Journal
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Over the Sea to Skye: What the Crossing Actually Feels Like
Most people who can sing the Skye Boat Song have never been to Skye. It is a lullaby in houses where nobody has seen the Cuillin. Pipe bands play it...
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Scottish Lavender: One Night at the Still
A record of one distillation run at Tarhill Farm this summer, from the cut to the morning after. Every one of our perfumes has something in it that was grown...
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Going to the Berries: Blairgowrie's Berry Fields and the River Tay | Middleshade
For most of the 20th century thousands went to the berries at Blairgowrie each summer. What it was, why it ended, and the river that links it to our perfume...
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Doric Oud: What Oud Actually Is (And Why Most of It Is Wrong)
Oud is the scent of a tree defending itself. A great many perfumes sold under the name contain little or none of the natural material.
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My Tocher's the Jewel: What "Cherish the Bee" Really Means | Middleshade
When we named this perfume, we took the line as tender. It isn't. "It's a' for the hiney he'll cherish the bee" comes from Robert Burns's song "My Tocher's the...
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Island Rose: Why Most Rose Perfume Gets It Wrong
Usually the problem is not the rose. It is everything that has been put with it.
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Tam o' Shanter: The Poem, the Night, and the Scent
Tam o' Shanter explained: how Burns wrote it, what happens at Alloway Kirk, and what the poem smells like, from inn fire to churchyard.
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Cò ris a tha fàileadh fraoich dha-rìribh coltach?
An fhìrinn onarach - agus na tha thu, ’s dòcha, a’ fàileadh dha-rìribh nuair a tha thu a-muigh air dùthaich na h-Alba.
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Tiodhlacan do dhaoine aig a bheil gaol air Alba, ach nach eil a’ fuireach innte
Tha seòrsa sònraichte de chianalas ann nach eil ainm glan air sa Bheurla. Canaidh na Cuimrich hiraeth ris - cianalas airson dachaigh nach urrainn dhut tilleadh thuice. Tha saudade aig na...