Guides

How I Became a Scottish Tour Guide I never set out to become a tour guide. Like most people leaving school, I had no clear plan—so I followed an interest in history to the University of Edinburgh, studying Ancient History and archaeology. While the degree itself didn’t lead directly to a job, the experience of being there quietly shaped everything that came next. In 2012, short on cash and scanning student job boards, I stumbled across a listing looking for someone to leap from Edinburgh’s dark closes and scare passers-by. Two months—and one very loud audition scream—later, I was racing through the Old Town dressed as monks, skeletons and witches, beginning what would become a long-term career in Scottish storytelling. I worked my way up to Senior Guide, leading ghost tours and discovering that entertaining people with history and drama didn’t feel like work at all. Looking for daytime guiding, I set my sights on broader Scottish tourism and eventually joined a driver-guide company, spending years criss-crossing the country: castles, distilleries, glens, islands and Highland roads became my office. Along the way, a stint as a supporting artist on a historical film inspired a new personal brand—The Tartan Viking—and a…