Love Scotland: Stories of Scotland's History and Nature

Joining Jackie this week is Tom Conti, the Paisley-born actor best known for his roles on stage and screen, including 1978’s Whose Life Is It Anyway and 2023’s Oppenheimer. The recipient of Tony and Olivier award, Tom was also named the 2024 Great Scot by the National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA earlier this year.

In his conversation with Jackie, Tom reflects on his hugely successful career and his love of Scotland. Whether in smaller appearances in cult classics, such as Friends and Miranda, or leading roles in Broadway smashes, Tom reveals what it’s really like to lead a life in the arts.

Plus, he discusses his performance of Charles Rennie Mackintosh in the late 1980s, where he filmed in the National Trust for Scotland’s Hill House and Mackintosh at the Willow.

For more on Hill House, click here.

For more on Mackintosh at the Willow, click here.

Love Scotland will return later this year with a brand new series of episode. Subscribe or follow now to make sure you don’t miss any new releases. 

Earlier this year, the National Trust for Scotland revealed that a Second World War plane propeller had been found on Arran. Mysteriously, the propeller was wrapped in an old potato sack and had been discovered deep in a peat bog. How did it get there? The Trust’s Head of Archaeology, Derek Alexander, led an investigation to find out.

He joins Jackie in the studio to discuss the surprisingly high number of wartime plane crashes and tragedies in Scotland, and the particular circumstances of 1944 which ultimately led to this propeller being hidden inside a sack.

To see an image of the propeller, click here.

For more information on the Trust’s places in Arran, click here.

Earlier this year, Mackintosh at the Willow – a tea room on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street that dates back to 1903 – joined the National Trust for Scotland’s portfolio of special places. To better understand the venue and the role it played in Edwardian Glasgow, Jackie sits down for a cup of tea with two expert guests.

Celia Sinclair Thornqvist MBE, who purchased, saved and restored Mackintosh at the Willow in 2014, is joined by cultural historian Robyne Calvert to reveal the hidden stories of the last remaining original tea room designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald. They also detail the life of Glasgow entrepreneur Miss Catherine Cranston, who once ran the tea room.

Who would have once frequented the tea room? What makes Mackintosh at the Willow such a shining example of its designers’ talents? And what has it taken to restore the magnificent tea room into the stunning location it is today?

For more on Mackintosh at the Willow, visit the website

You may also enjoy our previous episode on the life of Margaret Macdonald, available here.

This week, Jackie and her guest discuss six objects in the Trust’s collections that help to tell the stories of some of the most fascinating women connected to Trust places. Regional curators Emma Inglis and Antonia Laurence-Allen help to paint a picture of these six women, whose lives and jobs range from being an ale-brewer in 1600s Edinburgh to the daughter of an earl in Clackmannanshire.

What does a job application from 1910 tell us about the changing world of work at the turn of the century? Why was ale-making seen as a predominantly female profession? And who was the historical figure behind Alloa’s successful glasswork?

For more information about the places mentioned in this episode, please follow the links below:

Gladstone’s Land

Weaver’s Cottage

Alloa Tower

Hill House

Broughton House

Tenement House

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So far this series we’ve looked at two of Scotland’s most famous monarchs: Robert the Bruce and Mary, Queen of Scots. Today, we step back further in time to meet the rulers whose names have become more forgotten to time.

Helping Jackie to acquaint herself with the earliest kings and queens of Scotland is Richard Oram, a professor of medieval and environmental history at Stirling University. Together, they piece together a picture of the most significant crown-wearers leading up to Robert the Bruce.

How did Scotland come to be ruled by a king in the first place? Who made the biggest mark on the kingdom? And just how accurate is Shakespeare’s take on early monarchs Macbeth and Duncan?

Find out more about the Trust’s castles and royal places here.

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Arguably the most famous monarch in Scottish history, Mary, Queen of Scots remains a figure of global intrigue more than 400 years after her death. One question, then: why?

In a previous episode of Love Scotland, Jackie explored the life and times of Mary. Today, she’s on a mission to find out why Mary’s story and legacy have been pored over in such detail for centuries.

Joining Jackie in the studio is Professor Steven Reid of the University of Glasgow, who is also the author of The Afterlife of Mary, Queen of Scots. Together, they unpick the posthumous interest in Mary, the many different perceptions of her legacy, and how Mary’s death has been used throughout history to further different groups’ objectives.

For more information on Falkland Palace, click here.

In the second part of a two-episode biography of Robert the Bruce’s life, Jackie returns to the studio with Professor Dauvit Broun of the University of Glasgow.

Last week, we looked at the early life of Robert and how his canny abilities, not to mention his tendency to switch allegiance at opportune moments, helped him to secure power. But what came next?

Picking up their conversation in 1306, when Scotland has been conquered by Edward I of England and Robert faces a tussle for power with the most powerful family in Scotland, Jackie and Dauvit will look at all that happened in Robert’s reign.

To find out more about visiting Bannockburn, click here.

Welcome to a new series of Love Scotland.

In this week’s episode, Jackie is joined by Professor Dauvit Broun of the University of Glasgow to discuss the life of Robert the Bruce. 

Robert, King of Scots from 1306-1329, led a fascinating life full of changing allegiances, shifting power and military victories. 

How much of our common understanding of this Scottish ruler is based in fact? What motivated him to switch sides, on several occasions, in the wars of the 13th and 14th centuries? And why has his legacy had such a lasting effect on the nation’s history?

Next week, Jackie and Dauvit continue their conversation, charting the events that followed Bannockburn.

To find out more about visiting Bannockburn, click here.

Jackie gives a brief introduction to brand-new season of the Love Scotland podcast.

We're going across the centuries to delve into the stories of Mary Queen of Scots and Robert the Bruce, then skipping ahead to the tales of the Georgian Tea Room. Jackie also hears from the Trust's archaeology team about wartime relics beind unearthed across the country.

We finish our pick of episodes from the archives with this conversation between Jackie and actor Sam Heughan, first released in 2022.

The Dumfries and Galloway-born Outlander star, who has also launched his own whisky brand and became a New York Times bestselling author in 2020, joined Jackie to discuss his on-screen adventures at some of Scotland’s most famous historical sites. They also talked about the effect Outlander has had on the global interest in Scottish stories.

What drew Sam to take on the West Highland Way? What is it that he so loves about the great outdoors? And how did he celebrate landing the part of a lifetime in Outlander?

Hear all of that – and an excerpt from Sam’s book, Waypoints: My Scottish Journey – in the episode.

Love Scotland will return with brand new episodes later in 2024.