Louise writes from North America

Louise has been awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship

BBC Scotland reporter Louise Stewart has been awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to travel in North America and study the historic links between Scotland and the United States.

She will be looking at the impact Scots migrants have had on the culture there and will be travelling to New York, North Carolina, Washington, Boston and then onto Canada.

NEW YORK

Security in New York is particularly high on Friday ahead of Pope Benedict's three-day visit.

I have to carry ID to get past the NYPD officers on every street corner as I make my way to Madison Avenue, where the Pope happens to be staying, to meet Alan Bain of the Scottish American Foundation.

A successful businessman, he's been in New York for more than 35 years but is active in promoting the links between Scotland and the US.

The foundation was set up more than 50 years ago by Lord Douglas Hamilton to be an unofficial Scottish Embassy.

It's just undertaken research which shows that the characteristics Americans associate with Scots are industry, loyalty and prudence.

Perhaps unsurprisingly it also found the best known Scot is Sean Connery, followed by Ewan McGregor.

A study suggested that Ewan McGregor is one of the best known Scots

Later, on Friday evening I meet some other ex-pats who've made New York their home, but this time it's not business interests that bind them but their love of the beautiful game.

Malcolm Boyd, originally from Falkirk, moved to New York 14 years ago, and is a founding member of the Tartan Army supporters group in New York.

He suggests we meet in a bar near Battery Park.

We're joined by Donny Stevenson, an Aberdonian who works for an oil company, Pete Reid, an attorney who hails from Barrhead, and Keith Murray, a quantity surveyor from Fife.

They're all proud Scots and it's great to hear so many familiar accents as we sit outdoors looking over to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Only one of them thinks they may one day return home - it seems that America is still the land of opportunity for many Scots who choose to move here and start a new life.

The evening begins sedately enough - me interviewing them for my project - but as the night wears on we end up in an underground piano bar in Greenwich Village - off the tourist route - where the enthusiastic crowd sings along to songs from the Broadway musicals.

The things they miss about home most are their family and friends and Britain's health service

Malcolm asks if I could imagine a bar like this in Glasgow or Edinburgh - maybe not, but as I bail out at 3am I reflect that one thing Scots have in common is that the location is not important, when they get together they certainly know how to have a good time.

The bar is fitting for another reason - there's a plaque outside marking the place where Thomas Paine died.

He was the English revolutionary who wrote the pamphlet Common Sense in 1776, advocating independence for America from Britain.

Despite the late night, on Saturday morning I head to Fifth Avenue along with thousands of other "Papal spectators" (as the US media labels them) to see Pope Benedict's procession from St Patrick's Cathedral to a youth rally in Yonkers.

The crowd is made up of every nationality, with people having travelled not only from across the States but also from Italy, Germany, Britain and further afield to witness his historic first visit to America.

Dozens of out-riders on motorbikes signal his appearance and you know he has arrived by the cheer that wells up from the street.

Then there he is, waving from the pope mobile just metres away.

Pope Benedict in New York, surrounded by so-called 'Papal spectators'

I leave behind "the city that never sleeps" to travel to North Carolina, where thousands of Scottish Highlanders had settled by the mid-18th Century.

I am met at the airport by a modern day Scottish migrant - Harry Nicol, from Glasgow, who has lived in Raleigh for the past 14 years.

We drive to Duplin County to stay overnight in a beautiful country hotel run by Iris Lennon, who moved to the States from Ayrshire in 1973.

It is a welcome respite from the frenetic pace of NYC.

Iris' brother Donald Ross has also made North Carolina his home.

Donald remains a "Resident Alien", although he is married to an American.

I also meet Andy Simpson, from Fife, who is a golf professional here and also a piper who plays at Highland games across the county.

In peak season there's a games here every week with pipe bands, Highland dancing and ceilidhs as people celebrate their Scottish heritage.

As an aside, Andy tells me that when he was in the Scots Guards he piped at the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965.

Scottish hospitality

The following day we travel back to Raleigh and visit the Governor's building, North Carolina State Capitol.

Completed in 1840, the interior looks very familiar and I learn it was designed by David Paton, a native of Edinburgh, who studied alongside architects such as William Playfair.

Later, with true Scottish hospitality, I am invited to dinner at the home of Harry and Trish Nicol, along with a dozen Scots and Americans with Scottish heritage.

Most of them have been here for more than a decade and are all proud of their Scottish roots, although only one or two think they will ever return home.

The things they miss most about home are their family and friends and Britain's health service.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the thing they miss least is the Scottish weather.

I have just a few more days here in North Carolina and will be sad to leave, but I am looking forward to the next stop, the country's capital, Washington DC.