Celtic Compass

27/02/2026

It's that very special time of year, the stirring of the land, lambs being born, first early flowers appearing, bringing a feeling of new beginnings. A time to reconnect with the land, so eloquently written about by the wonderful late John O'Donohue in his poem To Learn from Animal Being

Nearer to the earth's heart,
Deeper within its silence:
Animals know this world
In ways we never will.
..

May we learn to return
And rest in the beauty
Of animal being,
Learn to lean low,
Leave our locked minds,
And with freed senses
Feel the earth
Breathing with us.

Excerpt from To Learn from Animal Being,
To Bless the Space Between Us

Provider of specialised tours in Scotland. Tour through ancient and sacred sites led by guides expert in their fields.

01/02/2026

Imbolc Blessings to all

The festival of Bride (Imbolc)

In Scotland Saint Brigit was known as Bride, and like the goddess reigned over fire, art and beauty and presided over the birth of spring. The Cailleach, old woman of winter was transformed into Bride, the Fair Woman of February, fragile, but growing stronger each day as the sun rekindled it's fire.

Alexander Carmichael wrote in Carmina Gadelica (1860 - 1909). "Bride with her white wand is said to breathe life into the mouth of the dead winter"

Bride's day is 1st February.

"Bride put her finger in the river,
On the Feast Day of Bride
And away went the hatching mother of the cold."

Carmina Gadelica

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Beautiful art work, Personification of Spring - Ruth Sanderson

09/01/2026

Here's to 2026 and looking forward to welcoming you on one of our tours. Time to come and explore the beauty and magic of the Hebrides and the western seaboard of Scotland.

https://www.celticcompass.com

Provider of specialised tours in Scotland. Tour through ancient and sacred sites led by guides expert in their fields.

28/12/2025

A fascinating lecture on Pictish Kingship, showing some really interesting finds, especially the animal figurine moulds, only ones found in the British Isles.

Ethnogenesis and Kingship AD 300-900

This March 2025 lecture by Professor Gordon Noble FSAScot drew on over 10 years of excavations and survey in Northeast Scotland to posit a new model for the development of kingship and the ethnogenesis of the Picts in Northeast Scotland.

The lecture:This lecture draws on over ten years of excavations and survey in Northeast Scotland to posit a new model for the development of kingship and the...

15/11/2025

Delighted to announce, two new tours for 2026. One exploring 7th Century Kingship and the coming of Celtic Christianity to Lindisfarne (Holy Island) from Iona, concentrating on medieval Kingship and visiting some important archeological sites. Other exploring the wonderful coastline of Scotland's border country, it's geology and significance in placement of castles such as the dramatic location of Tantallon Castle and other border strongholds.

Both new tours include private whisky tastings!

Check out on our website, also now on Tripadvisor.

Slàinte mhath!🥃

https://www.celticcompass.com/daytours/

13/08/2022

Isle of Staffa and Fingals cave, Inner Hebrides, Scotland

The name Staffa comes from the Norse 'star' meaning staff and is so named because of the distinctive columnar basalt structure. The island is home to a number of caves the most famous being Fingals cave, also known as nature's cathedral.

The island and the cave have caught writers, poets and explorers imagination throughout history.

Sir Walter Scott was mesmerised by the cave and wrote in 1810

“Yesterday we visited Staffa and Iona: The former is one of the most extraordinary places I ever beheld. It exceeded, in my mind, every description I had heard of it; or rather the appearance of the cavern, composed entirely of basaltic pillars as high as the roof of a cathedral, and running deep into the rock, eternally swept by a deep and swelling sea, and paved, as it were, with ruddy marble, baffles all description. You can walk along the broken pillars, with some difficulty, and in some places with a little danger, as far as the farthest extremity.”

It inspired part of his epic poem The Lord of the Isles and is beautifully described in the fourth canto of the poem.

The cave has the most extraordinary acoustics, as any cathedral should and this has even been noted in the poem, Staffa, the Island - Fingal’s Cave’ by John Keats who likens it to a church organ: Mendelssohn was so taken with Staffa and Fingal's cave it inspired his Hebridean Overture.

The Gaelic name of the cave is ‘An Uamh Bhinn’ which means the melodious cave.
One early traveller described a fellow traveller singing in the cave as follows:

“Her voice vibrated throughout the columns, becoming fuller and more powerful, the tones seemed to take on a new life, the held notes became stronger; the religious majesty of the location infused these harmonies with something beautiful and grandiose. Everyone applauded and it seemed that even the gods of this enchanted place echoed this applause in the air. “

Staffa is a truly magnificent and awe-inspiring place to visit, there is also a stone throne wishing chair on the island a place to request your dreams to become a reality. It is a place to spend time and marvel at nature’s wonders.

https://www.celticcompass.com/

01/08/2022

Today marks the Celtic Festival of Lughnasadh (Irish Gaelic) or Lunasdal (Scottish Gaelic).

It takes place on the 1st August, marking the midpoint of the summer half of the year between May and November. It marks the beginning of the harvest season which continues until the last sheep and cattle were bought in from the high pastures. The farmers reap their first ears of wheat , oats and barley. Berries are ripening in the hedgerows, fields and gardens, ready for jam making, a time of celebration of earth's bounty, in the old days a time for feast and festival. Traditional Highland games capture the atmosphere of celebration of the old harvest festivals with the showing of prize vegetables and fruit and traditional crafts. Well worth visiting a Highland games if there is one near you and doff a cap the farmers who work so hard to produce good produce and enjoy the games.

Happy Lughnasadh to you all.

https://www.celticcompass.com

18/07/2022

View to Iona, its Abbey and the highest point on the island, Dun I. With the well of eternal youth nestled below the summit it is a wonderful place to contemplate and see the boats passing by on their way to the islands North and South.

The islands of the West coast of Scotland are pure magic when the weather holds fair. Perfect day for a bit of boating activity and dolphin watching or just soaking in the serene atmosphere of the place.

https://www.celticcompass.com/

21/06/2022

Wishing everyone a very Happy Solstice from some happy Hebridean sheep who even have their own balloons to celebrate!

12/06/2022

All very quiet at the filling station, a mummy duck and her ducklings have moved in, maybe the humans have gone back to pony and traps!

10/04/2022

"Nature is always lovely, invincible, glad, whatever is done and suffered by her creatures. All scars she heals, whether in rocks or water or sky or hearts."

John Muir - 1838 -1914
A founder of the Conservation Movement and known as "the father of the national parks" in America and also as `John of the Mountains.