Jasreen Janjua & Ben Sheppard describe how the Pocketsights app helped them design walking tours that revealed more of Vancouver's Scottish past than this Robbie Burns statue in Stanley Park

By Jasreen Janjua and Ben Sheppard

For the World Congress of Scottish Literatures in May, 2017, we set out to create two walking tours that shed light on Vancouver’s rich Scottish history and culture. Our first task involved some research into potential sites of Scottish interest in downtown Vancouver because we did not have extensive prior knowledge about Scottish heritage in the City beyond our famous Robert Burns statue located at Stanley Park. After using many databases to research biographies and heritage buildings, we had a list of sites and were ready to continue to the next task of constructing the tour using the Pocketsights app. One of the challenges that we faced was finding sites close to each other, so that we could form a functional walking tour that would not have our participants running around for hours. After experimenting with combinations of sites, we created two tours called “Scotland Walks Vancouver” and “Scotland Walks Strathcona.” Both tours take participants through 20 sites of Scottish cultural memory that almost hide in plain sight. These are the pieces of Scottish history, sometimes bold and apparent, other times barely noticeable, that can be found everywhere from architecture to monuments, from tiny mosaics to cross streets. 

You can download the free mobile app to take these self-guided tours by searching for Pocketsights Tour Guide in the App Store. Then, search for "Scotland Walks Vancouver" and "Scotland Walks Strathcona."