Scotland for Quiet Moments is not a standard travel guide. You’ll find no references to the main tourist destinations or opening times. Rather, it leads you to largely unknown, quiet places. In its pages, you will find a plethora of historical, strange, romantic and funny stories from across the centuries, which will lead you to discover the soul instead of the sights of Scotland, and depict real Scottish life and places instead of stereotypes. Experience this country as it really is. With Nellie Merthe Erkenbach’s inspirational travel guide, you can explore this wonderful country without any hustle and bustle while you are there, or simply dream of Scotland from the comfort of your own sofa at home. Scotland for Quiet Moments describes Scotland for advanced travellers, it covers exciting history, breath-taking natural highlights, and almost forgotten places far from the tourist crowds of Arthur’s Seat, Loch Ness or Glencoe. This book will take you to the true heart of Scotland. Its 35 chapters correspond to the old shires, burghs and sheriffdoms, the traditional regions instead of modern administrative districts, because they are still the geographic measure for many Scots, and because history plays a big role in this extraordinary travel guide. Small changes to the areas were made for logical and logistical reasons. Berwick has been included in the book, although it is now a part of England, and some of the islands are treated separately; Lewis, for example, belonged to Ross-shire, and Harris to Argyll, and even though they are actually one island in the Outer Hebrides, they are presented as two herein.

Ewan Roy MacGregor has been photographing his homeland of Scotland for many decades. After a successful career as a musician in Glasgow, he now lives in the Scottish Highlands, which inspire him again and again to produce outstanding images. Because of high costs in colour printing, his pictures will unfortunately be exclusive to the eBook. You can, however, check online at graveyardsofscotland.com for pictures of the graveyards.

Scotland is a country full of history, stories and secrets. Often, the three cannot be separated. That is what makes this country so wonderful and unique. These stories have been discovered and gathered for Erkenbach’s blog, Graveyards of Scotland, over many years. Her main sources were historical travel guides from the 18th and 19th centuries, where the finds were scary, beautiful, funny, and sometimes, cruel. This unusual approach to a country’s history has produced amazing results. You don’t have to share the author’s passion for cemeteries to enjoy this book; only a small number of the stories in this collection take place in graveyards, though they do all end in them, so perhaps it helps.

The fairy hill in Inverness, a nitrate murder on Shetland, a family of left-handers, wolves, Robert the Bruce and William Wallace shown in a new light, the secret bay of the writer Gavin Maxwell, a murdering poet and everything about Scotland except whisky, sheep and tartan. Scotland for experts, not for beginners.

Make yourself comfortable in your favourite armchair and enjoy Scotland for Quiet Moments.

The sea is a dangerous friend, an enticing beauty, and a brutal killer at the same time. Even on calm days, people drowned in the waters around the islands. As autumn storms set in, huge waves often had deadly feasts in the past. Many bodies washed ashore on Shetland at Sumburgh Head, where the Atlantic meets the North Sea.

When William Soutar realised that the illness would not just accompany his life but would end it, he is said to have paused for an instant. This was the moment of realisation: now he could, now he had to be a poet. He became one of the best of his country.

The early hours of summer mornings are especially lovely as they make their way out of the darkness into the light that slowly touches the horizon. Nobody there except those who take time to see the beauty of another day’s awakening. The evening atmosphere is different, the blue hour is equally mild as the mornings, but gets much more dramatic when night falls and the last rays of sun light linger only for a few seconds above the clouds before the day ends. The blue seems to come straight from the sea, with a faint scent of summer like the memory of happy days.

The landscape around Loch Lomond is arguably one of the most beautiful in Scotland. The view from the southeast bank over to the islands and mountains while an orange sunset basks everything in golden light on warm summer evenings, and in winter, the setting sun paints the sky an angry red, contrasting Loch Lomond’s cool blue as the shadows grow longer.