In the late 1700s Scotland was basking in the rays of Enlightenment thought. In Edinburgh, which had previously been a dark, squalid and disease-ridden outpost on the edge of Europe, luminaries as diverse as Adam Smith, the founder of economics, Joseph Black, the scientist who discovered carbon dioxide, and David Hume, the great philosopher and historian, emerged.

Who in Scotland today has heard of Donald Alexander Smith, ‘One of the outstanding figures of the Empire’, according to his 1914 obituary in the Times? Above Loch Leven, on the slopes of the Pap of Glencoe, is a former mansion, now the local cottage hospital.

For hundreds of years, until very recent times, families of wandering nomads roamed the Scottish Highlands, living rough among the heather.

We all owe a great deal to the Scottish genius of Alexander Graham Bell. Not only did he invent the telephone, which was to transform the culture, the social fabric and the economy of the United States and eventually the world, his remarkably fertile imagination also spawned a raft of inventions most of us have never associated with his name.

Today the shipowner David MacBrayne, who lived from 1817 until 1907, is just as well known as Samuel Cunard, and the red funnelled ships which bear his name continue to sails the sea lochs, the firths and the minches of the West Highlands, a century after his death.

The man who claimed to discover the source of the Nile in 1770 was an unlikely candidate for a life of adventure. At school he was a sickly boy and, after briefly studying law at Edinburgh, he spent several years recovering his health at his family home, Kinnaird House, near Falkirk.

There is nothing more poignant than the ruination of a once-grand house, except perhaps the photographs which are the only evidence that it existed.

For many babies born in Edinburgh between 1925 and 1988 the Elsie Inglis was the name of the maternity hospital (later a ward in the Western General Hospital) where their lives began.

Approaching Rum by boat, from a distance that example of Edwardian extravagance, Kinloch Castle, is not particularly noteworthy. It’s only as you bump over the track in a Land Rover and reach a clearing, that you begin to have some idea of the size and scale of this impressive building, which, today, sits in a National Nature Reserve (NNR) managed by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).

Sir William Dunn, the son of a Paisley shopkeeper, went on to build a business empire that spanned the globe. The eminent Victorian’s will of 1908 left a fortune with a proviso: ‘To advance the cause of Christianity, to benefit children and young people, to support hospitals and alleviate human suffering, to encourage education and promote emigration.’

Eric Henry Liddell was not even born in Scotland, but in Tientsin, China, not a million miles from where the dramas of the XXIX Olympiad will be played out in Beijing in 18-months time.

The sheer scale of Forestry Commission Scotland is astounding. The quango now owns a staggering 1.6 million acres - roughly eight per cent of the nation’s landmass – which makes it by far and away Scotland’s largest single landowner.

Think of pioneers of Scottish medicine and the names Sir Alexander Fleming and Sir Joseph Lister come readily to mind. But one man, Sir William Macewen, a genuine surgical pioneer and committed campaigner, tends to be forgotten.

Although not everyone in Scotland knows the name of James Ritchie, the vast majority of us would have seen some of his handiwork… indeed, many of us see it on a daily basis. For James Ritchie & Son is responsible for the creation, and upkeep, of many of Scotland’s highest profile timepieces. Examples of the company’s work include the clock on the Balmoral Hotel and the time ball on the Nelson Monument.

For a man shouldering responsibility for the organisation of the annual Royal National Mod, Murdo Morrison is remarkably upbeat. ‘The event grows year on year,’ says the Mod Organiser.

Billionaire Bill Gates recently retired from Microsoft to embark on a new career as a full-time philanthropist. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already pledged billions of dollars to good causes, such as the fight against poverty and disease in the Third World.

The Scottish Gamekeeper’s Association recently commissioned the creation of a brand-new Glen Quaich – the traditional style of saddle worn by ponies to carry deer off the hill – to place in a silent auction.

The considerable legacy of one of Scotland’s greatest adventurers is finally being recognised in his native land after generations of neglect. Well-celebrated on the other side of the Atlantic, Sir William Drummond Stewart has been the subject of many a biography and press article in the US, yet is almost unknown in his homeland.

In 1851 America won the first America’s Cup when John Cox Stevens skippered America to victory at Cowes.

The countdown to the reopening of the Kelvingrove Gallery, which has been closed for a £27.9 million refurbishment, has begun with the news that the famous building will reopen on Tuesday July 11.

In the autumn of 1783 a few well-connected Scottish gentlemen met near the current City Chambers in Edinburgh to discuss the idea of a society to improve the Highlands.

It’s a good year to be sporty in Scotland. In Melbourne we won our biggest tally of gold medals since the Commonwealth Games began in 1930; at Murrayfield we beat the Six Nations’ favourite, France, and retrieved the Calcutta Cup after years in the rugby doldrums; and a young man from Dunblane has become the great white hope (in the obligatory dress code of Wimbledon) of British tennis.

The ancient game of shinty, dating back over 2000 years, has been hurled into the 21st century by championing the cause for Scottish Tourism during Tartan Week in America.

This February, Scottish members are hosting their fifth Annual Knights of Malta Ball in Edinburgh, celebrating nearly 1000 years of service to countries throughout the world.

Scottish tartan has long been famous for its traditional use of conveying a person’s identity but so, too, did the understated tweed. Often regarded as the fashion of ‘the country-gent’, tweed is now making a significant comeback across the winter fashion scene, with teenagers even sporting tweed jackets or plus fours with knee-high boots!

For centuries, the Christmas tree has been one of the most common symbols to remind us of the approaching festivities. Legend has it that one of the first times the fir tree was used in reference to Christmas was during the seventh century, when a monk from Crediton in Devonshire travelled to Germany to teach the word of God.

Today Byres Road and the adjoining Ashton Lane form the hub of Glasgow’s stylish West End, famous for being one of the most popular entertainment spots in the city.

Broughton House – the former Kirkcudbright home of renowned Scottish artist E A Hornel – has just reopened its doors after being closed for nearly two years for extensive renovations.

The late, great John Muir might have allowed himself a selfcongratulatory smile on 1st September 2003, when his great-granddaughter Liz Hanna cut the ribbon to open the Cairngorms National Park.

As March meets April they’ll feel the moon working its gravitational magic an when neap tides leave sandy beaches exposed, they’ll gather.

People live and work in rural areas, but they cannot do so in a museum-like time warp.

In the same year that the first great Italian Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi died in 1446, the foundation stone of the Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew was laid by Sir William St Clair third and last St Clair Prince of Orkney, his ancestry weaving its way back to Orcadian, Norwegian and French families.

The Clyde is Scotland’s third long-est river, flowing well over 100 miles from its headwaters in the Lowther Hills to the tail of the bank at Greenock.

In 1812, Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchas, reminising about the journey from Edinburgh to her home wrote:

Something odd is happening in the Hebrides. After years of recrimination over ‘who owns Scotland’, lairds and crofters are threatening to find an amicable solution to the thorny problem.