Writer of Caledonian tales initially (5)
I believe the answer is:
scott
'writer' is the definition.
(Walter Scott)
'caledonian tales initially' is the wordplay.
'caledonian' becomes 'Scot' (Caledonia was the Latin name for Scotland).
'initially' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'tales' is 't'.
'scot'+'t'='SCOTT'
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for scott that I've seen before include "Sir Walter -, author of Guy Mannering" , "Sir Peter -----, ornithologist son of a great explorer" , "Novelist Sir Walter" , "Sir Walter --, writer" , "See other clues" .)