St Andrew's Day

St Andrew's Day - The best film from Scotland

Our editors pick highlights from Scottish film through history

25 Nov 2011

Scotland shares Saint Andrew with areas of Russia, Romania, Greece and Malta, though this list is closed to the corruption of arthouse favourites like Theo Angelopoulos and Sergei Bondarchuk with their long names and even longer films. We’re assuming St…

St Andrew's Day - The best books from Scotland

Our editors pick highlights from Scottish books through history

25 Nov 2011

First up, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). The ultimate doppelgänger novel, Robert Louis Stevenson’s fiction about the goodly doctor and his hairy malevolent side may be officially set in London but to all intents and purposes this is a…

St Andrew's Day - The best art from Scotland

Our editors pick highlights from Scottish art through history

25 Nov 2011

Virtually unknown until the late 1940s The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch (to give the full name of the painting more commonly known as The Skating Minister) is now something of a Scottish cultural icon. The image was created by…

St Andrew's Day - The best music from Scotland

Our editors pick highlights from Scottish music through history

25 Nov 2011

Treasure (1984, 4AD) by the Cocteau Twins. Because when ‘Lorelei’ or ‘Ivo’ are playing, it’s hard not to feel a surge of hairs-on-arm-raising national pride about the Grangemouth origins of such a beautiful, essential dream-pop album. Forget listening…

Events for St Andrew's Day 2011

Live music, ceilidhs, free and discounted entry to nation’s key landmarks

18 Nov 2011

Visit for free As part of Scotland’s Winter Festivals, the weekend before St Andrew’s Day will be enhanced with money-off deals for some of the nation’s key landmarks. You can get cheap or free entry to Glasgow Science Centre (check out the…

Rebels with a Cause

Jacobite-themed weekend of storytelling, live music, tours, exhibitions and a quiz

26 Nov 2010

In the same month as we remember Guy Fawkes’ rather unwelcome trip to the Houses of Parliament, that building’s Scottish counterpart is hoping for some friendlier visitors. Held over the St Andrew’s weekend, Rebels with a Cause is a mix of storytelling…

St Andrew’s Day offers a programme of poetry, song and dance

2010 National Day a far cry from mince and tatties, a malt and the latest Broons annual

19 Nov 2010

Let’s face it. There is no way that St Andrew’s Day celebrations will ever, ever be cool, and no special guest appearances by Amy Macdonald or thon wee laddie fae West Lothian who won the X Factor are ever, ever going to change that. Processed that?

Family weekend: Rebels with a Cause – The Jacobites and the Global Imagination

Traditional music, egg decorating and quiz among highlights of weekend of free children's events

17 Nov 2010

Rebels with a Cause – The Jacobites and the Global Imagination Wednesday 27 October to Saturday 8 January (closed Sundays except Sunday 28 November and 24 - 28, 31 December and 1 - 3 January) Monday and Friday 10:00 - 16.00 (last entry 15:30)…

Spotify playlist: St Andrew's Day

Secretly Scottish

30 Nov 2009

How about some Revolting Cocks, Siousxie & the Banshees and Human League? Just because it's St Andrew's Day it doesn't mean you have to subject yersel' to the barrage of yer Dougie MacLean, yer Proclaimers and yer Simple Minds to celebrate culture of…

Scotland The Great - Homecoming

22 Jan 2009

Four skinny boys stare up at a mountain. The mountain stares back at them. The hairiest one throws his arms out and roars: ‘Does it not make you proud to be Scottish?’; the prettiest one looks up from his vodka bottle, and hurls back bile. It’s been…

St Andrews Day

27 Nov 2008

While Homecoming 2009 will be the real biggie in terms of Saltire-waving celebration, various Scottish cities are building up to it with unprecedented displays of patriotism this St Andrew’s Day. Virtually every tourist attraction in Edinburgh (or at…

Judge Dredd star Big Tam McNutter gets his own T-shirt

19 Nov 2008

A character from Judge Dredd has earned himself the right to be emblazoned across your chest on a T-shirt. Big Tam McNutter, who made an unforgettable appearance in the 1992 2000 AD Yearbook, is the creation of Scottish 2000 AD legends John Wagner and…

Charity begins at home

13 Nov 2008

A treasure trove of stars are doing their bit for charity this month, with special gigs in both Edinburgh and Glasgow. OXJAM, the UK’s biggest music festival, will present its South East Scotland launch event at The Hive in Edinburgh on Thursday 27…

The St Kilda Tapes

30 Oct 2008

St Andrew’s Day is marked in Glasgow this year by this multimedia and live music event about the evacuation of St Kilda. Rare archive footage, testimonies from surviving evacuees and music from guitarist David Allison (whose previous work includes the…

A brief history of St. Andrew

Patron saint of Scotland

1 Oct 2008

Like his brother Peter, St. Andrew was a fisherman in Galilee before becoming one of the twelve apostles. Following Jesus’ death, Andrew preached in Greece and throughout Asia Minor, eventually being crucified in Patras. We know little about the man…

St Andrew’s Day

29 Nov 2007

Around this time of year, a flurry of twee tartan tat begins to take over our streets and schools. Gym halls fill up with tinny, taped ceilidh tunes, canteens are plagued with watery tatties and sloppy neeps, and supermarkets surrender to dusty displays…

St Andrew's Day

Various events, Glasgow & Edinburgh

11 Nov 2006

PATRON SAINT CELEBRATION Andrew was not Scottish, and what we know of his life comes from religious texts. Born a Jew in Bethsaida, Galilee, he and his brother Simon Peter were fishermen, and when Jesus came calling, he became one of his first (and…