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.

NORTH CAROLINA

As I continue my journey across North America, I drive through North Carolina, stopping at Archdale where I stay with Ann Jackson, President of the Triad Highland Games, and meet many of the other organisers.

They're all getting ready for the games which take place at the start of May.

This annual event has been running for the past 10 years, and is twinned with the games in Inverness.

But it's just one of many such gatherings in North Carolina - by far the biggest is at Grandfather Mountain, which attracts over 30,000 visitors, mostly wearing kilts, and all celebrating their Scottish heritage.

There's Highland dancing, pipe bands and field events, as well as Scotch pies and Forfar bridies which I see being traditionally prepared and baked at the home of Alex and Joan Robb in Waynesville.

The couple left Scotland for a new life in the US back in the 60s, settling first in New York and later in North Carolina, but they haven't left their Scottish traditions behind.

In fact, despite the near 30 degree temperature outside, when they invite me to stay for tea, with freshly cooked pie and home-made chips on the menu, I am easily persuaded. They also introduce me to Marjorie Logie Warren, a graduate of Glasgow School of Art, who now runs her own textile design service.

Marjorie Logie Warren now runs her own textile design service

Growing up in Scotland, she admits she took her culture and tradition for granted, but since marrying an American and moving to the States she's rediscovered her heritage through designing and weaving tartan.

She has several hand looms in her studio at Lake Junaluska and her work is now world renowned.

She's keen to continue the tradition of hand weaving and has recently been working with students from New York to co-ordinate a fashion show where every item of clothing was made from Harris Tweed, brought over from the Western Isles.

Marjorie suggests I visit the Scottish Tartans Museum in Franklin - which is the only Scottish museum in the United States.

The curator Matthew Newsome is extremely knowledgable, not just about tartan, but also about the historic links between Scotland and the US, particularly the Scots who settled in the South, where they made up the largest ethnic group.

It's estimated as many as five million North Carolinians have Scottish ancestry and Gaelic was spoken here until the late 1870s.

In fact I meet a lady who is doing her bit to keep the Gaelic language alive. An Phillips has not only learnt to speak Gaelic, but is now teaching it too.

The Scots influence in North Carolina can be seen everywhere with place names such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness in abundance.

When I flick through the telephone book, it's just like looking for a number at home with Campbells, MacLeans, and, of course Stewarts.

Franklin is home to the only Scottish museum in the United States

And this influence can even be seen amongst the Cherokee Indians. Many of the Europeans who traded with them in the 18th century were Scots and they certainly left their own indellible mark.

One in particular, John Stuart, married a Cherokee and their children who inherited his red, curly hair were nicknamed "Bushyheads" and that name still survives as a surname amongst the Cherokees to this day.

Carrying onto Hendersonville, I am delighted to be asked for tea at the home of Eleanor and John Baxton Flowers III.

He is active in the St Andrews Society and is also a former president of the Caledonian Foundation, which aims to preserve the links between Scotland, Canada and the United States.

They support various cultural activities in Scotland, including opera and, in keeping with the importance early Scots migrants placed on education, they also fund fellowships for exchange students to attend university in either the US or Scotland.

Before leaving North Carolina I stop at the Centre of Scottish Heritage at Rural Hill, near Charlotte.

It's built on the homestead of the Davidson family and remained in their family for over 230 years.

It's believed Robert Davidson, originally from Scotland, moved here in the 1730s and married another Scot Isabella Ramsay.

It's said that wherever Scots settled the first thing they built was a school and the second was a church.

Again the importance of education can still be seen here, where the original tiny one-room schoolhouse has now been restored.

WASHINGTON DC

Early on Sunday morning, I leave behind Charlotte to fly to Washington - keen to visit the seat of power at Capitol Hill.

Woodrow Wilson said: "Every line of strength in American history is a line colored with Scottish blood."

And their influence cannot be underestimated. It's believed well over half of US presidents to the present day have been at least partly of Scottish descent: from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Andrew Jackson to James Buchanan, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D Roosevelt.

But one of the first things I see on arrival is not a statue of a previous American president but a leading British statesman.

The statue of Sir Winston Churchill outside the British Embassy shows him standing with one foot on American soil and one on British - a fitting tribute to the wartime leader, who recognised and did so much to foster the special relationship between Britain and the US.