Edinburgh's Ugly Stepsister
Hold onto your kilts, Scotland has been voted the most beautiful country in the world. My guess is, not by us. In a result more shocking than the Indy ref, we beat the likes of New Zealand, Canada and even our old pals England thanks to the readers of Rough Guide. Now I’ve lived in Scotland my whole life, so maybe I’ve taken it for granted, but when I look out my window every morning, beautiful is not the word I’d use to describe it. Had I stayed closer to the places listed by Rough Guides and Scotland’s beauty advocates, this could have been a very different article. But I don’t. I stay in the slow beating heart of Livingston where there is little to do and not much to look at, neither is pleasant. Rewind about 60 years and Livingston was once scenic farmland. Apparently. Tourists in Livingston are rare, very rare. But when they do happen to stray too far from Edinburgh and wander into the not so little town of Livingston, they are more visible than an Englishman at Murrayfiel...