Homecoming Scotland

Burns Memorial & Gardens, Alloway

Burns Cottage, Alloway

Free Church, Dunedin

Celia & local guide at Dunedin

Piper at Glenfalloch Woodland Garden

Homecoming Scotland 2009 celebrates the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns’ birth in Alloway (Ayrshire). There are lots of special events, festivals and celebrations throughout the country, so there's no better time to come and discover your roots.

As they say in Gaelic, Ceud Mile Failte (A hundred thousand welcomes)
Make this your Year of Homecoming to Scotland!

Connections between Continents!
Celia has been travelling and researching in Australia and New Zealand. Here are some of the interesting connections she has discovered between Scotland and places in the Antipodes.

Dunedin (New Edinburgh)
This is the memorial to Thomas Burns who was the nephew of Scotland's famous poet Robert Burns. After joining the Free Church and sailing with his family from Scotland in 1847, he was one of the founding fathers of the first Free Church in Otago and also helped found the University.

Spot the difference!
These stone walls in the Otago goldfields could easily be mistaken for Caithness in the north of Scotland.

Glenfalloch Woodland Garden (on the Otago Peninsula) is from the Gaelic for 'hidden valley' and in Scotland you will find Glen Falloch at the northern end of Loch Lomond.

Scottish heritage is strong in New Zealand. This young piper was playing along the Southern Alps train journey from Christchurch.

Same motto, different continent!
New Zealand's only castle - Larnach Castle - has the same motto (Sans peur - without fear) as Dunrobin Castle in Sutherland, Scotland.