10 inspirational quotes about Scottish travel

There have been many distinguished visitors to Scotland over the centuries who have fallen in love with the country's unique landscape and character.

Although Scots have travelled all over the world, they still hold their home country dear. We have found some of the best quotations about Scottish travel, from Scots away from home, and from visitors discovering Scotland as a home-from-home.

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“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveller only who is foreign.”Robert Louis Stevenson

“You [Scots] come of a race of men the very wind of whose name has swept to the ultimate seas.”J. M. Barrie

“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move...”Robert Louis Stevenson

“I feel a sort of reverence in going over these scenes in this most beautiful country, which I am proud to call my own, where there was such devoted loyalty to the family of my ancestors - for Stuart blood is in my veins.”Queen Victoria, journal entry in 1873

“And though I would rather die elsewhere, yet in my heart of hearts I long to be buried among good Scots clods. I will say it fairly, it grows on me with every year: there are no stars as lovely as Edinburgh street-lamps. When I forget thee, Auld Reekie, may my right hand forget its cunning.”Robert Louis Stevenson

“It isn't Skye, but it is really a lovely place, only spoiled by the people. Far too many of them.”Annie S. Swan, writing about Oban

“Did not strong connections draw me elsewhere, I believe Scotland would be the country I would choose to end my days in.”Benjamin Franklin

“There is no sunlight in the poetry of exile. There is only mist, wind, rain, the cry of the curlew and the slow clouds above damp moorland. That is the real Scotland; that is the Scotland whose memory rings the withers of the far-from-home; and, in some way that is mysterious, that is the Scotland that even a stranger learns to love.”H. V. Morton

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“Stirling, like a huge brooch, clasps Highlands and Lowlands together.”Alexander Smith

“On my lonely walks I have often thought how fine it would be to have the company of Burns. And indeed he was always with me, for I had him in my heart. On my first long walk from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico I carried a copy of Burns's poems and sang them all the way. Wherever a Scotsman goes, here goes Burns. His grand whole, catholic soul squares with the good of all; therefore we find him in everything, everywhere.”John Muir