Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Fae Huntly to Honolulu: How Spikkin Scots series conquered the world

spikkin scots map

Philippa Gerrard explains how an interactive map gripped thousands of Scots language enthusiasts from around the world

What hope does a language have when many of the people who speak it are reluctant to recognise it? Well, quite a bit of hope as it turns out.

In November 2020, the DCT Media Impact team released a special series which took a deep dive into the Scots language. No, I don’t mean Gaelic, and no, it’s not a dialect of English, I mean Scots. Pure braid Scots.

Scots language
Doric street art in Aberdeen created by the Graffiti Granarchists

The articles shot through well over 100,000 page views in their first three months online, with readers from more than 5,000 different towns and cities around the world. From Somalia to Slovakia, visitors were keen to learn about the Scots language.

The results are fantastic news for the Scots language itself, and proved that with the right methods, it’s possible to read readers across the globe.



When the articles went live back in November, I had hyped myself up for a huge instant reaction.

Instead, each of the pieces held their own amongst that day’s news, which was positive to see but hardly ground-breaking.

But slowly, the articles began to rank higher and higher, and there were plenty of Scots language enthusiasts who helped to spread the word online.

Views were gradually ticking up on the P&J website, with readers now arriving from the north of England, Wales and across the Irish Sea.

And the visitors just kept coming.

The nature of the content meant it continued to be relevant to readers long after the original publish date.

As of the end of January, the Spikkin Scots series had been accessed by people in more than 5,000 towns and cities across the world. From Atlanta to Adelaide and Montreal to Milan, people flooded in from around the globe to learn more about the Scots language.

As the original article states, some in Scotland might be reluctant to recognise the language of their heritage, but it turns out the rest of the world has no such quandary.

Fae Huntly to Honolulu

Robbie Shepherd.

I decided to call long-time Scots language enthusiast and P&J columnist Robbie Shepherd to tell him the news.

“I actually got a call from a relation of mine the other day, from way out in Canada far he bides,” said Robbie. “He was saying he had heard about the map fae someone and gone on and discovered it was my voice in the north-east corner. Although he is English, he is keen on the Doric ye see and was asking me what ‘hallyrackit’ meant.

“It’s very encouraging that it’s been so weil read aroon the world, I was delighted to help out and be a part of it. Isn’t it funny to think that folk fae Honolulu in Hawaii can maybes understan me better than folk in Huntly? What a turn up.”

I asked him why he thought the map in particular had proven to be so popular among readers, and he had an answer straight away:

“Often times folk find it easier to listen tae Scots than tae read it,” he said. “The spelling can be difficult and pits them aff.

Isn’t it funny to think that folk fae Honolulu in Hawaii can maybes understan me better than folk in Huntly? What a turn up.”

Robbie Shepherd

“It’s made my day to find oot aboot this. I’m still recovering from a broken shoulder and this has richt cheered me up.”

You and me both Robbie. And hey, ye may gang faur and fare waur.