Birlinn Limited is an independent publishing house based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company is built on traditions of the written and spoken word and is constantly looking to the future.
Established by Hugh Andrew (2022 recipient of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society Shackleton Medal for leadership and citizenship in publishing) in 1992, Birlinn publishes books under a number of imprints:
Birlinn; Polygon; Arena Sport; BC Books; and John Donald.
The team at Birlinn are proud of the company’s reputation and prominence in Scottish publishing. We constantly challenge ourselves and nurture the talent of our authors and we push the boundaries of the imagination. We never rest in our search for what comes next.
Stay a while, take a look around the site: look, listen, read.
Birlinn — Scottish and general UK interest books, from biography to history, military to politics, and Scottish Gaelic. The name comes from the old Norse word ‘birlinn’, meaning a long boat or small galley used especially in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland in the Middle Ages.
