63 Percent Scottish: A Scotland Appreciation Podcast

We asked Nicki Scott from Historic Environment Scotland five questions and challenged her to answer each in one minute or less. Here are the questions:

1. What is one place every visitor to Scotland should check out? 
2. What is your favourite uniquely Scottish word or phrase? 
3. Who is one person from Scotland’s past or present that you’d like to have a beer, whisky, Irn Bru or coffee with?
4. What is one popular misconception of Scotland that you’d like to dispel?
5. Is there anything you’d like to know about Canada? 

Have thoughts? Connect with 63 Percent Scottish on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or contact us at 63percentscottish.com.

Music by RomanSenykMusic from Pixabay.

Want to discover some amazing, but not-quite-so-well-known, Scottish castles? We asked Nicki Scott, a Cultural Resources Advisor at Historic Environment Scotland, to tell us about four incredible castles that you may (or may not) have heard about. In this episode we discuss:

• Bishop's and Earl's Palaces
• Kildrummy Castle
• Huntingtower Castle
• Rothesay Castle

Have thoughts? Connect with 63 Percent Scottish on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or contact us at 63percentscottish.com.

Music by RomanSenykMusic from Pixabay.

We asked Alan McDonnell from Trees for Life five questions and challenged him to answer each in one minute or less. Here are the questions:

1. What is one place every visitor to Scotland should check out? 
2. What is your favourite uniquely Scottish word or phrase? 
3. Who is one person from Scotland’s past or present that you’d like to have a beer, whisky, Irn Bru or coffee with?
4. What is one popular misconception of Scotland that you’d like to dispel?
5. Is there anything you’d like to know about Canada? 

Have thoughts? Connect with 63 Percent Scottish on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or contact us at 63percentscottish.com.

Music by RomanSenykMusic from Pixabay.

Did you know that Glen Coe used to be covered in trees? It's true. Scotland looked a lot different a few centuries ago. When this change happened - due to human influence, of course - it not only resulted in the loss of trees, but entire ecosystems. Thankfully, some people are trying to bring them back.

We asked Alan McDonnell, the Head of Nature Restoration at Trees for Life, to tell us all about rewilding. In this episode we cover:

• What Scotland's historical landscape actually looked like
• What rewilding is
• How organizations like Trees for Life go about rewilding

Have thoughts? Connect with 63 Percent Scottish on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or contact us at 63percentscottish.com.

Music by RomanSenykMusic from Pixabay.

We asked the Garry Stevenson from Being Scottish five questions and challenged him to answer each in one minute or less. Here are the questions:

1. What is one place every visitor to Scotland should check out? 
2. What is your favourite uniquely Scottish word or phrase? 
3. Who is one person from Scotland’s past or present that you’d like to have a beer, whisky, Irn Bru or coffee with?
4. What is one popular misconception of Scotland that you’d like to dispel?
5. Is there anything you’d like to know about Canada? 

Have thoughts? Connect with 63 Percent Scottish on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or contact us at 63percentscottish.com.

Music by RomanSenykMusic from Pixabay.

Scotland has its own name for mountains - they're called Munros. Well, anything over 3000 ft is a Munro, anyway. There are nearly 300 of them and there's a whole sub-culture in Scotland of people trying to climb them. It's called Munro-bagging.

We asked noted Munro-bagger Garry Stevenson from Being Scottish to tell us all about his experience bagging Munros. In this episode we cover:

• Scotland's result in the recent Euro Cup
• How he got into Munro-bagging
• The hardest Munro he has ever climbed
• The Munro he'd recommend people start with

Have thoughts? Connect with 63 Percent Scottish on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or contact us at 63percentscottish.com.

Music by RomanSenykMusic from Pixabay.

We asked the Scottish Sun's Lewis McKenzie five questions and challenged him to answer each in one minute or less. Here are the questions:

1. What is one place every visitor to Scotland should check out? 
2. What is your favourite uniquely Scottish word or phrase? 
3. Who is one person from Scotland’s past or present that you’d like to have a beer, whisky, Irn Bru or coffee with?
4. What is one popular misconception of Scotland that you’d like to dispel?
5. Is there anything you’d like to know about Canada? 

Have thoughts? Connect with 63 Percent Scottish on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or contact us at 63percentscottish.com.

Music by RomanSenykMusic from Pixabay.

Has anything political happened in the year since we last spoke to political journalist Lewis McKenzie? Well, the UK has a new Prime Minister, Scotland has a new First Minister, the SNP looks like it's on the ropes and the discussion around independence is shifting. So, yes. The answer is yes.

We asked Lewis to come back to explain what all of these political upheavals really mean. In this episode we cover:

• What happened with Humza Yousaf, Scotland's former First Minister
• What we should expect from John Swinney, the new First Minister
• What Keir Starmer, the new Prime Minister, means for Scotland
• The state of the independence movement

Have thoughts? Connect with 63 Percent Scottish on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or contact us at 63percentscottish.com.

Music by RomanSenykMusic from Pixabay.

We asked the Sabhal Mòr Ostaig's Dr. Marsaili MacLeod five questions and challenged her to answer each in one minute or less. Here are the questions:

1. What is one place every visitor to Scotland should check out? 
2. What is your favourite uniquely Scottish word or phrase? 
3. Who is one person from Scotland’s past or present that you’d like to have a beer, whisky, Irn Bru or coffee with?
4. What is one popular misconception of Scotland that you’d like to dispel?
5. Is there anything you’d like to know about Canada? 

Have thoughts? Connect with 63 Percent Scottish on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or contact us at 63percentscottish.com.

Music by RomanSenykMusic from Pixabay.

Gaelic is the founding language of Scotland and, for a long time, its dominant language. After suffering a significant decline in usage over the last few centuries it's back on the upswing. What is this language? How is it being taught? What is the future of Gaelic?

We talk to Dr. Marsaili MacLeod from Sabhal Mòr Ostaig – the National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture - to learn more. In this episode we cover:

• The history of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig
• The differences between Gaelic, Scots and Irish Gaelic
• Scotland's approach to teaching Gaelic
• Ways you might learn the language from Canada or the United States

Have thoughts? Connect with 63 Percent Scottish on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or contact us at 63percentscottish.com.

Music by RomanSenykMusic from Pixabay.