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 Canada.

NOVA SCOTIA

While Scotland has been enjoying some glorious May sunshine, it has been a very different climate here in Nova Scotia. It is cold when I arrive - in fact everyone tells me it is much colder than usual for this time of year.

But that has not deterred the thousands of hockey fans from the US, as well as many European countries including Slovakia, Norway and Finland, who've come for the World Hockey Championships in Halifax.

As I travel into Halifax it is immediately obvious how the province got its name. The dramatic scenery - hills, fields, Scots pines - reminds me of home.

That is probably why the migrants who came here from the Highlands and Islands from the late 1700s settled so well.

Gaelic culture

In fact Gaelic language, music and dance have been part of the culture on the eastern mainland and Cape Breton for centuries. By the late 19th and early 20th Century the language was in serious decline, but Gaelic speakers across Nova Scotia have campaigned for support for the language.

Although there are no official figures on the current number of Gaelic speakers, some 227,000 Nova Scotians claim to be descended from Gaelic-speaking settlers and a much larger number are involved in other activities such as music and dance which stem from Gaelic culture.

One man who has been instrumental in raising the profile of Gaelic and preserving it is Lewis MacKinnon from the Office of Gaelic Affairs.

He invites me along to a Gaelic Immersion Course where a group of enthusiasts of all ages are learning to speak the language. If they are disappointed that I have come all the way from Scotland but do not speak Gaelic, they hide it well.

They are all doing an intensive six-week course. When asked why they want to spend the time learning a language which very few people now speak, they all say how much they enjoy it.

But for many of them it goes deeper than that. "It's in the blood," they say. In short, they feel like Gaels.

Early the next day I leave behind the buzz of Halifax and head for Digby, which is 120 miles south west.

It is a small fishing town and like many similar Scottish towns, with fishing in decline, it's now having to look to other industries like tourism.

The sea plays an important part in life

Another thing residents here have in common with those living in Scottish island communities is their reliance on ferries.

On Sunday I take two separate short ferry trips to get to Brier Island. A traditional fishing village, the islanders have been forced to diversify but it is now making a name for itself as a destination for eco-tourism.

It boasts a rich marine habitat with colonies of whales, dolphins and seals, as well as a huge variety of seabirds.

I meet islander Vicki Graham, who has now turned her hobby into a career by teaching rug hooking - a traditional craft brought here by the Scots. She prides herself on her own green credentials, and all the materials she uses are recycled.

Cape Breton

On Tuesday, I return to Halifax where I meet the Premier of Nova Scotia, Rodney MacDonald. He was born and still lives in Inverness County in Cape Breton.

As well as being the leader of the legislative assembly, he is also an award-winning fiddler who has played throughout North America and Europe. He has visited Scotland several times, sees the parallels between there and Nova Scotia - in both the culture and the economy - and is keen to forge closer links.

After our meeting, I travel for more than four hours by car to reach Cape Breton, passing through New Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen along the way.

The first permanent Scottish community was settled here in 1775 by Michael Mor MacDonald. Many of the island's early inhabitants came from Lewis and Barra and were native Gaelic speakers.

Gaelic is not the first language any more. However, a Gaelic College was founded here in 1938 by a Presbyterian minister - Reverend MacKenzie, from the Isle of Skye - who had emigrated to Canada.

Since those humble beginnings the college has grown considerably from a one-roomed log cabin to a large modern college. There is also a new museum charting the migration of the Scots - some 20,000 left the Highlands between 1763 and 1775, mainly settling in prince Edward Island, Glengarry in Ontario as well as Cape Breton.

Members of the Gaelic Council here are busy planning a summer festival called Cruinneachadh nan Gaidheal (Gathering of the Gaels).

Catriona Parsons, who left Lewis 40 years ago for a new life in North America, has taught at the Gaelic College every summer for the past three decades.

Over the years she's seen a growing number of students deciding to take up Gaelic, and in some schools it is now being offered as a choice instead of French. She tells me that people here still feel a close affinity with Scotland, which they refer to as "an t-seann duthaich" (the Old Country).

As I continue to explore Cape Breton I stop off in Baddeck, where the inventor and scientist Alexander Graham Bell owned a holiday home. It is still used by his family, and nearby there is now a museum in his honour.

Bell loved Cape Breton, which reminded him of home. He said: "I have travelled around the globe. I have seen the Canadian and American Rockies, the Andes, the Alps and the Highlands of Scotland - but for simple beauty Breton outrivals them all."