Exploring the history and culture of magical Boston

The National

08-06-2025

I'm not alone on the second-ever JetBlue (www.jetblue.com) flight from Edinburgh. My daughter Tara has just finished her Highers and joins me for a rare just daddy and daughter trip. On the way out we're privileged to try Mint, which someone insists on social media – over the free all-plane wifi – is 'America's best business class'. It's hard to disagree with flat beds, restaurant-quality food, Tunnock's with their (proper) coffee and beaming New England service.
We ease into Boston, where the airport is handily just across the harbour from the centre. It's quite some harbour, a cross between New York's skyscraper drama and the swathes of greenery that make Sydney such a joy. Old-world wooden trawlers straight out of Jaws chug by hulking tankers that dwarf the locals yachting around their beloved waterway.
A massive change is one that 17-year-old Tara cannot appreciate – the 'Big Dig' is over. This seismic multi-billion-dollar city revamp is one of the bravest I've ever seen. The massive elevated six-lane highway that savaged through the centre was demolished and a colossal tunnelling project forced traffic underground, so Bostonians now enjoy calmer traffic, urban greenery and cycleways.
Boston feels like a new city. Even our base, the Omni Seaport Hotel (www.omnihotels.com), lies in an eponymous district that was an unappealing industrial zone 25 years ago. It has been reborn as a leisure oasis with cafes, restaurants, hotels and parks, plus waterfront walks. Later this month new ferries will even better connect Seaport to Downtown.
Change is perpetual in Boston; creativity too. The Big Dig – officially the Central Artery Tunnel Project – created a LOT of soil, over 16 million cubic yards. Being Boston it didn't go to waste as Christian Merfeld, of Boston Harbor Now, tells me: 'We not only turned highways into the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, but brought the city back together. We also created glorious green spaces like Spectacle Island.'
Spectacle Island is one of the 28 islands that make up one of the most dramatic harbours in the Americas. We jump on a ferry that runs in conjunction with this Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park. How many cities have national parkland within a 20-minute scenic boat ride?
Tara is impressed with the Big Dig, suggesting, 'Glasgow should try it with its motorway'. She is also impressed with the lobster roll picnic we snare from Luke's, owned by a fifth-generation lobster fisherman. Again it's great timing. Tara has seen his other outlets on TikTok, but this one just opened. The buttered bread stuffed with New England's finest is divine. Or, as Tara beams, 'the nicest roll I've ever had.'
Boston is renowned for its Irish connections, but there are Scottish ones too and not just with Scots rippling through the city's rich historical fabric. There is a physical connection on Spectacle Island, formed as 'partially drowned drumlin field', a rare glacial phenomenon I know from Dumfries and Galloway's Machars.
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Spectacle Island – which used to be Boston's landfill – is symbolic of how far the city has come. Park ranger Thomas Spadea proudly explains the rebirth of his island charge: 'We buried the rubbish with millions of square cubic meters of dirt and use a network of sea walls, a filtration system and methane vents to create this clean green oasis.' We hike between the two drumlin hills for epic city and harbour views. Since 1995, the Deer Land Wastewater Treatment Plant has turned one of America's dirtiest harbours into one of its cleanest.
Back in the city, the Scottish interweaving continues. The State House sports an English lion, closely watched by his old adversary, the unicorn. At the brilliantly immersive Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum actors re-create the lighting of the flame of American independence. Tara throws a replica tea chest overboard as we learn of another country's struggle to free itself from British rule.
Boston is famed for its food; we're not disappointed. At Woods Hills Pier 4, the New England produce is as delightful as the manager's welcome. He stresses: 'We really welcome the new JetBlue route as we love hosting Scots'. We try more of that famous lobster (a match for Scotland's finest) and beef from the restaurant's farm.
Quincy Market – where Tara delights in trying the famous Boston Cream Pie – is very Boston, a historic bolthole reborn with food stalls. Then at the Beehive, a buzzy live music venue, Tara and I bond over delicious dishes featuring New England tuna and swordfish.
Our last meal is at the Union Oyster House, America's oldest restaurant, Wes Hagan tells me: 'I was not a history fan until I started working here, now like many Bostonians I'm obsessed.' As we savour local shellfish, Tara points out that the booth next to us was JFK's favourite. Experiences like this make Boston stack up brilliantly not just for a daddy-and-daughter trip, but for anyone jumping on Scotland's latest Transatlantic route.
For further information on Boston see Meet Boston at www.meetboston.com