Karen Gardiner

Freelance Travel and Arts Writer

United States of America

Portfolio
BBC
03/09/2017
The small Scottish isle leading the world in electricity

The Scottish island of Eigg has a precarious connection to the outside world - which I experienced first-hand when a storm forced the cancellation of my ferry and I had to wait two days for the next boat. But largely because of that fragility, the tiny island - 15 miles (24km) west of the mainland - has learned how to be self-sufficient.

American Way, Celebrated Living, Nexos
Glasgow moves beyond haggis and deep-fried pizza

"When I moved here," says Briony Cullin, from Melbourne, Australia, "my friends would ask me, 'What do you do about eating in Glasgow?' People had this idea that Glasgow's food scene was terrible."

Rhapsody
09/01/2017
Spirit of the Seas

Scotland's craft gin movement posits that seaweed could be the new peat.

National Geographic Travel
04/11/2017
7 Cities to See Powerful Street Art

Street art is a city's outdoor museum. Not just attractive to look at, it often functions as a gateway into the underlying social, cultural, or political concerns of the setting in which it appears.

Atlas Obscura
08/22/2017
Saving North Ronaldsay's Seaweed-Eating Sheep

North Ronaldsay, the most northerly of Scotland's Orkney Islands, shares several properties in common with the country's other remote northern isles. There's the Neolithic-era standing stone, for example, and the lighthouse built by members of the famed Stevenson engineering clan. But look out to the shoreline and you'll spot something altogether more particular to this island.

Condé Nast Traveler
I Went on a Blindfolded Tour of Venice-And It Was Completely Eye-Opening

It's the opening days of the 57th Venice Biennale, and I've spent the morning fighting crowds to see contemporary visual art in national pavilions. Now, at dusk, I'm relaxing in a sampierota, a typical Venetian rowboat. But atypically, I'm blindfolded, and guided by Giulia, who is blind.