Andrew Greig
Spurred by the final wishes of his poet-mentor, Norman MacCaig, Greig ventures to the remote hill lochs of far North-West Scotland. What is divined from that experience is this book which is partly a biography of the poet and partly a memoir of the author’s own meditations on fishing, land ownership in the Highlands, friendships, joy and loss.
Mary Queen of Scotland and The Isles
By Margaret George
Historical fact and delightful fiction bring life to Mary Queen of Scots who became Queen at six days old. With dutiful research and sweeping prose, George reminds us why she is considered one of the finest historical novelists of our time.
Adrift in Caledonia: Boat-Hitching for the Unenlightened
By Nick Thorpe
Intent on sailing around Scotland, Thorpe begins his boat-hopping to become closer to his adopted home of Edinburgh. Taking all manner of sea-faring vessel, his lively pilgrimage brings him into the company of many sea-based folk.
