POSTCARD TWELVE
From the Place My Heart Calls Home
Sometimes we leave a country. Sometimes a country never leaves us.
Every journey through Scotland eventually comes to an end. The mountains disappear in the rear-view mirror, the ferry reaches the mainland and the flight takes us home. But something always remains behind.
My Heart Isn't Here, It Is in the Highlands is a postcard for everyone who has ever left Scotland knowing that part of them never really did.
MY HEART ISN'T HERE, IT IS IN THE HIGHLANDS
Inspired by the feeling that a part of your heart always remains in Scotland.
ABOUT THE SONG
Some places impress us. Others become part of who we are.
My Heart Isn't Here, It Is in the Highlands was inspired by the feeling that many travellers experience after leaving Scotland. Long after the journey has ended, memories of the Highlands continue to return—the mountains wrapped in morning mist, the sound of waves along the west coast, quiet glens, welcoming villages and endless skies.
As one of the fourteen musical postcards from Scotland – A Love Letter, the song is a tribute to the emotional connection so many people develop with Scotland. It reminds us that home is not always the place where we live. Sometimes it is the place we long to return to.
SONGWRITER'S NOTE
Every time I leave Scotland, I tell myself it won't be long before I return.
Yet the feeling begins long before I cross the border or board the ferry. Somewhere during the last day of the journey, I already know that I'm going to miss this place.
After more than one hundred hiking and trekking journeys, I realised something unexpected. Scotland had quietly become part of my life. It had changed the way I travel, the way I write songs and even the way I see the world.
My Heart Isn't Here, It Is in the Highlands is the most personal song on the album because it says something I've felt for many years: although I live somewhere else, a part of my heart will always belong to the Highlands.
Lyrics:
Southbound lights, another town
Same old bar, same old sound
I chase dreams I never find
’Cause I left myself behind
Every road I try to run
Leads me back to where I’m from
My heart isn’t here, it is in the Highlands
Where the wind still knows my name
Cold rivers, wide open silence
That’s the place that keeps me sane
I walk these streets, but I hear that sound
Of home on higher ground
My heart isn’t here tonight
It is in the Highlands
She said, “Boy, don’t forget this town”
I said, “Love won’t slow me down”
Now every mile just proves me wrong
Somewhere north is where I belong
My heart isn’t here, it is in the Highlands
Where the past still feels alive
Under grey skies, endless horizons
That’s where I learned to survive
I walk these streets, but I hear that sound
Of home on higher ground
My heart isn’t here tonight
It is in the Highlands
I tried to outrun who I am
Chased every ghost I could stand
But the further I got from the truth
The clearer the memory of you
If I ever lay these miles down
I know where my heart is found
My heart isn’t here, it is in the Highlands
Yeah, it never really left
My heart isn’t here tonight
It is in the Highlands
Every song tells a story. Continue your journey through Scotland with the next postcard from the Highlands.