In the time-honoured gypsy tradition, they were itinerant agricultural workers, pearl fishers, fortune tellers and horse dealers, known in Gaelic as ‘luchd siubhail’ – the travelling people. They were also known as tinkers, a term of derision, which is today worn as a badge of honour by their descendants. Although travellers still speak their own cant language and cling to many of their ancient customs and superstitions, they are also recognised as the custodians of Scotland’s great oral tradition in which stories, ballads and folk music are passed down through succeeding generations. At Blairgowrie in Perthshire, Isla Macdonald had the privilege of meeting Sheila Stewart, MBE, a traveller who, like her mother before her, is one of the most revered figures in Scottish traditional music.

In Queen Among the Heather, Sheila Stewart’s moving and remarkably frank biography of her mother, Belle, she gives us a vivid insight into some of the joys and extraordinary hardships associated with a life on the road. She tells of her mother’s birth in a bow tent pitched by the banks of the River Tay near Dunkeld in rural Perthshire. ‘Travelling folk in Scotland have always been regarded as little better than animals,’ she told me ‘and frankly, we are still treated that way by people who make no effort to get to know us. My mother was awarded the British Empire Medal for her services to traditional music. I was honoured with an MBE. We’ve been

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