Everyone has their favourite Scottish animal, the one they’re always on the lookout for, the one that stops them in their tracks. But while I love a white-tailed eagle or a red squirrel as much as the next person, my favourite Scottish animal isn’t big, fluffy or familiar. It’s small, it’s uncommon and it’s downright weird. Erm…..it’s a beetle. Yes, I can hear your inward groans, but bear with me. It’s actually surprising to encounter something utterly alien. By that I mean, we’re all generally aware that insects are enormously varied in appearance but we nevertheless expect the ones we…

I recently found myself stuck between a week’s holiday in Argyll and a week’s holiday in Glen Cannich. Between getting kicked out of one cottage and being able to check in to the next were seven long (and very soggy) hours. Factor in a 3.5hr drive and an hour faffing about in a Fort William supermarket and I’d be left with about 3 hours to kill. Now, if you’re an outdoorsy person then killing three hours on the west coast is unlikely to be a chore or a challenge. You’re spoilt for choice, but I really wanted to continue the…

Generally speaking, we in Scotland live in a quiet corner of the world. Our volcanoes are long extinct and there’s not been a major landscaping event since the glacial ice retreated. Sure, the earth shakes from time to time, and the turbulent atmosphere occasionally rattles our homes, but for the most part we live on pretty solid ground. We can therefore be forgiven for looking at our landscapes with a comforting sense of permanence. This is how it has always been, and this is how it will always be. Scotland is timeless. Scotland is forever. It’s an illusion of course,…

Ben Dolphin gains a glimpse into hidden lives through studying the trails and tracks left in the snow. I spend a disproportionately huge amount of time staring out the kitchen window. Partly because, like everyone else, I’m spending a lot of time at home just now and I can’t help myself. And partly because there’s always the chance that something of interest will come ambling through the garden while I’m watching. But in recent weeks I’ve seen very little. The snow and cold have driven migratory species off the hill, snooze-prone species into slumber, and the remainder into networks of…