Blog

It’s strange, isn’t it? You know that feeling which sometimes overtakes you, when you have lived in an area most of your life – or return to from time to time – and quite suddenly you see the lay of the land or city, from an entirely different perspective? Well that’s exactly what happened when I visited Pitlochry during a film recee for a project commissioned by Perth and Kinross Council and the Green Tourism Business Scheme. The Atholl Palace Hotel sits perched like a fairytale castle on a little hill to the south-east of the village with with the River Tummel sweeping itself away from it’s lower slopes, southwards through the Vale of Atholl. Directly to the north, Ben Vrackie displays its early autumnal russets like samples of rough new...

It’s impossible not to feel inspired walking along the bank of the River Tay at the Dunkeld Hilton, through the grounds and up towards Kings Seat. A Cathedral of trees arch the entire length of the river driveway, dappling the light and permeating the air with their alluring scents Ancient larches planted over 250 years ago by the 2nd Duke of Atholl began a revolution here, which resulted in over 27 million conifer seedlings being distributed throughout Perthshire in the first large scale managed forestry project in Scotland. I grew up on our family farms a stone’s throw from this very spot; have fished the rivers and walked the hills and forests, yet despite a lifetime of travel from Africa to the Arctic, and beyond, I can honestly say this area has a unique...

There’s something about a bike journey that brings out the best or the worst in people. A road trip on a Harley through Montana and Wyoming earlier this year with Al (pictured here with our friend Patrice) cemented a friendship of five years and all that’s best about the human spirit. It was also my fifth journey through Montana and a watershed for many reasons, one of which was waving. Yes, waving. When I was a boy growing up in the Scottish countryside, everyone who owned a car knew everyone else, and a courteous wave from inside the Land Rover was as good as saying hello to your neighbour. That memory came sweeping back on the long beautiful road miles across a swath of Montana as we two crazy Scots – on late season May snows – were being waved...

For most of his life, my Father has worked and farmed the same area of loam rich land, in the undulating Howe of Strathmore, deep in rural Perthshire. Agriculture has been core to our family for countless generations just as medicine, academia, high finance or public service has for others. As a son of the soil his life has been shaped by the vagaries of the weather and politics of the day. He has watched his children grow, celebrated births and weddings, mourned the passing of close friends and the tragic death of his first Grandson. And like many of his generation, he has done so with a stoic good grace, and fortitude of spirit, that I and others of my time can only aspire to. My overriding memory of my Father will always be of an unrelenting and hard working...

I don’t know about you, but I’ve often wondered how individuals in positions of influence make decisions and why? They’re allegedly considered to be our opinion formers, and the backbone of society! Yesterday – at the Balmoral Show in Belfast – I approached a former colleague, Martin Cassidy, who is lead Rural Affairs Correspondent with the BBC in Northern Ireland. I explained that my client, David Laughlin, the first Organic Dairy farmer in Ireland, was going to present – in person – to HRH The Prince of Wales, a groundbreaking document on the future of organic food on the day of its public launch! It’s a subject which is not only of massive global importance, it’s also very close to HRH Prince Charles own mantra, about local,...

205 years ago a young widow by the name of Barbe Nicole Ponsardin inherited her husband’s champagne business after his premature death. She was only 27. Her stoic determination to build a prestige Champagne House became assured in 1814. Showing great foresight – just ahead of Napolean’s blockade – she shipped 10,000 bottles of her branded Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin Champagne to Russia, ahead of the competition. At some point in the process she had to decide whether to say no or yes!! No one else could get their product into the country and overnight she became known as the ‘Grand Dame de la Champagne’! Veuve Clicquot Now as my good friends will tell you, I, like many others. enjoy the occasional quaff of fizz and tonight I’m having a glass to...