THIS is the golden time. There are still traces of snow on the hills, the sky is often blue, the yellow is on the broom, the larches are a dazzling green, the cuckoo is calling in the glens and the midges are mainly dormant. This is Beltane, the old Celtic new year, when people rejoiced that the winter was past and warmer and softer days lay ahead.

The modern tourist and traveller can twin with the people of old in May and June and sense why they climbed mountains like Ben Ledi, near Callander, in Perthshire, and held special ceremonies on top while down below their fires were extinguished and then rekindled in intricate rituals.

They ate a kind of cake on the summit and made offerings to the animals and birds which might harm their flocks and herds, the wolf, eagle, raven, hooded crow and fox.

People still cling to these ceremonies: some wash their faces in the May dew and others wait until midsummer and then climb special hills to see the sun coming up. The attractive Borders town of Peebles still holds a Beltane festival and this year it runs from June 14 to 20 when the Riding of the Peebles Marches also takes place and there is a Beltane sports day on June 20.

Perhaps some bright spark might think of bringing back the old custom of husbands and wives being dispensed from their marriage vows for a day and vanishing into the spring birch woods with someone else.

No-one in Scotland in May or June need say there is nothing to do because if they get hold of a free and thick booklet from the Scottish Tourist Board it lists everything that is going on from May 1 to September 30.

It is called Events in Scotland and is produced with the aid of the List magazine which is published fortnightly and which contains information about goings-on in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

If you want Events in Scotland phone or write to STB at its Edinburgh HQ at 23 Ravelston Terrace, EH4 3EU, tel 0131 332 2433. I was captivated by it. Events include one-day affairs and happenings which run for weeks and months.

There are military museums, distilleries, jazz, folk music and classical music festivals, sheep dog trials, concerts, carnivals, horse trials, teddy bear picnics, opera, traditional farming, stock cars, golf, plays, motorcycles and food festivals.

Study the detail. There are lots of nuggets which bear examination. There is a William Soutar centenary exhibition at the AK Bell Library, in York Place, in Perth, which runs until May 30. That wonderful writer and poet was bedridden for years and kept his humour and his equilibrium intact and is one of our most admirable literary figures both in English and Scots language. Combine that with all the other attractions Perth offers. If you want something more blood thirsty then turn up at the Highland Wildlife park, at Kincraig, near Kingussie, where you can see wolves and bears getting fed and reflect on what Scotland must have been like in the days of the huge forests.

This booklet has some intriguing titles. My eye caught The Shipping Forecast and it turns out that the Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery has a photographic exhibition covering all 31 sea areas referred to in the BBC broadcasts, plus an exhibition of weather paintings. It runs until July 5.

If you are still on the culture hunt you can drop in at Traquair House, near Innerleithen, Peeblesshire, where the Tweed Theatre presents The Tempest from June 1 to 6 and in a house rich in Jacobite memories. Shakespeare at Traquair is now a known and much admired culture strand and will clearly go from strength to strength. Working down the long list of events, my eye caught sightseeing cruises on the Union Canal and there is the entrancing thought that it might be possible in future years to cross all central Scotland by canal.

The Common Ridings fall in the spring with Hawick's taking place on June 6 and 7 and Selkirk on June 12. If you decide to go to Hawick, give a cheer for the two heroic girls who battled against male prejudice to let women take part in the Riding, as is the case elsewhere in the Borders. They haven't yet gained a full place, but are on the way.

It is not fully realised yet in that town what harm these male attitudes did to the image of the community and which spawned a rash of jokes including one that all Nativity Plays had been cancelled in Hawick because they couldn't find three wise men and wouldn't let Mary ride on the donkey. Someone in the Brechin and Bridge of Dun area has a good eye for detail. You can journey by steam rail there on June 7 and there is a teddy bears picnic on June 14 with #1 off the rail fare for children carrying a teddy. There is also a best dressed bear competition.

The White Cockade Society is at Stirling Castle on June 7, displaying weapons and costumes of the eighteenth century. I once saw a visitor there being taken ''prisoner'' by Hanoverian soldiers and sentenced to death at a drum-head court martial. He loved every minute of it and his friends had a great time with their cameras and all left the castle wreathed in smiles.

Glasgow has its West End Festival from June 13 to 28 with concerts and a carnival and if you are hardy enough there is a yacht race around the island of Foula, in Shetland, which lasts from June 20 to 21 and possibly longer if the wind drops. East Fortune airfield, in East Lothian, has an exhibition of Scottish-built cars, lorries, bikes and planes as part of its Museum of Flight and which runs from June 13 to 14.

If you like Highland Games do try Ceres in Fife on June 27. It was reputedly started by Fife men returning home after the Scottish victory at Bannockburn in 1314, one of our better battle days. It is the oldest free games in Scotland and, like Glen Finnan, one of the most appealing.

Finally, there are Scottish Country dancing exhibitions in the walled garden at Culzean Castle and country park on June 21.

Friendly dancers will rope you in although you may never have danced a step. Have a go.

There's little sense in marvelling at Gene Kelly, John Travolta and Riverdance and then ignoring the Scottish equivalent on your doorstep.