ALLAN FOSTER

1. Abbotsford: Home of Sir Walter Scott, Melrose, Borders
AS the sheriff-depute of Selkirk sheriff court, Scott bought a small farm of around 100 acres. On it he built what can only be described as a fake castle. Set in the heart of the Borders on the banks of the River Tweed, it was named Abbotsford, and Scott lived there with Charlotte Charpentier, his French wife, until his death in 1832.

Five months later, it was opened up to visitors. The property now contains Scott's collections of historic relics, weapons and armour including Rob Roy's gun and Montrose's sword as well as his extensive library.

2. Tibbie Shiel's Inn, Borders
This was a watering hole for nineteenth-century literary society. It was in this inn, Isabella (Tibbie) Shiel's very own home, that the likes of Scott, James Hogg, John Wilson, Thomas Carlyle, Thomas Stoddart and Robert Louis Stevenson came together.

Shiel opened her home to gentlemen lodgers as a means of supporting herself and six children following the death of her husband Robert Richardson, a mole catcher, in 1824. It was Scott and Hogg who introduced William Wordsworth to the beauty of St Mary's Loch, near the inn. Although there is no evidence that Wordsworth actually visited the inn, it is unlikely they would not have acquainted him with it.

3. John Buchan Centre, Borders
The museum, situated in Upper Tweeddale, celebrates the life and times of John Buchan, one of Scotland's most distinguished historical figures. Buchan, a poet, lawyer, soldier, politician, statesman, writer and governor general for Canada, who became best known for his espionage thriller The Thirty Nine Steps, had links with Broughton dating back to his childhood. The museum is housed in a former church where Buchan's family regularly worshipped. It features displays of photographs, books and artefacts relating to his life, including a map made for him out of moosehide by Native Americans.

4. Birthplace of John Muir, Dunbar, East Lothian
The birthplace of the writer and father of the modern environmentalist movement. Born in 1838, the third of eight children, Muir and his family emigrated to the United States 11 years later. It was in his new home of Wisconsin that his interest in nature blossomed.

He became fascinated by natural history and began exploring western America, walking 1000 miles from Indiana to the Gulf. Muir wrote a number of books, and died an American icon in 1914. His native homeland eventually woke up to his contribution to the world's natural heritage; in 1976 the John Muir Country Park was inaugurated along the East Lothian coastline.

5. Edinburgh Writers' Museum, Lady Stair's Close, Edinburgh
Dedicated to the life and works of Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, this three-floor museum houses artifacts connected to all three, including first editions of Scott's novel Waverley and a cabinet belonging to the young Louis. It is from the museum that the Edinburgh Book Lover's Tour leaves.

6. Sandy Bell's Pub, Edinburgh
Generally regarded as the father of the Scottish folk revival, poet and songwriter Hamish Henderson was said to frequent this pub. By all accounts, Sandy Bell's remains as it has always been - an old, no-nonsense Scottish drinking den. Today it is frequented by academics, students, locals and folk enthusiasts.

7. 6a Nicolson Street, Edinburgh
Now a Buffet King restaurant, this used to be Nicolson's cafe, where JK Rowling wrote parts of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - the book that sparked a modern publishing sensation. Following the break-up of her marriage in the early 1990s, the Exeter-born Rowling moved with her baby daughter to Edinburgh. Living on benefits, she stayed in Leith before moving to Shandon, off Slateford Road, in 1997.

She enjoyed writing in cafes - particularly Nicolson's, because the staff were so friendly. She began training as a teacher, studying by day and writing by night; it was while she was working as a French teacher that Harry Potter was accepted for publication. A few months later the American rights were sold and she was able to give up teaching and become a writer full-time.

8. The Burns Trail, Dumfries
The places in Dumfries connected with the Bard far outweigh any of those of other towns he is often associated with, namely Ayr, Irvine, Kilmarnock and Edinburgh. From the time of Burns's arrival in Dumfries in 1787 to his death less than 10 years later, he produced a formidable body of work. Almost 100 of his most popular songs were penned in either his house in Bank Street or at Millbrae.

The trail takes you past the Burns Statue in Queensberry Square; the Globe Inn, his hostelry; and the house where he and his family lived from May 1793 and where he died in 1796.

9. Burns National Heritage Park, Alloway, Ayrshire
This park links all the Burns sites and haunts in Alloway, including his birthplace and museum, the Burns Monument and Memorial Gardens and the Brig o' Doon. The park also includes the Tam O' Shanter experience - an audio-visual presentation where technology transforms one of the world's greatest narrative poems into a fairground sideshow. An oasis of tartan tat, but an enjoyable one all the same.

10. First Marital Home of Robert Burns, Mauchline, Ayrshire
It is understood that Robert Burns and Jean Armour met in the village of Mauchline in 1784 and set up home in February 1788 in a rented room in the house of Burns's doctor and friend Dr John MacKenzie on what is now Castle Street. It was in this room that Jean gave birth to twins, who died within a month and are buried in the kirkyard opposite.

11. Brownsbank Cottage, Biggar, South Lanarkshire
The former home of Hugh MacDiarmid, Scotland's greatest twentieth-century poet, has been the subject of pilgrimage for poetry fans the world over. MacDiarmid, widely acknowledged as being the catalyst of the Scottish literary renaissance, lived at Brownsbank for 27 years. Today the cottage is the only A-listed farm labourer's cottage in Scotland, not because of any architectural merits but simply because he stayed there. MacDiarmid lived there with his wife, Valda, until they died.

12. Auditorium of Oran Mor, Glasgow
Given that Oran Mor has become the new focal point for Glasgow's arts and theatre communities, it is entirely fitting that one of Scotland's great living novelists, playwrights and painters has left an indelible mark on the building. In 2003, the former Kelvinside Parish Church was transformed into a cultural centre, housing two pubs, two restaurants and an auditorium. Alasdair Gray's stunning painting on the ceiling of the auditorium - a night's sky with all the constellations of the zodiac - is the highlight of the whole refurbishment.

13. The Citizens' Theatre, Gorbals, Glasgow
Glasgow's rapid industrialisation gave birth to deplorable slum housing in many areas, the worst just south of the Clyde in the Gorbals. The violent environment was captured by many works, most famously by No Mean City, by A McArthur and H Kingsley Long in 1935. But the area's cultural legacy lives on in the still-outstanding Citizens' Theatre, which has been producing groundbreaking theatre there since 1945.

14. 9 Brechin Road, Kirriemuir, Angus
This is the birthplace of J M Barrie, creator of Peter Pan among other works. Barrie rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most praised and successful dramatists and writers of his time. His birthplace was nearly sold and dismantled stone by stone for a buyer in the US. Fortunately for our literary history, a local philanthropist bought the property and donated it to the National Trust. The house is now a museum and holds manuscripts, diaries and photographs, Barrie's own writing desk and examples of the original costumes worn at the first production of Peter Pan.

15. The Grassic Gibbon Centre, Arbuthnott, Aberdeenshire
This centre devoted to the life and times of novelist Lewis Grassic Gibbon is a must-see for any Scottish literature fan. Gibbon's novel Sunset Song was voted the Best Scottish Book at the Edinburgh Festival in 2005, and when it was first published in August 1932 it was hailed as the first great Scottish novel since the works of Galt. Although he was only a professional writer for five years, his output was prolific. At the time of the Scottish renaissance, writers including Hugh MacDiarmid and Neil Gunn embraced his work and looked to his example.

16. Stevenson's Cottage, Braemar
It was in this cottage that Robert Louis Stevenson was inspired to write one of the great classics of children's literature. Stevenson, on holiday with his parents, began to write what would later become Treasure Island here, completing the novel's first 15 chapters, before finishing it in Davos in Switzerland. The Stevenson family had rented a cottage near Kinlochaid Castle in Castleton of Braemar in August 1881. They had previously been staying at a cottage near Pitlochry, but the weather was so bad that Stevenson's health was suffering. On doctor's advice they moved to Braemar where they thought the air would be clearer.

17. Glen Aray, Inveraray
The life and work of Neil Munro is marked by a monument at the head of Glen Aray which bears the Gaelic inscription "sar litreachas", meaning excellent literature. It is a fitting tribute.

Yet, while Munro was responsible for a number of literary successes, none of his work eclipsed the popularity of the crew of the Vital Spark and their skipper Para Handy, later dramatised by the BBC.

18. Barnhill, Isle of Jura
It was in this remote house on Jura that George Orwell created the chilling, totalitarian world of Nineteen Eighty-Four, which continues to haunt readers today. From the top-floor attic room overlooking the sea and deer grazing on the lawn, Orwell completed and typed the manuscript before sending it to his publishers in London. He had repaired to Jura from London in 1943, a sick, consumptive, depressive, chain-smoking author who had grown tired of the hustle and bustle of the city. In his own words, Barnhill was the one place he could truly "get away from it all". A suitcase, a saucepan, a kettle and a typewriter were all he took with him.

19. 3 Mayburn Court, Stromness, Orkney
George Mackay Brown, the poet, novelist and playwright, lived on the first floor of this housing development from the late 1960s until his death in 1996. The property is now marked with a plaque. Mackay Brown started writing poetry at the same time as working for his local newspaper, The Orkney Herald, in the 1940s.

20. Birthplace of Neil Gunn, Dunbeath, Highlands
Gunn is best remembered for conveying the simple life and backgrounds of the Highland fishing and crofting communities among which he grew up, and his birthplace is marked by a plaque on the house next to the local grocer's shop in Dunbeath. The Dunbeath Heritage Centre is situated in the village school Gunn attended, and it features a permanent exhibition of his life and work. A memorial to the novelist of more than 20 books was unveiled at Dunbeath harbour in 1991 by the Neil Gunn Society.

The Literary Traveller in Scotland: A Book Lover's Guide, by Allan Foster, Mainstream, £12.99