Scotland on the literary map

Birnam, near Dunkeld, Perthshire

Famous children's writer Beatrix Potter, creator of Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mr Jeremy Fisher, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and Peter Rabbit, spent her childhood holidays in Dalguise House near Dunkeld. It was here that she gained her love of wildlife, drawing and painting and much of her inspiration from the local gardener.

William Shakespeare also drew inspiration from the area with the legendary Birnam Wood immortalised in his play Macbeth.

Slains Castle, Cruden Bay, Aberdeenshire

The Irish writer Bram Stoker wrote Dracula (1897) while staying at the Kilmarnock Arms Hotel at Cruden Bay. Nearby ruined Slains Castle (top row, centre image) is said to have inspired Stoker's gothic vampire horror.

Rosslyn Chapel, Midlothian

If you have read Dan Brown's best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code (2003), this is an important destination for you. The 15th century chapel is the setting for the climax of the story and the incredible success of the book has brought tens of thousands of Grail-seekers to the area.

Loch Katrine and the Trossachs

Loch Katrine and the Trossachs is the setting of Walter Scott's 1810 narrative poem The Lady of the Lake . A publishing sensation in its day, the poem became a global bestseller.

The setting and descriptions of the Scottish landscape helped create a new interest in the Trossachs and the surrounding area. The surge of tourism and visitors to the area was as sensational as the poem itself.

Edinburgh

Outside London, Edinburgh has more literary associations than any other part of Britain. In October 2004, Edinburgh became the very first UNESCO City of Literature.

The city has inspired over 500 novels, ranging from Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. Parts of Frankenstein and The Pickwick Papers are also set there. Charles Dickens had strong Edinburgh connections. Kenneth Graham, author of The Wind in the Willows and Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, were born in the capital.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was inspired by Muriel Spark's time at James Gillespie's School for Girls.

Edinburgh hosts the world's largest International Book Festival each August.

Isle of Jura

Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell, moved to Jura where he lived between 1946 and 1948. He stayed in a remote farmhouse called Barnhill, at the northern end of the island, which he had visited for the first time in 1945.

It was during his stay that Orwell penned his most famous novel 1984, which was published in 1949.

Barnhill is as remote today as it was in Orwell’s day

Ayrshire

No literary tour of Scotland is complete without a trip to Ayrshire – otherwise known as Robert Burns country. The trail begins in Alloway, where Scotland’s National Poet was born in 1759 in what is now known as Burns Cottage. The newly designed museum nearby houses numerous manuscripts, books and memorabilia.

His parents are buried in the cemetery of the Auld Kirk, the scene of the witches’ dance in Tam o’ Shanter , from which Tam gallops down to the bridge over the river Doon, the Brig o’ Doon, to escape from the murderous ‘hellish legion’ who cannot cross running water.

A few miles away, in the village of Kirkoswald, is Souter Johnnie’s House, home of one of the characters named in the poem, the Souter or shoemaker.

Glasgow

Scotland’s largest city is steeped in literary associations, including Archie Hind’s The Dear Green Place (1966) and Alasdair Gray’s Lanark (1981).

The now demolished tenements of the infamous Gorbals area was the setting of an uncompromising depiction of Glasgow, Alexander McArthur and H. Kingsley Long’s sensational 1935 novel No Mean City .

Glasgow hosts an annual book festival Aye Write! every March.

• Map - A Traveller's Guide to Literary Scotland
  
• Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature
  
• Edinburgh International Book Festival
  
• Glasgow Aye Write! Book Festival