Our Move to the Scottish Highlands

The ruins of Kilchurn castle on Loch Awe, the longest fresh water Loch in Scotland

Trading rolling hills for Highland mountains, lochs, and a life shaped by the seasons

After years growing deep roots in Scotland, it’s time for a new adventure. We’re swapping rolling hills and abbey ruins for mountains and forested shores; moving Meg’s Scottish Kitchen to the edge of Loch Awe in the highlands. Join me as I gather, cook, and share from a new perspective, grounded in the rhythms of the highlands.

I’ve always had a wild imagination, and there’s nowhere I’d rather let it roam than here, in a place where magic feels close enough to touch. The Highlands are unlike anywhere else on earth. Imagine rolling green hills melting into glassy lochs, mist curling through ancient glens and swathes of purple heather rippling in the breeze. Add a history steeped in legend and a deep, unshakable sense of belonging and you’ll understand why people return year after year whether for a single day or a season.

Arial view of Kilchurn castle on Loch Awe

Life here feels deeply authentic. You can sense it in the very bones of the land, in the stories passed down through generations, in the ruins of castles that still murmur their secrets to the wind. These aren’t just stones and walls; they are the remnants of a time when clans ruled and lives were lived in ways that shaped Scotland’s soul.

Here, history isn’t locked away in glass cases; it’s under your feet. You tread the same paths as Jacobite soldiers, cross rivers that once hid forbidden tartans, stand by lochs that have guarded their secrets for centuries. Scotland doesn’t hide its past; it invites you to walk beside it.

And woven through it all is something harder to pin down—the folklore. Perhaps that’s what draws me in so deeply as an Irish woman, with my own roots tangled in myth and story.

Castle ruin

From the elusive Loch Ness Monster to the shape-shifting water horse, the Kelpie, Scottish legends are still alive here. Some say the Highlands are a threshold to the “Otherworld,” a realm where the magical ones still dwell, unseen but never absent.

It’s not hard to believe. Walk alone through a silent glen or stand beside a loch as the mist folds around you, and you might feel something ancient brushing past just out of sight. That’s the magic of Scotland. It never fully reveals itself, yet it’s always there.

Even the weather has its own sorcery. In the Highlands, you can wander from sunlight to fog to sudden rain and back again, all in a single afternoon. The clouds race overhead, the light shifts in an instant and the sky becomes a living canvas flushed with rainbows, brushed with colours you’ll never see the same way twice.

And then there are the Munros the mighty mountains, standing sentinel over the land, especially along the wild west coast. They call to adventurers of every kind: hikers, climbers, dreamers, those seeking to test themselves against something greater. Each has its own spirit some gentle, others fierce and unforgiving. In winter, they can be brutal winds that steal your breath, snow that swallows the path, rain that challenges even the hardiest souls.

Glen Coe

But that’s part of the lure.

Climbing a Munro humbles you. It thrills you. You set out thinking it’s just a walk, but you come back with a story and a quiet longing to do it all again.

Scotland isn’t simply a place you visit. It’s a place that invites you in, stirs you, challenges you, and stays with you long after you’ve left. Whether you seek adventure, stillness, or something profoundly real, the Highlands will find their way into your heart.

Let them. Let Scotland work its magic.

Jetty on Loch Awe

This move to the highlands isn’t just about a new location. It’s about slowing down, cooking with intention and sharing it all with you. We have been searching for our forever home since we first moved to Scotland and now we have finally found it.  If you’ve ever dreamed of starting fresh, you’ll want to see what’s next for Meg’s Scottish Kitchen.