Your local guide
Meet Jamie.
A local loon with a story or two.
I’m Jamie, a local guide with a love for the North East: its people, history and the stories you will not always find in a guidebook.
Start a conversation ↓Scotland, as it is lived
Not just the view from the coach window.
There is a difference between travelling through somewhere and really getting to know it. For me, the best part of a day out is not simply arriving at the next stop. It is the story on the road there, the small detail that catches your eye, and the moment a place that was unfamiliar starts to feel personal.
From ancient stone circles and dramatic castles to working harbours and quiet country roads, I love helping visitors find the Scotland behind the postcard. It is a relaxed day, but never an empty one.
What guides the day →
A local perspective
The weather changes. The welcome does not.
The North East is not a place that needs a gloss. Its working coast, wide farmland, granite towns and big skies are interesting precisely because they are lived-in.
That is the version of Scotland I want to share: the famous places, certainly, but also the road that gets you there, the local character, the changing light and the conversation along the way.
The way I guide
A real connection to a real place.
Local, not rehearsed
There is no fixed script to get through. I know this part of Scotland well, but I am always looking at what the day, the weather and your interests make possible.
Stories with substance
History, archaeology, folklore and local life deserve more than a headline. I enjoy the detail, the questions and the distinction between a good tale and what we actually know.
Your day, at your pace
Every tour is private. We can linger at a viewpoint, follow an ancestry thread, make room for wildlife or take the long way round when it is worth it.
A word from home
“Local loon” means one of us.
Doric is part of the voice of the North East: warm, direct and full of character. You do not need to understand it to feel at home here, but you may hear a few turns of phrase and a bit of local humour along the way.
It is not a performance. It is simply part of the place – like the harbour, the weather and the people you meet.
Experience you can trust
Thoughtful guiding, properly grounded.
Alongside local knowledge and curiosity, I am a Green Badge guide certified by the Scottish Tour Guide Association. That professional grounding matters: it means a day planned with care, stories put in context and an experience shaped around the people in front of me.
The aim is straightforward – to be informed and engaging without ever making the day feel over-managed.
Read guest reviews ↗
From the road to the stories
The journey matters as much as the pin on the map.
Scotland makes more sense when you have time for the bits in between. The communities behind a harbour, the reason a castle sits where it does, the old road through a glen, the colour of the fields after rain.
Guiding gives me a way to share those connections. It is not a lecture and it is not a race from landmark to landmark. It is a conversation with a landscape, made easier by someone who knows where to stop.
We’ve got a little bit of everything to offer you here in Aberdeenshire — a real string to our bow. It’s one of the quietest areas in Scotland, a true undiscovered place. Let me show you its secrets…
Films from the North East
Some stories deserve a little more time.
Guiding and filmmaking come from the same instinct: slow down, look closer and ask why a place matters. The short films are another way to share the people, landscapes and local history that keep this corner of Scotland interesting.
Watch the films ↗
A day on the road
The real Scotland is in the in-between bits.
It is not only the headline places that matter. A working harbour on a bright morning. The road that bends just as the weather changes. A suspension bridge, a village with its own rhythm, a hillside with a story to tell.
That is why no two days run exactly the same. I plan carefully, then leave space for Scotland to do what it does best: surprise you.
Made memorable together
Good company makes a great place even better.
A private tour is not a performance. It is a shared day out, with the time to look, listen, ask questions and enjoy the moments that cannot be scheduled.
“Jamie tailored the day to exactly what I wanted to see and do.”
Connie T, Tripadvisor
“His passion for the region was obvious – and contagious.”
Richard F, Tripadvisor
“A true talent for storytelling and a genuine passion for the history of Aberdeenshire.”
Cris A, Tripadvisor
The North East, close up
Coast, countryside and the things in between.
There is plenty of variety in a small corner of Scotland: fishing villages and open coast, ancient monuments and Royal Deeside, wildlife, castles, big skies and working communities. The route is always shaped around what interests you.
A few more miles
The Scotland I am always glad to come back to.
A castle on a grey morning, a quiet shore, a big view with an Irn-Bru in hand, a stop that turns into a story. It is all part of the same map.
Make it personal
Tell me what you are curious about.
Maybe there is a castle you have always wanted to see, a family connection you would like to explore, or a stretch of coastline that has caught your imagination. Perhaps you simply want a day discovering a Scotland that feels a little more personal.
Whatever brings you here, I would love to hear about it. Tell me what interests you, and we will see where the road might take us.