The Birlinn imprint publishes Scottish and general UK interest books, including biography, history, military, politics and Scottish Gaelic. The name comes from the old Norse word birlinn, meaning a long boat or small galley used especially in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland in the Middle Ages.
What’s new from Birlinn?
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Paperback | Pub: 03 Sep 2026£25.00Immerse yourself in Scotland’s sauna culture. Saunaland is a love story – between flame and forest, sweat and salt, person and place. It explores the deep, healing rituals of sauna culture, rooted in Nordic tradition and Celtic practices,…
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Hardback | Pub: 03 Sep 2026£25.00Funny, scurrilous, chilling and gloriously inventive, Tam o’ Shanter is widely regarded as Robert Burns’ masterpiece. This magnificent edition of the poem features the work of Alexander Goudie, one of Scotland’s greatest…
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Hardback | Pub: 03 Sep 2026£35.00This is the complete story of Scotland’s remarkable landscape. Scotland is justly famed for its magnificent scenery – mountains, lochs, islands, wild rocky places and sandy beaches. All this is evidence of an exciting geological history…
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Paperback | Pub: 03 Sep 2026£12.99
‘A masterclass in why sheep count’ – Mark Stephen, presenter of BBC Radio Scotland’s Out of Doors Acclaimed nature writer Polly Pullar has been fascinated by sheep since childhood, when she formed an inseparable bond with her pet…
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| Pub: 16 Jul 2026£9.99This notebook features a gorgeous cover with artwork by artist Louise Day. It contains lined paper, head-and-tail bands, a ribbon marker and band to keep it securely fastened. This cover design features the beautiful Scottish Heather.
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| Pub: 16 Jul 2026£9.99This notebook features a gorgeous cover with artwork by artist Louise Day. It contains lined paper, head-and-tail bands, a ribbon marker and band to keep it securely fastened. This cover design features the beautiful Rowan.
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Diary | Pub: 02 Jul 2026£14.99This 112pp week-to-view diary features 33 stunning illustrations from wildlife artist Jane Smith including, birds, animals and plants set against magnificent scenery.
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Paperback | Pub: 02 Jul 2026£12.99
Join Robin Crawford on a personal journey from the source of the River Tay to the sea. With the widest catchment area of any river in Britain, the Tay drains much of the lower Highlands of Scotland. A vast network of lochs and smaller bodies of…
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Paperback | Pub: 02 Jul 2026£10.99
A journey like no other. Acclaimed nature writer Neil Ansell has suffered from progressive hearing loss his whole life. As his world is becoming ever more silent, he suddenly hears something quite unexpected – the haunting call of the great…
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Diary | Pub: 02 Jul 2026£8.99This 112-pp week-to-view diary features 33 stunning illustrations from wildlife artist Jane Smith including, birds, animals and plants set against magnificent scenery.
Coming soon
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| Pub: 17 Sep 2026£19.99An absolutely stunning collage of Edinburgh scenes will surely make this 1000 piece puzzle an instant success in Scotland and beyond. As well as the image on the front of the box, there is a key to the depicted scenes on the box back. The artist,…
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Paperback | Pub: 01 Oct 2026£12.99Plants have played an enormous role in human culture since time immemorial. This fascinating book explores some of the many ways in which trees, herbs, ferns, mosses and other organisms such as fungi have been used in supernatural and magical…
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Paperback | Pub: 01 Oct 2026£10.99
With its natural predators long exterminated, huge deer populations controlled by landowners – largely for their own private interests – have had far-reaching environmental impacts. Despite efforts by conservationists to reduce populations and…
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Hardback | Pub: 05 Nov 2026£30.00Blended Scotch is the foundation of the whisky industry, and it is by far the world’s most popular type of whisky. Yet relatively little has been written about it – until now. This beautiful and accessible book is the only one entirely dedicated…
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Paperback | Pub: 04 Feb 2027£9.99Scotland’s largest city has always been one of the most vibrant, varied and fascinating places in the country. This new history of Glasgow begins with the river, for the Clyde made the city flourish. From prehistory to the Romans, to Mungo and the…
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Paperback | Pub: 04 Feb 2027£8.99Scotland has one of the richest traditions of myth and legend in the world. This colour-ing book features some of the best known and most colourful characters which feature in stories whose origins are lost in the mists of time. As well as the…
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Hardback | Pub: 05 Aug 2027£12.99This almanac, specially created for Scotland, features a cornucopia of fascinating seasonal information – from tide tables, phases of the moon and the weather to festivals, folklore, recipes, songs and stories. Being a seasonal almanac, it…
We think you might like:
Alistair Moffat
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Paperback | Pub: 21 Sep 2017£16.99
Discover the ultimate chronicle of a nation. In this book, Alistair Moffat brings vividly to life the story of Scotland, from the dawn of prehistory through to the twenty-first century. Ambitious, richly detailed and highly readable, Scotland: A…
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Paperback | Pub: 06 Mar 2017£12.99
This is the story behind Rome’s greatest frontier – Hadrian’s Wall. Hadrian’s Wall is the largest, most spectacular and one of the most enigmatic historical monument in Britain. Nothing else approaches its vast scale: a land wall…
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Paperback | Pub: 04 Jun 2026£8.99
Relive the battle for a nation. As 8,000 Scottish soldiers, most of them spearmen, faced 18,000 English infantrymen, archers and mounted knights in June 1314 near the Bannock Burn, many would have thought that the result a foregone conclusion. But…
Discover the Natural World
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Paperback | Pub: 04 Jun 2026£10.99
‘Fascinating and lyrical . . . A beautifully written celebration of a lifelong passion’ – Stephen Venables The relationship of people with hills and mountains has been complex, rich and varied – from awe and wonder to fear and…
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Paperback | Pub: 02 Jul 2026£12.99
Join Robin Crawford on a personal journey from the source of the River Tay to the sea. With the widest catchment area of any river in Britain, the Tay drains much of the lower Highlands of Scotland. A vast network of lochs and smaller bodies of…
