For over a decade, we’ve helped travellers uncover their Scottish roots. Walk the villages, kirks, and landscapes your ancestors once knew. A meaningful, emotional journey home — curated with care.
Available all year.
Click here if you are ready to start your Ancestral Tour Adventure
Click here if you want to explore your Scottish Ancestry from your home
Follow in your family’s footsteps
In advance of all Ancestry tours we will cross-check the family information you have given us and do further research around it, to ensure that we are taking you to the places that will mean the most to you in terms of your family history.
This will often mean small villages and country churches, or Glasgow’s inner city, old dockyards, textile mills or former coalmines, rather than grand castles. But we are happy to take you to your clan castle too. In most cases, even if the place no longer exists, we can show you how your ancestors would have lived, either through visits to similar places or local museums or heritage centres.
One thing about Scotland is we do have a lot of old churches, so we can often trace the family to a particular church, and graveyard, but often the stones are too worn to read. But some of our guests have been very lucky and found a family gravestone.
Some highlights of recent tours include:
The Munro family were miners from East Lothian but with a little further digging we discovered that a couple of generations back they had been gardeners at the magnificent 18th century Darnhall house, now The Barony Castle hotel. We were able to spend a lovely time there with their local historian who took us round the amazing grounds, some of which would have been planted by their ancestor. Incidentally, this hotel is well worth a visit, fabulous lunch, beautiful walks through the grounds and they have the amazing Polish map of Scotland carved out in the grounds.
In the course of planning an Outlander tour, we started to discuss ancestry, only to discover that our guest was descended from Elizabeth and John Welch. Elizabeth Welch was the daughter of John Knox (it is not often we have a direct connection to such a famous person). More importantly from the tour perspective, John Welch was just as much a firebrand preacher as his father-in-law and at one point was imprisoned in Blackness Castle, accused of treason. This is fully documented. Those who have visited will realise how grim this would have been. Blackness Castle is well known to Outlander fans as Fort William. What an emotional visit it was that day.
Many tours take us to Glasgow’s inner city, The Gorbals and Govan, and most of the buildings are long gone. If you want a good insight into what it was like I would recommend this book The Gorbals and Oatlands – A New History
However, in one case we were able to identify the exact street and building still standing, as a number of streets in Glasgow changed their names. If you visit the brilliant little museum in the Fairfield Shipyard in Govan, they have a brilliant map overlay, where you can see the streets back in the heyday of the great shipyards and as they are now. If your family are from these areas, do visit The People’s Palace at Glasgow Green, where you will get a really good feel for what life was like- and it will explain why such a lot emigrated.
Quick tip for those tracing their Glasgow ancestry. When searching for the Parish, try Barony as well as Glasgow. This was a distinct separate parish around the Cathedral and East End and to the North where many of the textile mills were located.
So, whether you want to climb a hill, visit a castle, a traditional borders mill or simply stand in the footsteps of your ancestors, we can help make that dream come true.
Included in a Genealogical Tour of Scotland:
We can create a personal ancestral tour for you which is a wonderfully unique way to explore your family history.
We can assist with research at a cost of £25 per hour. Tour prices based on requirements
If you are planning to visit Scotland and would be interested in a Scottish Ancestral Tours, get in touch to find out more. Perhaps you might like to combine it with our Outlander Tour?
Useful Sites
Visit Scotland Ancestry – Mary’s Meanders is proud to be a member of the Ancestral Welcome Scheme
Scotland’s People – Official government source for genealogical data
Linlithgow History Library – The library holds material on all aspects of West Lothian past and present, including places, people, buildings and events. The library is open to the public and is free to use.
West Lothian Registration Offices -Contact details for registration offices in West Lothian
Annet House – Museum and Gardens. Home of Linlithgow’s History
The Scottish Association of Family History Societies
The Scottish Genealogy Society
Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society
Glasgow Family History at The Mitchell Library
Highland Family History Society
Genealogy Tours of Scotland – Canadian Genealogist Christine Woodcock
