When Václav Rout tucks his Highland bagpipes under his left arm and takes a final deep breath before beginning to play, his mind goes quiet and he's filled with a sense of calm.

"While piping, I'm thinking about nothing but the music. I care about nothing else," he says. "I love, love, love piping. It's an obsession."

The 41-year-old's obsession includes not just playing and teaching Scotland's bagpipe music, but also that country's food, drink, clothing, culture, history, landscape, language and people. In fact, it's safe to say that Rout is a die-hard fan of anything and everything Scottish.

Scotland and the Czech Republic are linked by a common Celtic heritage. The very name of this region, Bohemia, is derived from the name of the Boii Celtic tribe that first settled in the area around 400 BC. But Rout says his feelings for Scotland stem purely from the heart, not from history.

"It's like asking a man why he loves one woman and not another. I can't explain it," he says. "I just love it. I fell in love when I was very young."

Now, he's one of only a handful of accomplished Highland bagpipe musicians in this country. He's appeared on radio and television at home and abroad and performed for a long list of dignitaries that includes the United Kingdom's Prince Edward.

Rout is a member of both the First Bohemian Highland Pipers, a Prague-based piping group, and Czeltic, a band that plays traditional Celtic music with a twist. He's also the owner of Kilt, a Vinohrady shop specializing in Scottish goods, from haggis and whisky to tartans, sporrans and kilts.

A father of three, he runs his own event-planning and consulting business. But in every scrap of his spare time, he's pursuing his obsession and doing everything he can to share his love with others.

Each year, he organizes Celtic-themed events across the country, including music and dance performances, whisky tastings and an annual Robert Burns supper in January, complete with haggis galore.

Luckily for other Celtic fans in this city, August is an event-packed month.

This coming Saturday (Aug. 5), Rout is throwing a one-day Celtic Fest at Vyšehrad. The show includes a lineup of musicians and performers, craft demonstrations, traditional Celtic dancing and food and drink.

From Aug. 14 to 18, he's planned an intensive summer school for locals interested in learning to play the bagpipes. Instructors direct from the National Piping Centre in Glasgow will be flown in for the occasion.

Rout is also organizing the sixth annual Highland Games Aug. 19, held at Sychrov Chateau in the Liberec region. The Highland sport extravaganza, the largest event of its kind in Central Europe, will include such traditional events as the caber toss, where athletes balance and flip a long, tapered log, and the stone put, in which a hefty rock is chucked using just one hand.

These events and the Scottish shop are purely labors of love. If he's lucky, Rout breaks even. But he's not concerned with making a profit, he insists.