Excursion Scotland with Colin Mairs

30/07/2023

14/01/2023

📣 Festival of Europe: Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Wednesday Jan 18, 2023 6pm
Pacific Time (US and Canada). Join us!

📺 Cameron Hewitt and Scottish guide Colin Mairs will take you on a virtual journey through Scotland — exploring mossy mountains, windswept isles, mysterious lochs, and heathered glens along with Scotland’s two big cities, royal Edinburgh and underrated Glasgow. Along the way, we'll try a wee dram at a whisky distillery and sort out how two different Rick Steves tour itineraries let you choose just the right amount of Scotland.

✍️ Registration is required but doesn't guarantee admission. These are popular events, and seats can fill up quickly. Your best bet is to join us on time (or even a bit early) — and if you miss a show, recordings of all past Festival of Europe events will be posted at www.ricksteves.com/tours/festival-of-europe.

👉 Register for this free event now at https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jiZShtufR66sjwDxhRbZdg

07/01/2021

I don't use this page all that much these days as I am trying to focus solely on my non-country-specific brand Mondumo (nice wee plug there, thank you.. please "like" if you haven't done so already, but I wanted to share this podcast here especially to get it out to those of you who have toured with me in Scotland and have visited Leault Farm Working Sheepdogs.

This podcast episode is an interview by my friend and colleague Liz Lister of ScottishBlethers with Glynis Ross (the other half of Neil "the shepherd" Ross). Their conversation is a beautiful insight into life behind the scenes on a working farm in the Scottish Highlands and the wonderful story of how Glynis came to live in Scotland (*no spoilers*).

Enjoy and let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

P.S. Don't forget to follow Mondumo, and Scottish Blethers, and The Guide Collective while you're at it!! :)

Our normal Blether has been replaced by an interview Liz did with the wonderful Glynis Ross of Leault Farm and sheepdogs. It is a must do visit of any trip to Scotland.

10/12/2020

09/08/2020

Do you know the Jeely Piece song? Do you know what a ‘jeely piece’ is? Here’s the rundown from my friend and GUIDE COLLECTIVE colleague Liz Elizabeth Lister 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🍞
thistle tours

The “Jeely Piece” song originates in Glasgow, second city of the Empire and power house of manufacturing in Scotland. As more and more people moved to the city to find work, by the turn of the 20th century,  the poorer areas were overcrowded, infested and rife with disease. When the Second

19/05/2020

Day 2 of my 11-year-old-me diary of our school trip to the Highlands of Scotland!

Today, we are off to Landmark Adventureland, doing some skating(a.k.a. falling) and an evening visit to look forward to at the Waltzing Waters.. ooh 😮

Blog post with diary pictures:

Diary of an 11 year old Colin Mairs on a school trip to the Highlands of Scotland. Tuesday 14th of May 1996 “Today we went to Landmark. Everything at Landmark was brilliant. I especially enjoyed se…

18/05/2020

I’ve shared Day 1 of my 11 year-old-me diary via my Mondumo page and website. As my lovely wife Claudia reminded me - that’s where I want to be getting more views and traffic! 😉
Click the link to see my video reading and if you haven’t already done so please like Mondumo page too. Day 2 will be posted there tomorrow! 😀

Diary of an 11 year old me on a school trip to the Highlands of Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 😁
www.mondumo.com/2020/05/18/tour-guide-beginnings/

Click the link above to see my video reading of Day 1 and the original pictures of the diary pages. It seems I was a little obsessed with driving times between locations and quite taken by the story of Robert the Bruce 🕷

Have you been to Bannockburn, Caithness Glass, or Pitlochry Dam? What did you think?

17/05/2020

I recently came across an old diary from May 1996 (24 years ago ), when I was 11 years old, from a school trip we took to the Highlands of Scotland. It’s fun to look back at my early impressions of a lot of the places that I now know so well through my job as a tour guide.

This week I’ll share the diary with you day by day, starting tomorrow. The trip was 5 days - Monday to Friday. Back then it felt like the adventure of a lifetime!

Throughout the week we’ll visit The Battle of Bannockburn Experience, Caithness Glass, Pitlochry Dam, Landmark Forest Adventure Park, the Waltzing Waters, Loch Ness by Jacobite Cruise, Urquhart Castle, the Official Loch Ness Monster Centre, Culloden Moor, the Highland Folk Museum, Rothiemurchus Estate, and Blair Drummond Safari Park.

By the way, the “Excellent effort” and “Prize winner” comments on the front of the jotter were from my teacher. I can’t remember what the prize was but the feeling of glory still lives on! 🏆

Day one will be posted here in about 10 hours time 🤓

28/04/2020

What are we looking at?

24/03/2020

Join us to celebrate Virtual New York City Tartan Week on April 6th!! 😁 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Scottish tourist guides plan to celebrate Tartan Week - virtually. On April 6 our guides will show off their various talents on our social media platforms

04/02/2020

Have you ever seen such a thing of beauty? 😍
Take a step inside The Pot Still in Glasgow town 🥃🥃🥃