Meet Ryan, Your Tour Guide

Contact Ryan on Instagram @ryanmckenna.88 or via email HERE to book a private tour.

Ryan is a Son of Scotland. Born and bred in Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital city with a rich ancestral heritage in Scotland and Ireland, he embodies the ancient ways of his native land. Ryan grew up spending a lot of his days exploring Scotland’s Highlands and Islands, with a burning passion for Scottish culture, history and folklore. and with his ardent love for nature, Ryan has developed a deep connection to the sacred sites of Scotland over the years.

Ryan is a multi-instrumentalist musician, health & wellness guru, astrologer as well as a tour guide.

He has been facilitating and leading healing retreats since 2017, and in 2018 established the Sacred Scotland Tour. Ryan is dedicated to the reclamation of Scottish culture, through facilitating spaces of ancestral remembrance and celebration and his intention for creating the Sacred Scotland Tour is to reconnect people back into the power of their ethnicity, ancestral heritage and indigenous European roots.

Enjoy Ryan’s Celtic playlist HERE.

What Participants Had to Say about their Experience

“I had the the absolute pleasure of joining Ryan on his Sacred Scotland Tour this September and it was probably my most life changing experience in my life up until this point. I absolutely love to travel, but quite honestly Scotland wasn’t on my radar. I went on the trip because after meeting Ryan a year prior in Costa Rica, I wanted to be around him again and learn more from him. We went on the most miraculous hikes, visited many sacred sights and explored the world in a way I never had before. I felt so connected to Mother Earth, God, the Universe and my calling in life. I immediately felt connected with everybody in the group and it was as if we had known each other for years. Ryan’s ability to lead, hold space and create experiences for others is really powerful. I would highly recommend joining in on any of the trips, tours or retreats that Ryan leads.”

Joshua

“Touring the sacred sites of Scotland with Ryan opened my heart and soul to the magic of my homeland and ignited memories deep within me of my history here, long before this lifetime. We explored enchanted places great and small, climbed a magnificent mountain, went under a stunning waterfall, prayed with the spirits of the land, worshipped the elements, and held ceremony in portals and ancient ruins. The trip was everything I had hoped it would be, and so much more. Wonderful to meet such kindred spirits too and to celebrate this country, perhaps the most beautiful in all the world. Thank you Ryan for sharing your incredible knowledge and spirit and for holding space for each of us to dive deep into our Celtic ancestry.”

Elaine

“The second Ryan told me of this trip I knew I wanted to go on this adventure with him! He had always inspired me to connect with my Celtic roots and I could not miss the opportunity. Arrival to Edinburg was easy and fun, the city is so lovely. We spent a day wandering through medieval streets to then scale Arthur’s Seat, where we were washed clean by crisp winds as we overlooked a stunning view. The venture into the highlands was a powerful one, because we not only got to visit ancient sites, but we got to see first hand the intense history of a proud and determined people. The road trips were filled with laughter and song and every hike was a meditative process that were so important to my own personal growth, especially up the Faery Mountain of Schiehallion where I actually encountered for the first time an elemental spirit directly! Meditations with standing stones placed ages before us were transformative reminders of the timelessness of the earth and the continuity of the sacred. I would recommend this journey to anyone who wishes to connect to an ancient and mystical land through the guidance of a true and humble steward of nature and human consciousness. Ryan is a voice for our ancestors and a flowering branch on the rebirth tree of this cultural heritage.”

Sarah Wu, Clinical Herbalist

Peggy

“From all the 38 countries I traveled and all the adventures, Sacred Scotland tour was one of the most fantastic and memorable trips I ever had!

From the magical highlands, the coast, crystal mountains, stone circles, ancient trees and churches … to feel the elementals, fairies and elves … no wonder why Scotland’s symbol animal is a Unicorn!

To add to the experience, Ryan’s deep knowledge of the land and history, his combination of knowledge between the visible and invisible realms makes the trip even more enriched!

This is a journey I would totally do every year!

Love Love Love Sacred Scotland Tour!”

Cristina Kalyani

Bear Heart

The Sacred Scotland Tour, conducted brilliantly by my brother Ryan McKenna, came at a poignant time in my life when I was going through a bit of a dark night of the soul. And this tour was a perfect transformational experience to lift me back into depth and purpose. Truly, I couldn’t have imagined how powerful and meaningful it would be for me. Ryan masterfully guided us through a beautiful constellation of sacred sites, ever illuminating inspiring wisdom to parallel the breathtaking lands we visited. And it wasn’t just a tour: Ryan truly initiated us into the wisdoms of the ancients, making us feel as though we were part of a renewal of ancestral power as well as helping awakening the power of the sacred sites. On top of that, Ryan supplied ample Celtic music in the evenings, rousing into community jams that forged a lovely soul family vibe, along with dropping his genius astrological insights at every turn. The accommodations were all first-rate as well as the sumptuous and nourishing meals curated by his team. The Sacred Scotland Tour feels like a highly significant pilgrimage experience that evokes magic and purpose in all who experience it. I recommend it for anyone wishing to know the deeper beauty of Scotland, Celtic wisdom and to simply nourish one’s soul deeply.

Darren Austin Hall

Grant

The Sacred Scotland Tour was a heart-expanding introduction into the ancient sites & rich history of the North. Our magical group was sinking deep into the connection with the sacred places full presence & devotion. The guidance of Ryan McKenna on the tour touched upon story telling, musical sharings & embodied celtic wisdom. Highly recommend the mystical journey to Scotland for remembering the ancestral roots.

Vera Anja Nixon, Switzerland

Danielle

The Sacred Scotland trip on summer solstice was a magical experience. The group that Ryan collected around himself could not have been more perfectly selected. I made so many deep connections to the people and to the land, and Ryan curated the perfect container for the magic. I loved the yoga, the organic food, the wisdom of the beautiful people sharing space with me, and the reverence with which we approached the ancient power sites. So much energetic shifting occurred for me on this trip. I think it will take months before I can even express the shifts that occurred. If you’re looking for real connection – if you’re about the land and the energy – then this trip is definitely for you. Many blessings to you on your journey.

Erin Brady

Sandra

Ryan has cultivated an incredible pilgrimage through Scotland that incorporates his rich historical knowledge of the country as well as his musical gifts. He has also assembled an amazing support team, each bringing their own unique expression to our experience, including: Scott (dedicated driver, meditation guide and chocolate maker), Krystal (daily movement practice and Druid yoga in traditional Scot’s language), Alastair (fine art/painting with natural pigments and driver) Dougie (traditional storytelling), Adamh (Gaelic ceremony) , and Natalie and Rosie (loving meal preparation).

As a first-time visitor to these lands of my ancestors, I was impressed and delighted with the wide range of experiences on the tour. The stunning scenery, the welcoming comraderie of the locals and our group, and the ever-present traditional music made for an unforgettable trip.

Rev. Tamara Tomasini Grenier

“While work exchanging at Posada Natura in Costa Rica, I met Ryan McKenna who was the chef for some of the retreats happening at that beautiful sanctuary by the river. He said I looked like a ‘pict’, and so I began to learn more about the Celtic aspects of my ancestry, what the true natives from there were really about and how these fae/elven folk are now as rare in their homelands as the Native American Indians are too theirs.

Once back in South Africa I witnessed Ryan starting to leading his own wellness retreats and guiding people from all over the world on his Sacred Scotland and Ireland tours. I soon felt the call to experience this communion with my ancestral lands too, and so during a visit to my sisters family there near Edinburgh I decided to hop on that magic bus 🙂

We were a bunch of characters from all walks of life and common threads to the magical isles touring Scotland with the best Celtic music I’d ever heard, great conversation and good vibes 🙂 Our accommodations were very comfortable in beautiful settings along the way as we visited many places including the Roslyn Chapel, Callanish Standing Stones, the Caledonian Forests and the Isle of Lewis. Something about being in those lush forests by the river, in those meadows and meditating against the giant ancient portals of those standing stones felt deeply profound and moving to me in ways not easy to describe. Thankfully Ryan and his friends always had a way of ‘balancing the sacred and the silly’ so that through the lessons in history and reverence for the land and ancestors, there was also plenty of laughter and pixie mischief.

I would recommend this tour to anyone with any Celtic ancestry and/or curiosity for experiencing and learning more about these beautiful lands, their magic light and the people of the mists and the water.”

Julia Fae

Photos from Previous Sacred Scotland Tours