Roots of Stone: The Story of Those Who Came Before

This fascinating sweep over 2,000 years of Scotland’s past mingles with a true family story stretching back over these same two millennia. It is an exploration of Scottish identity through the story of the author’s ancestors—tales drawn from royal bloodlines and from crofting hearths, tales of high drama and quiet, everyday satisfactions. Kenneth MacAlpin, Macbeth, Robert the Bruce, and the Wicked Earls of Orkney all have a place. Poets, pipers, and poachers play their part, as do dukes and drovers, their stories unfolding within evocatively limned landscapes and ancient places of power. Above all, Roots of Stone is the story of “all the ones who came before—those who can still be felt in the blood when deep emotion is stirred.”