LITERARY SCOTLAND: A TRAVELLER’S GUIDE

Alan Riach

By: VisitScotland, Glasgow 2011 in collaboration 
with ASLS and the University of Glasgow.

Published in: PDF

“A valuable introduction to the many fascinating links between Scotland and literature.”

— Iain Banks

Scotland’s rich literary heritage is being put firmly on the map thanks to this new publication produced by VisitScotland, ASLS and the University of Glasgow. The Guide is available to download as a PDF: you can also pick up a free printed copy from VisitScotland Information Centres throughout the country.

Featuring everything from the castle where Bram Stoker penned Dracula to the heights of Ben Dorain, Literary Scotland: A Traveller’s Guidehighlights 60 fascinating literary locations throughout the country, including the stunning settings for world-famous novels, the scenery that inspired poets and the birthplaces of some of the country’s most distinguished writers. It is the first guide of its kind to be put together by VisitScotland and it is hoped it will appeal to residents and visitors alike.

Compiled in association with the University of Glasgow and the ASLS, Literary Scotland: A Traveller’s Guide was written by Alan Riach, a noted poet, Past President of ASLS and Professor of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University.

He said: “This little book is only a beginning, a first list of locations significant to writers or literary visitors to Scotland. I’ve included many familiar and also many unfamiliar names and places: Burns and Scott and MacDiarmid are all there of course, but also Mary MacLeod and Catherine Carswell, John Buchan and Irvine Welsh, Duncan Ban MacIntyre and Liz Lochhead. So many people – whether visitors or resident Scots – might not know how steeped in literature the landscapes they drive through or live in really are. The idea was simply to open a few doors, to suggest a few ways of thinking about what Scottish literature might do to help us really inhabit the country more fully.”

Alan Riach is Professor of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow.