Born in Ayr on the west coast of Scotland, he studied the western mystery tradition for twelve years with Gareth Knight, then directed his studies to Celtic subjects. He now lives in the USA, where he and his wife Helen Star founded "Wandering Angus," a Celtic resource and educational center in Washington State.

Blamires is an authority on Celtic traditions, and represented the Celtic peoples at the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions. In 1986 he founded the Celtic Research and Folklore Society in Scotland, and wrote and edited the CRFS journal Seanchas. He has worked with Tibetan Buddhist monks to make Holy Isle, Firth of Clyde, Scotland, a place of spiritual retreat for people of all beliefs. He is a member of the Company of Hawkwood and a co-founder of the Company of Avalon. He also teaches an overview of Celtic Culture through Peninsula College.

He helped establish the The Highland Clearances Memorial Fund in 1996, and has since helped facilitate events to generate funds to commemorate the tragedy of the forced displacement of hundreds of Scottish people during the Highland Clearances.

Blamires is an authority on the life and work of William Sharp, AKA the Scottish poet, writer and mystic Fiona MacLeod. He published a biography of William Sharp in 2008 entitled The Little Book of the Great Enchantment.

He has traveled extensively on all seven continents, has circumnavigated the globe, and visited over fifty countries. He is an authority on the Celtic, Viking and Inuit peoples, and has an extensive knowledge of the society, culture and history of Ireland, Scotland, Iceland and Greenland. He is a Royal Yachting Association licensed Zodiac driver, and has worked as an expedition leader for Linblad Expeditions and the National Geographic Society since 2002.