Getting prepared for your mushroom collecting trip is probably every bit as important as the trip itself. This is due to the fact that poor preparation can leave the mycophile cold, wet, tired and hungry - hardly conclusive with enjoying yourself and maybe more importantly motivating yourself to find the damn things.
The most important aspects of preparation are:
Since we are talking about Scotland here, and since Psilocybe semilanceata is an autumn species - wearing the correct clothing is an absolute must if you dont want to end up with a cold, or worse! First things first, make sure you have waterproof trousers! These can be bought cheaply from any outdoor sports shop and many other places besides (try golf shops!). Also Wellington boots are virtually a necessity if you dont want to end up with cold, soaking feet! The problem is that if you are actually going to find some mushrooms, you are going to have to get in amongst some fairly long grass. Since mushrooms seem to like to appear in the days following rain - the grass is going to be wet. In fact there is virtually no way that you are not going to get at least a bit wet! What we are talking about here is minimising this. Also, I would recomend taking a jumper or jersey in a waterproof bag in your rucksack in case things get really cold!
Food is also important, if you are getting bored and tired its amazing how much something to eat can give you the will to go on! I would recomend that you take a backpack with a nice thermos flask of hot coffee (or your favourite hot drink) to keep going. Also, you have to remember that this isnt going to be the best time of year to have a happy picnic - take lightweight, high carbohydrate foodstuffs. This kind of energy food, ie Mars Bars and Snickers will give you an energy boost - without making you tired (I always get tired after eating something substantial!).
You are going to have to take some sort of container along with you in which to place various samples. It is important to keep different species separate! So take a few different containers just in case. As far as the nature of the container goes, I recomend tupperware - old ice cream tubs for example! It is important to puncture the lid of these quite extensively otherwise a humid atmosphere will develop inside - and by the time you get home you will just have a box full of mush! Fill the tupperware with layers of kitchen towel - this will help to absorb some of the moisture from the mushrooms and will stop them turning into one big sticky mess!
I cannot stress how important this is - both for you and for the education of others! Please make sure that you always take a notebook with you on your searches. Thus, when you find a species, you can note the environment in which you have found them. This means several things. It is worth noting what plants were found around the specimen you have collected, what the weather in the area was like in the in previous 48 hours (if known). This information can help you (and the rest of us) to identify areas/times in which it is worth searching for specimens. Hopefully if enough people contribute their find information to this site then we should all be better educated as to where and when to look. If you are going to share this information with the rest of us (as I am sure all you kind hearted people will) then it would also be great if you could send this information along with the species and approximate location of where you found them. By this I mean "found in a field of long grass within 10 meters of a pine forest between the towns of St Andrews and Cupar". I am sure that this will allow mycophiles to search in similar areas, without giving local police/councils the chance to find out exactly where these sites are - and destroy them. It is vital that local councils are not made aware of psilocybe habitats within their jusrisdiction since they organise fungacide spraying programmes in 'known' areas.