Homecoming Scotland
If you’ve never before visited Scotland or if you are yearning to return, then 2009 is the year to make the trip. From the end of January right through to the end of November, Scotland celebrates its first ever Homecoming year with a huge range of events throughout the country. Whether you’re a Scot, are of Scottish descent or simply love Scotland, you’re invited to the biggest Homecoming party Scotland has ever seen!
Homecoming Scotland will celebrate the country’s history and culture and its impact and contribution on the world, throughout 2009. The festivities start this month with Burn’s Night on January 25th, the traditional birthday celebration of Scotland’s national poet; Robert Burns and will continue until St Andrew’s Day on November 30th 2009.
Crammed between these dates is a programme of exciting and inspiring events and activities across the country in celebration of all things Scottish. Visitors will get the chance to sample various single malt whiskies with the whole month of May devoted to the ‘uisge beatha’. During this month there are two Scottish whisky festivals; The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival in Aberdeenshire from May 1st - 10th followed by the Spirit of the West Festival at Inverary Castle from 16th - 17th May. In addition the Pitlochry Festival Theatre will be home to the world premiere of Whisky Galore - the Musical! and the Scotch Whisky Experience on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh will be offering a tasting tour of selected single malts each Friday throughout May.
For that other great Scottish export - golf, there’s the Scottish Homecoming Golf Classics played out at some of Scotland’s iconic courses from May to October. Whilst the Open Championship at Turnberry from 16th - 19th July will see some of the biggest names in world golf competing in the spiritual home of the sport.
There’s plenty of other sporting activities throughout the summer including Highland Games at various venues from Stirling to Inverness , as well as the Highlander Challenge at Scone Palace, July 18th-19th with Shiltron Jousting, Stone Carrying and traditional Highland Throws, echoing the war games of the Clans of centuries ago. But the biggest of all games will be held at The Gathering of the Clans at Holyrood Park, Edinburgh on 25th and 26th July and here visitors can rub shoulders with the Chiefs of some of Scotland’s most ancient Clans. The Gathering is a celebration of the culture and spirit of Scotland with thousands of people from around the world coming for one of the biggest family get-togethers you’ll ever see and if you’ve a Scottish surname you may find some distant relatives. As part of The Gathering a ‘heavy’ Highland Games will be held with caber tossing whilst a Clan Parade will see a huge mix of tartan colours marching up the Royal Mile accompanied by bagpipes.
August will see the Edinburgh Festival and Edinburgh Tattoo celebrated with more gusto than ever in 2009. In addition, there’ll be numerous battle re-enactments at historic sites such as Bannockburn and Culloden . Whilst museums and galleries up and down the country will be celebrating Homecoming Scotland with a host of bespoke events and exhibitions outlining the many great contributions in science, literature, arts and culture that Scotland has made to the world.
Kicking off the Homecoming Scotland festivities is the celebration of the 250th birthday of Robert Burns with a weekend of events dedicated to the Scottish Bard from January 23rd - 25th. At the heart of these events, in the poet’s birthplace of Alloway in the Scottish Lowlands , will be the official Homecoming Burns Supper attended by numerous Scottish dignitaries and celebrities as well as Iconic Burns, a spectacular outdoor event bringing to life the Burns’ poetic visions.
Elsewhere in Scotland, Burns will be celebrated with the Burns Wha Hae festival in Ayr and the Burns Light Festival in Dumfries with a lantern procession passing by the house in which Burns once lived and on to his final resting place in St Michael’s Church, before finishing with an outdoor ceilidh and a spectacular firework display over the River Nith.
In addition galleries and museums throughout Scotland will be holding Burns themed exhibitions with some 36,000 objects from the country’s national collections and there’ll be ceilidhs and traditional Burns’ Night Suppers held up and down the country and throughout the World on Burns’ birthday; January 25th.
Burns Night is a tradition has been passed down through the centuries and is now celebrated as far a field as Japan, Canada and the USA. The evening involves a traditional Burns supper of tatties (mashed potatoes) neeps (mashed turnips) and haggis (sheep offal mixed with oatmeal and spices and boiled in the animals’ stomach-lining - it‘s actually delicious!) all washed down with copious amounts of whisky and celebrated with poetry and music. The evening traditionally begins with the Host’s welcoming speech and a starter course, usually of soup, followed by the ‘Entrance of the Haggis’. The haggis arrives accompanied by bagpipes and all stand for the ‘Address to the Haggis‘, a recital of one of Burns’ popular poems and then a toast to the haggis. Toasts then follow to the Monarch or leader of the country in which the ceremony is held, to Robert Burns of course and then a ‘toast to the lassies‘. Traditionally these lassies would have been those who cooked and served the Supper, as women were not allowed to attend a Burns’ Night, but in this politically correct age, women are permitted in all but a very small few Burns’ Nights. More toasts and poems follow and the uisge beatha flows, before the night draws to a close with a singing of Burns’ most famous song ‘Auld Lang Syne’.
Burns’ Night is an evening that the poet himself would have no doubt approved. Had he been alive today Burns, renowned as a great Scottish patriot, would have been rightly proud of the host of events being put on for Homecoming Scotland.
2009 promises to be a landmark year for a Scottish vacation and one you wouldn’t want to miss!
If you’re planning a vacation to Scotland or Britain contact one of our guides for the latest deals on accommodation and travel.
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Homecoming Scotland will celebrate the country’s history and culture and its impact and contribution on the world, throughout 2009. The festivities start this month with Burn’s Night on January 25th, the traditional birthday celebration of Scotland’s national poet; Robert Burns and will continue until St Andrew’s Day on November 30th 2009.
Crammed between these dates is a programme of exciting and inspiring events and activities across the country in celebration of all things Scottish. Visitors will get the chance to sample various single malt whiskies with the whole month of May devoted to the ‘uisge beatha’. During this month there are two Scottish whisky festivals; The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival in Aberdeenshire from May 1st - 10th followed by the Spirit of the West Festival at Inverary Castle from 16th - 17th May. In addition the Pitlochry Festival Theatre will be home to the world premiere of Whisky Galore - the Musical! and the Scotch Whisky Experience on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh will be offering a tasting tour of selected single malts each Friday throughout May.
For that other great Scottish export - golf, there’s the Scottish Homecoming Golf Classics played out at some of Scotland’s iconic courses from May to October. Whilst the Open Championship at Turnberry from 16th - 19th July will see some of the biggest names in world golf competing in the spiritual home of the sport.
There’s plenty of other sporting activities throughout the summer including Highland Games at various venues from Stirling to Inverness , as well as the Highlander Challenge at Scone Palace, July 18th-19th with Shiltron Jousting, Stone Carrying and traditional Highland Throws, echoing the war games of the Clans of centuries ago. But the biggest of all games will be held at The Gathering of the Clans at Holyrood Park, Edinburgh on 25th and 26th July and here visitors can rub shoulders with the Chiefs of some of Scotland’s most ancient Clans. The Gathering is a celebration of the culture and spirit of Scotland with thousands of people from around the world coming for one of the biggest family get-togethers you’ll ever see and if you’ve a Scottish surname you may find some distant relatives. As part of The Gathering a ‘heavy’ Highland Games will be held with caber tossing whilst a Clan Parade will see a huge mix of tartan colours marching up the Royal Mile accompanied by bagpipes.
August will see the Edinburgh Festival and Edinburgh Tattoo celebrated with more gusto than ever in 2009. In addition, there’ll be numerous battle re-enactments at historic sites such as Bannockburn and Culloden . Whilst museums and galleries up and down the country will be celebrating Homecoming Scotland with a host of bespoke events and exhibitions outlining the many great contributions in science, literature, arts and culture that Scotland has made to the world.
Kicking off the Homecoming Scotland festivities is the celebration of the 250th birthday of Robert Burns with a weekend of events dedicated to the Scottish Bard from January 23rd - 25th. At the heart of these events, in the poet’s birthplace of Alloway in the Scottish Lowlands , will be the official Homecoming Burns Supper attended by numerous Scottish dignitaries and celebrities as well as Iconic Burns, a spectacular outdoor event bringing to life the Burns’ poetic visions.
Elsewhere in Scotland, Burns will be celebrated with the Burns Wha Hae festival in Ayr and the Burns Light Festival in Dumfries with a lantern procession passing by the house in which Burns once lived and on to his final resting place in St Michael’s Church, before finishing with an outdoor ceilidh and a spectacular firework display over the River Nith.
In addition galleries and museums throughout Scotland will be holding Burns themed exhibitions with some 36,000 objects from the country’s national collections and there’ll be ceilidhs and traditional Burns’ Night Suppers held up and down the country and throughout the World on Burns’ birthday; January 25th.
Burns Night is a tradition has been passed down through the centuries and is now celebrated as far a field as Japan, Canada and the USA. The evening involves a traditional Burns supper of tatties (mashed potatoes) neeps (mashed turnips) and haggis (sheep offal mixed with oatmeal and spices and boiled in the animals’ stomach-lining - it‘s actually delicious!) all washed down with copious amounts of whisky and celebrated with poetry and music. The evening traditionally begins with the Host’s welcoming speech and a starter course, usually of soup, followed by the ‘Entrance of the Haggis’. The haggis arrives accompanied by bagpipes and all stand for the ‘Address to the Haggis‘, a recital of one of Burns’ popular poems and then a toast to the haggis. Toasts then follow to the Monarch or leader of the country in which the ceremony is held, to Robert Burns of course and then a ‘toast to the lassies‘. Traditionally these lassies would have been those who cooked and served the Supper, as women were not allowed to attend a Burns’ Night, but in this politically correct age, women are permitted in all but a very small few Burns’ Nights. More toasts and poems follow and the uisge beatha flows, before the night draws to a close with a singing of Burns’ most famous song ‘Auld Lang Syne’.
Burns’ Night is an evening that the poet himself would have no doubt approved. Had he been alive today Burns, renowned as a great Scottish patriot, would have been rightly proud of the host of events being put on for Homecoming Scotland.
2009 promises to be a landmark year for a Scottish vacation and one you wouldn’t want to miss!
If you’re planning a vacation to Scotland or Britain contact one of our guides for the latest deals on accommodation and travel.
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