In this episode: Edinburgh's pronunciation sorted once and for all. The Glasgow vs Edinburgh question answered honestly. The castle that has never fallen to a frontal assault. Closes, cobblestones and ghost stories. Five writers who couldn't escape the city. Burke and Hare assessed with the professional eye of a former police officer. Greyfriars Bobby and why you really need to stop rubbing his nose, and the Edinburgh Festival, busier than you think, stranger than you imagine, and absolutely not for the easily affronted.

Scots Word of the Week: Haar. The cold sea fog that turns Edinburgh Gothic in twenty minutes. You'll know it when you feel it.

This week: a man the size of a wardrobe throws a hundred-and-seventy-five-pound pine tree, and is judged on straightness. The pipe bands that sound like a domestic dispute until suddenly they don't. Highland dancing that is far more athletic than the word "dancing" suggests. The philosophical implications of the twelve o'clock. A brief but important note on kilts. And how Scotland's emigrants carried the caber toss to seventy countries worldwide.

Our Scots Word of the Week: Braw.

Have you been to a Highland Games in Scotland or anywhere else in the world?

Got a story, a memory, or a very strong opinion about the caber toss?

Send it over to hello@everythingscotland.com. We'd love to hear from you.

In this episode: the ferry crossing that looked like a film, Port Ellen on a warm May evening, an Ardnahoe guide who made everyone laugh while teaching them things, the Paps of Jura from across the water at Bunnahabhain, an accidental stop at Islay's first rum distillery (the Old Lemonade Factory), a parade through Port Ellen led by a pipe band with the festival committee in 1980s shell suits, and, most unexpectedly, afternoon tea with the festival committee in the Gaelic Centre while husband James performed close-up magic at the tables.

The freshest, most personal episode of the series.

Our Scots Word of the Week: Dram.

Want to be part of it? Send your Scotland Stories to hello@everythingscotland.com

Today, we cover how Scotch is made, a tour of all five whisky regions and their radically different characters, how to actually taste whisky without embarrassing yourself, and why the oldest bottle ever sold fetched £1.5 million.

The spelling question is also answered, definitively, once and for all.

Plus our Scots Word of the Week: Wheesht.

And if you love Scotland as much as we do, send us your stories of why to hello@everythingscotland.com.

This is the full story of the Jacobites, Bonnie Prince Charlie's astonishing campaign from Glenfinnan to Derby and back, the catastrophe of Culloden in sixty brutal minutes, Flora MacDonald's remarkable escape operation, and the systematic destruction of Highland culture that followed. Plus the question historians still argue about: did the wrong side win?

Hosted by Lesley Kennedy, born and raised in Scotland, a former police officer, and tour guide who has stood on Culloden Moor more times than she can count.

Our Scots Word of the Week: Blether.

In Episode 1, Lesley introduces herself, covers Scotland 101, dives into the 700-year-old letter that explains the Scottish character better than anything ever written, busts five massive myths, and teaches you your first Scots word: dreich.

Pull up a chair. We've been expecting you.

c26fe0c43a0fc4ed0667dba3003e0ae5907d20ba