I found this story many years ago and published it on the former Scotlandview blog in february 2006. It's a great story and I'm sure Tom, the old man in the story, isn't the only one that never left his home. I know of an older woman on Islay who lives in Portnahaven and never travelled to the other side of the island in her entire life. People from a younger generation can't imagine such a life could have ever existed and that makes it perhaps all the more interesting to read. Enjoy!

The 20th Century has been a time of massive change for people all around the world. There have been two World Wars and countless other conflicts, and the invention of phones, TVs and computers. Global travel has been made easy with the jumbo jet and man has even walked on the Moon. But all these events and opportunities to travel have passed by 90-year-old Tom Stuart. An undertaker to trade, he has spent no more than two nights away from his home in Glenlivet, Moray, in his life. He has little interest in the news, cares less about politics and would rather meet his friends from the village than go off exploring to the big cities to the south. He grudgingly admits that the advent of electricity arriving in the village, in 1937, did change his life. It meant he no longer banged his head off the paraffin lamps suspended from the low cottage ceiling. The only other thing that made a difference was the family's decision to get an inside toilet.

Alan Richards: I wrote this a few years ago after one of our motor-cycling holidays up to Mallaig..... The thoughts of the long and somewhat arduous journey up had receeded to the back of my mind by now as the midday sun began to warm our faces. We were just over half an hour out from Fort William. Last night had seen us early to bed after a few pints of 'eighty shilling' in the 'Ben Nevis', early doors. We'd been cold and hungry when we'd ridden into town. The winds across Rannoch moor and Glencoe were testing the bike's stability and the rain was incessant. Sue had a tie-dye scarf wrapped around her face and when we dismounted to price up the Bed & Breakfast's the colours had tranferred to her cheeks!

No matter, the first digs we tried was welcoming enough and quite palatial really. At fifteen quid each for a place to la your heads and a 'full Scottish' we considered this a good result and just reward for the marathon run up from Manchester in worsening weather. As we lay in bed pre-sleep, the t.v. weather forecast promised a warmer and sunnier agenda for the new day. It wasn't to be proved wrong.

Memories of holidays past entered my head as we ran under the viaduct at Loch Nan Uame. the sun was glinting off the blue waters. The bikes engine rumbled reassuringly as I climbed the hill in fourth, the views to our left were beginning to invigorate as they always do. We knew the few miles of wooded road up ahead would be a joy. Mostly single track with passing places under a canopy of leaves and boughs, the burble of the old 650 would resonate hamdsomely as we twisted our way westward.

Sir Walter Scott, poet and novelist, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, five years before the Declaration of Independence in America. Unlike most little Scotch boys, he was not sturdy and robust, and in his second year, a lameness appeared that never entirely left him. Being frail and delicate, he received the most tender care from parents and grandparents. Five consecutive years of his life, from the age of three to the age of eight, were spent on his grandfather's farm at Sandyknow. At the end of this period, he returned to Edinburgh greatly improved in health, and soon after, entered the high school, where he remained four years. A course at the university followed the high school, but Scott never gained distinction as a scholar. He loved romances, old plays, travels, and poetry too well, ever to become distinguished in philosophy, mathematics, or the dry study of dead languages.

In his early years, he had formed a taste for ballad literature, which very significantly influenced, if it did not wholly determine, the character of his writings. The historical incidents upon which the ballads were founded, their traditional legends, affected him profoundly, and he wished to become at once a poet of chivalry, a writer of romance. His father, however, had other plans for his son, and the lad was made a lawyer''s apprentice in the father''s office. Continuing, as recreation, his reading, he gave six years to the study of law, being admitted to the bar when only twenty-one. For years, he cultivated literature as a relaxation from business.

There must be thousands of accommodation properties in Scotland, judging from the many accommodation websites out there. And I''m sure there are perhaps hundreds of websites that offer links to (some or most) of these accommodations. That however was no reason for me not to start a new website with links to most of the Hotels, Bed and Breakfasts, Self Catering Cottages, Guest Houses and Campsites in Scotland. In fact I dare to say that this is quite a unique accommodation website. The new website covers every area in Scotland, from Dumfries to the Shetlands and from Cape Wrath to the Scottish Borders and currently has over 3200 properties in the database.

Searching for your preferred accommodation is extremely easy and with one click you get to see all the accommodation types in a certain area or town/village. Another click will bring you directly to the website of the accommodation making it very easy to select your holiday accommodation. The new website is named the Scotland Accommodation Directory. Owners of holiday rentals in Scotland can add their property for free. If you want to give your propery even more visiblity you can choose for a featured listing which will bring your property first in the search results. The site also has an online booking facility as well as availability search.