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Selected articles 1
The Scottish Reformation was the process whereby Scotland broke away from the Catholic Church, and established the Protestant Church of Scotland. It forms part of the wider European 16th-century Protestant Reformation.
From the first half of the 16th century, Scottish scholars and religious leaders were influenced by the teachings of the Protestant reformer, Martin Luther. In 1560, a group of Scottish nobles known as the Lords of the Congregation gained control of government. Under their guidance, the Scottish Reformation Parliament passed legislation that established a Protestant creed, and rejected Papal supremacy, although these were only formally ratified by James VI in 1567.
Directed by John Knox, the new Church of Scotland adopted a Presbyterian structure and largely Calvinist doctrine. The Reformation resulted in major changes in Scottish education, art and religious practice. The kirk itself became the subject of national pride, and many Scots saw their country as a new Israel.Christianity spread in Scotland from the 6th century, with evangelisation by Irish-Scots missionaries and, to a lesser extent, those from Rome and England. The church in Scotland attained clear independence from England after the Papal Bull of Celestine III (Cum universi, 1192), by which all Scottish bishoprics except Galloway became formally independent of York and Canterbury. The whole Ecclesia Scoticana, with individual Scottish bishoprics (except Whithorn/Galloway), became the "special daughter of the see of Rome". It was run by special councils made up of all the Scottish bishops, with the bishop of St Andrews emerging as the most important figure. The administration of parishes was often given to local monastic institutions in a process known as appropriation. By the time of the Reformation in the mid-16th century 80% of Scottish parishes were appropriated, leaving few resources for the parish clergy.
In 1472 St Andrews became the first archbishopric in the Scottish church, to be followed by Glasgow in 1492. The collapse of papal authority in the Papal Schism (1378–1418) allowed the Scottish Crown to gain effective control of major ecclesiastical appointments within the kingdom. This de facto authority over appointments was formally recognised by the Papacy in 1487. The Crown placed clients and relatives of the king in key positions, including James IV's (r. 1488–1513) illegitimate son Alexander Stewart, who was nominated as Archbishop of St. Andrews at the age of 11. This practice strengthened royal influence but it also made the Church vulnerable to criticisms of venality and nepotism. Relationships between the Scottish Crown and the Papacy were generally good, with James IV receiving tokens of papal favour.
Selected articles 2
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Doune Castle is a medieval stronghold near the village of Doune, in the Stirling council area of central Scotland and the historic county of Perthshire. The castle is sited on a wooded bend where the Ardoch Burn flows into the River Teith. It lies 8 miles (13 kilometres) northwest of Stirling, where the Teith flows into the River Forth. Upstream, 8 miles (13 kilometres) further northwest, the town of Callander lies at the edge of the Trossachs, on the fringe of the Scottish Highlands.
Recent research has shown that Doune Castle was originally built in the thirteenth century, then probably damaged in the Scottish Wars of Independence, before being rebuilt in its present form in the late 14th century by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany (c. 1340–1420), the son of Robert II of Scotland, and Regent of Scotland from 1388 until his death. Duke Robert's stronghold has survived relatively unchanged and complete, and the whole castle was traditionally thought of as the result of a single period of construction at this time. The castle passed to the crown in 1425, when Albany's son was executed, and was used as a royal hunting lodge and dower house. In the later 16th century, Doune became the property of the Earls of Moray. The castle saw military action during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and Glencairn's rising in the mid-17th century, and during the Jacobite risings of the late 17th century and 18th century. By 1800 the castle was ruined, but restoration works were carried out in the 1880s, prior to its passing into state care in the 20th century. It is now maintained by Historic Environment Scotland.
Due to the status of its builder, Doune reflected current ideas of what a royal castle building should be. It was planned as a courtyard with ranges of buildings on each side, although only the northern and north-western buildings were completed. These comprise a large tower house over the entrance, containing the rooms of the Lord and his family, and a separate tower containing the kitchen and guest rooms. The two are linked by the great hall. The stonework is almost all from the late 14th century, with only minor repairs carried out in the 1580s. The restoration of the 1880s replaced the timber roofs and internal floors, as well as interior fittings.Selected articles 3
The Falkirk Wheel (Scottish Gaelic: Cuibhle na h-Eaglaise Brice) is a rotating boat lift in Tamfourhill, Falkirk, in central Scotland, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. It opened in 2002 as part of the Millennium Link project, reconnecting the two canals for the first time since the 1930s.
The plan to regenerate central Scotland's canals and reconnect Glasgow with Edinburgh was led by British Waterways with support and funding from seven local authorities, the Scottish Enterprise Network, the European Regional Development Fund, and the Millennium Commission. Planners decided early to create a dramatic 21st-century landmark structure to reconnect the canals, instead of simply recreating the historic lock flight.
The wheel raises boats by 24 metres (79 ft), but the Union Canal is still 11 metres (36 ft) higher than the aqueduct which meets the wheel. Boats must also pass through a pair of locks between the top of the wheel and the Union Canal. The Falkirk Wheel is the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world, and one of two working boat lifts in the United Kingdom, the other being the Anderton Boat Lift.The two canals served by the wheel were previously connected by a series of 11 locks. With a 35-metre (115 ft) difference in height, it required 3,500 tonnes (3,400 long tons; 3,900 short tons) of water per run and took most of a day to pass through the flight.
By the 1930s these had fallen into disuse, and the locks were dismantled in 1933. The Forth and Clyde Canal closed at the end of 1962, and by the mid-1970s the Union Canal was filled in at both ends, rendered impassable by culverts in two places and run in pipes under a housing estate. The British Waterways Board (BWB) came into existence on 1 January 1963, the day the Forth and Clyde Canal was closed, with the objective of finding a broad strategy for the future of canals in the United Kingdom.
Selected articles 4
Shapinsay (/ˈʃæpɪnziː/, Scots: Shapinsee) is one of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. With an area of 29.5 square kilometres (11.4 sq mi), it is the eighth largest island in the Orkney archipelago. It is low-lying and, with a bedrock formed from Old Red Sandstone overlain by boulder clay, fertile, causing most of the area to be used for farming. Shapinsay has two nature reserves and is notable for its bird life. Balfour Castle, built in the Scottish Baronial style, is one of the island's most prominent features, a reminder of the Balfour family's domination of Shapinsay during the 18th and 19th centuries; the Balfours transformed life on the island by introducing new agricultural techniques. Other landmarks include a standing stone, an Iron Age broch, a souterrain and a salt-water shower.
There is one village on the island, Balfour, from which roll-on/roll-off car ferries sail to Kirkwall on the Orkney Mainland. At the 2011 census, Shapinsay had a population of 307. The economy of the island is primarily based on agriculture with the exception of a few small businesses that are largely tourism-related. A community-owned wind turbine was constructed in 2011. The island has a primary school but, in part due to improving transport links with mainland Orkney, no longer has a secondary school. Shapinsay's long history has given rise to various folk tales.
Unlike most of the larger Orkney islands, the derivation of the name 'Shapinsay' is not obvious. The final 'ay' is from the Old Norse for island, but the first two syllables are more difficult to interpret. Haswell-Smith suggests the root may be hjalpandis-øy (helpful island) owing to the presence of a good harbour, although anchorages are plentiful in the archipelago. The first written record dates from 1375 in a reference to Scalpandisay, which may suggest a derivation from Judge's island. Another suggestion is Hyalpandi's island, although no one of that name is known to be associated with Shapinsay. Blaeu's 1654 Atlas Novus includes a map of the island and names it Siapansa Oy, but the descriptive text lists it as Shapinsa.
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Dundee (/dʌnˈdiː/ ⓘ; Scots: Dundee; Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Dè or Dùn Dèagh, pronounced [t̪un tʲeː]) is the fourth-largest city in Scotland. The 2020 mid-year population estimate for the locality was 148,210. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea.
Under the name of Dundee City, it forms one of the 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Angus, the city developed into a burgh in the late 12th century and established itself as an important east coast trading port. Rapid expansion was brought on by the Industrial Revolution, particularly in the 19th century when Dundee was the centre of the global jute industry. This, along with its other major industries, gave Dundee its epithet as the city of "jute, jam and journalism".
With the decline of traditional industry, the city has adopted a plan to regenerate and reinvent itself as a cultural centre. In pursuit of this, a £1 billion master plan to regenerate and to reconnect the Waterfront to the city centre started in 2001 and is expected to be completed within a 30-year period. The V&A Dundee – the first branch of the V&A to operate outside of London – is the main centrepiece of the waterfront project. Today, Dundee is promoted as "One City, Many Discoveries" in honour of Dundee's history of scientific activities and of the RRS Discovery, Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic exploration vessel, which was built in Dundee and is now berthed at Discovery Point.
Dundee is an international research and development hub in technology, medicine and life sciences, with technological industries having arrived since the 1980s. Dundee was named as a "City of the Future" by Cognizant in 2021, the only UK city to be featured. Dundee has also been a leading city in electric vehicles, having one of the largest fleets of electric vehicles in the country. The city was named as the electric vehicle capital of Europe in 2018, and it has continuously been branded as the electric vehicle capital of Scotland and the United Kingdom.
Selected articles 6
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh had a population of 506,520 in 2020, making it the second-most populous city in Scotland and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The wider metropolitan area had a population of 912,490 in the same year.
Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is the seat of the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament, the highest courts in Scotland, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. It is also the annual venue of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The city has long been a centre of education, particularly in the fields of medicine, Scottish law, literature, philosophy, the sciences, and engineering. The University of Edinburgh was founded in 1582 and is now one of three universities in the city. The financial centre of Scotland, Edinburgh is the second-largest financial centre in the United Kingdom, the fourth-largest in Europe, and the thirteenth-largest in the world.
The city is a cultural centre, and is the home of institutions including the National Museum of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland, and the Scottish National Gallery. The city is also known for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe, the latter being the world's largest annual international arts festival. Historic sites in Edinburgh include Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the churches of St. Giles, Greyfriars and the Canongate, and the extensive Georgian New Town built in the 18th and 19th centuries. Edinburgh's Old Town and New Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has been managed by Edinburgh World Heritage since 1999. The city's historical and cultural attractions have made it Britain’s second-most visited tourist destination, attracting 4.9 million visits, including 2.4 million from overseas, in 2018.
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The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies four sites across Scotland—Edinburgh, Dawyck, Logan and Benmore—each with its own specialist collection. The RBGE's living collection consists of more than 13,302 plant species (34,422 accessions), whilst the herbarium contains in excess of 3 million preserved specimens.
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. The Edinburgh site is the main garden and the headquarters of the public body, which is led by Regius Keeper Simon Milne.
The Edinburgh botanic garden was founded in 1670 at St. Anne's Yard, near Holyrood Palace, by Robert Sibbald and Andrew Balfour. It is the second oldest botanic garden in the UK after Oxford's. The plant collection used as the basis of the garden was the private collection of Sir Patrick Murray, 2nd Lord Elibank, moved from his home at Livingston Peel in 1672 following his death in September 1671. The original site was "obtained of John Brown, gardener of the North Yardes in the Holyrood Abby, an inclosure of some 40 foot of measure every way. By what we procured from Levingstone and other gardens, we made a collection of eight or nine hundred plants yr." This site proved too small, and in 1676 grounds belonging to Trinity Hospital were leased by Balfour from the City Council: this second garden was sited just to the east of the Nor Loch, down from the High Street.
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The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is an order of chivalry associated with Scotland. The current version of the order was founded in 1687 by King James VII of Scotland, who asserted that he was reviving an earlier order. The order consists of the sovereign and sixteen knights and ladies, as well as certain "extra" knights (members of the British royal family and foreign monarchs). The sovereign alone grants membership of the order; they are not advised by the government, as occurs with most other orders.
The order's primary emblem is the thistle, the national flower of Scotland. The motto is Nemo me impune lacessit (Latin for "No one provokes me with impunity"). The same motto appears on the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom for use in Scotland and pound coins minted in 1984, 1989, 1994, and 1999 (since withdrawn), and is also the motto of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, the Scots Guards, the Royal Regiment of Scotland, and the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada. The patron saint of the order is St Andrew.
Most British orders of chivalry cover the whole United Kingdom, but the three most exalted ones each pertain to one constituent country only. The Order of the Thistle, which pertains to Scotland, is the second most senior in precedence. Its equivalent in England, the Most Noble Order of the Garter, is the oldest documented order of chivalry in the United Kingdom, dating to the middle fourteenth century. In 1783 an Irish equivalent, the Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick, was founded, but it is now dormant.
The claim that James VII was reviving an earlier order is generally not supported by the evidence. The 1687 warrant states that during a battle in 786 with Angles under Æthelstan of East Anglia, the cross of St Andrew appeared in the sky to Achaius, King of Scots; after his victory, he established the Order of the Thistle and dedicated it to the saint. This seems unlikely on the face of it, since Achaius died a century before Æthelstan (though it is now thought that the opponents in this battle were not the East Anglian king Æthelstan (born around 894) but an earlier Northumbrian of the same name, and not the legendary Scottish King Achaius but the historical Pictish King Óengus II).
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The Scottish Parliament (Scottish Gaelic: Pàrlamaid na h-Alba [ˈpʰaːrˠl̪ˠəmɪtʲ nə ˈhal̪ˠapə]; Scots: Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym ''Holyrood''. It is a democratically elected body and its role is to scrutinise the Scottish Government and legislate on devolved matters that are not reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The Scottish Parliament comprises 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs), elected for five-year terms under the regionalised form of Additional-member system (MMP): 73 MSPs represent individual geographical constituencies elected by the plurality (first-past-the-post) system, while a further 56 are returned as list members from eight additional member regions. Each region elects seven party-list MSPs. Each region elects 15 to 17 MSPs in total. The most recent general election to the Parliament was held on 6 May 2021, with the Scottish National Party winning a plurality.
The original Parliament of Scotland was the national legislature of the independent Kingdom of Scotland and existed from the early 13th century until the Kingdom of Scotland merged with the Kingdom of England under the Acts of Union 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. As a consequence, the Parliament of Scotland ceased to exist, while the Parliament of England, which sat at Westminster, was subsumed into the Parliament of Great Britain. In practice, all of the traditions, procedures, and standing orders of the English parliament were retained, with the addition of Scottish members in both the Commons and Lords.
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HMS Royal Oak was one of five Revenge-class battleships built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. Completed in 1916, the ship first saw combat at the Battle of Jutland as part of the Grand Fleet. In peacetime, she served in the Atlantic, Home and Mediterranean fleets, more than once coming under accidental attack. Royal Oak drew worldwide attention in 1928 when her senior officers were controversially court-martialled, an event that brought considerable embarrassment to what was then the world's largest navy. Attempts to modernise Royal Oak throughout her 25-year career could not fix her fundamental lack of speed and, by the start of the Second World War, she was no longer suitable for front-line duty.
On 14 October 1939, Royal Oak was anchored at Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland, when she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-47. Of Royal Oak's complement of 1,234 men and boys, 835 were killed that night or died later of their wounds. The loss of the outdated ship—the first of five Royal Navy battleships and battlecruisers sunk in the Second World War—did little to affect the numerical superiority enjoyed by the British navy and its Allies, but it had a considerable effect on wartime morale. The raid made an immediate celebrity and war hero of the U-boat commander, Günther Prien, who became the first German submarine officer to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Before the sinking of Royal Oak, the Royal Navy had considered the naval base at Scapa Flow impregnable to submarine attack, but U-47's raid demonstrated that the German navy was capable of bringing the war to British home waters. The shock resulted in rapid changes to dockland security and the construction of the Churchill Barriers around Scapa Flow, with the added advantage of being topped by roads running between the islands.
The wreck of Royal Oak, a designated war grave, lies almost upside down in 100 feet (30 m) of water with her hull 16 feet (4.9 m) beneath the surface. In an annual ceremony marking the loss of the ship, Royal Navy divers place a White Ensign underwater at her stern. Unauthorised divers are prohibited from approaching the wreck under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
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Staffa (Scottish Gaelic: Stafa, pronounced [ˈs̪t̪afa], from the Old Norse for stave or pillar island) is an island of the Inner Hebrides in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The Vikings gave it this name as its columnar basalt reminded them of their houses, which were built from vertically placed tree-logs.
Staffa lies about 10 kilometres (6 miles) west of the Isle of Mull; its area is 33 hectares (82 acres) and the highest point is 42 metres (138 feet) above sea level.
The island came to prominence in the late 18th century after a visit by Sir Joseph Banks. He and his fellow-travellers extolled the natural beauty of the basalt columns in general and of the island's main sea cavern, which Banks renamed 'Fingal's Cave'. Their visit was followed by those of many other prominent personalities throughout the next two centuries, including Queen Victoria and Felix Mendelssohn. The latter's Hebrides Overture brought further fame to the island, which was by then uninhabited. It is now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland.
In prehistoric times (Pleistocene) Staffa was covered by the ice sheets which spread from Scotland out into the Atlantic Ocean beyond the Outer Hebrides. After the last retreat of the ice around 20,000 years ago, sea levels were up to 125 metres (410 ft) lower than at present. Although the isostatic rise of land makes estimating post-glacial coastlines a complex task, around 14,000 years ago it is likely that Staffa was part of a larger island, just off the coast of mainland Scotland, which would have included what are now Mull, Iona and the Treshnish Isles.
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St Kilda (Scottish Gaelic: Hiort) is a remote archipelago situated 35 nautical miles (65 kilometres) west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. It contains the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The largest island is Hirta, whose sea cliffs are the highest in the United Kingdom; three other islands (Dùn, Soay and Boreray) were also used for grazing and seabird hunting. The islands are administratively a part of the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar local authority area.
The origin of the name St Kilda is a matter of conjecture. The islands' human heritage includes unique architectural features from the historic and prehistoric periods, although the earliest written records of island life date from the Late Middle Ages. The medieval village on Hirta was rebuilt in the 19th century, but illnesses brought by increased external contacts through tourism, and the upheaval of the First World War, contributed to the island's evacuation in 1930. Permanent habitation on the islands possibly extends back two millennia, the population probably never exceeding 180; its peak was in the late 17th century. The population waxed and waned, eventually dropping to 36 in 1930, when the remaining population was evacuated. Currently, the only year-round residents are military personnel; a variety of conservation workers, volunteers and scientists spend time there in the summer months. The entire archipelago is owned by the National Trust for Scotland.
A cleit is a stone storage hut or bothy unique to St Kilda; there are known to be 1,260 cleitean on Hirta and a further 170 on the other group islands. Two different early sheep types have survived on these remote islands: the Soay, a Neolithic type, and the Boreray, an Iron Age type. The islands are a breeding ground for many important seabird species including northern gannets, Atlantic puffins, and northern fulmars. The St Kilda wren and St Kilda field mouse are endemic subspecies.
It became one of Scotland's six World Heritage Sites in 1986, and is one of the few in the world to hold joint status for both its natural and cultural qualities.
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The fauna of Scotland is generally typical of the northwest European part of the Palearctic realm, although several of the country's larger mammals were hunted to extinction in historic times and human activity has also led to various species of wildlife being introduced. Scotland's diverse temperate environments support 62 species of wild mammals, including a population of wild cats, important numbers of grey and harbour seals and the most northerly colony of bottlenose dolphins in the world.
Many populations of moorland birds, including the black and red grouse, live here, and the country has internationally significant nesting grounds for seabirds such as the northern gannet. The golden eagle has become a national icon, and white-tailed eagles and ospreys have recently re-colonised the land. The Scottish crossbill is the only endemic vertebrate species in the UK.
Scotland's seas are among the most biologically productive in the world; it is estimated that the total number of Scottish marine species exceeds 40,000. The Darwin Mounds are an important area of deep sea cold water coral reefs discovered in 1998. Inland, nearly 400 genetically distinct populations of Atlantic salmon live in Scottish rivers. Of the 42 species of fish found in the country's fresh waters, half have arrived by natural colonisation and half by human introduction.
Only six amphibians and four land reptiles are native to Scotland, but many species of invertebrates live there that are otherwise rare in the United Kingdom (UK). An estimated 14,000 species of insect, including rare bees and butterflies protected by conservation action plans, inhabit Scotland. Conservation agencies in the UK are concerned that climate change, especially its potential effects on mountain plateaus and marine life, threaten much of the fauna of Scotland.
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The Picts were a group of peoples in what is now Scotland north of the Firth of Forth, in the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and details of their culture can be gleaned from early medieval texts and Pictish stones. The name Picti appears in written records as an exonym from the late third century AD. They are assumed to have been descendants of the Caledonii and other northern Iron Age tribes. Their territory is referred to as "Pictland" by modern historians. Initially made up of several chiefdoms, it came to be dominated by the Pictish kingdom of Fortriu from the seventh century. During this Verturian hegemony, Picti was adopted as an endonym. This lasted around 160 years until the Pictish kingdom merged with that of Dál Riata to form the Kingdom of Alba, ruled by the House of Alpin. The concept of "Pictish kingship" continued for a few decades until it was abandoned during the reign of Caustantín mac Áeda.
Pictish society was typical of many early medieval societies in northern Europe and had parallels with neighbouring groups. Archaeology gives some impression of their culture. Medieval sources report the existence of a Pictish language, and evidence shows that it was an Insular Celtic language related to the Brittonic spoken by the Celtic Britons to the south. Pictish was gradually displaced by Middle Gaelic as part of the wider Gaelicisation from the late ninth century. Much of their history is known from outside sources, including Bede, hagiographies of saints such as that of Columba by Adomnán, and the Irish annals.There has been substantial critical reappraisal of the concept of "Pictishness" over recent decades. The popular view at the beginning of the twentieth century was that they were exotic "lost people". It was noted in the highly influential work of 1955, The Problem of the Picts, that the subject area was difficult, with the archaeological and historical records frequently being at odds with the conventional essentialist expectations about historical peoples. Since then, the culture-historical paradigm of archaeology dominant since the late nineteenth century gave way to the processual archaeology (formerly known as the New Archaeology) theory. Moreover, there has been significant reappraisal of textual sources written, for example by Bede and Adomnán in the seventh and eighth centuries. These works relate events of previous centuries, but current scholarship recognises their often allegorical, pseudo-historical nature, and their true value often lies in an appraisal of the time period in which they were written.
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Dunnottar Castle (Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Fhoithear, "fort on the shelving slope") is a ruined medieval fortress located upon a rocky headland on the northeast coast of Scotland, about 2 miles (3 kilometres) south of Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire.
The surviving buildings are largely of the 15th and 16th centuries, but the site is believed to have been fortified in the Early Middle Ages. Dunnottar has played a prominent role in the history of Scotland through to the 18th-century Jacobite risings because of its strategic location and defensive strength.
Dunnottar is best known as the place where the Honours of Scotland, the Scottish crown jewels, were hidden from Oliver Cromwell's invading army in the 17th century. The property of the Keiths from the 14th century, and the seat of the Earl Marischal, Dunnottar declined after the last Earl forfeited his titles by taking part in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. The castle was restored in the 20th century and is now open to the public.
The ruins of the castle are spread over 1.4 hectares (3+1⁄2 acres), surrounded by steep cliffs that drop to the North Sea, 160 feet (50 metres) below. A narrow strip of land joins the headland to the mainland, along which a steep path leads up to the gatehouse. The various buildings within the castle include the 14th-century tower house as well as the 16th-century palace. Dunnottar Castle is a scheduled monument, and twelve structures on the site were listed buildings.
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Dál Riata or Dál Riada (also Dalriada) (/dælˈriːədə/) was a Gaelic kingdom that encompassed the western seaboard of Scotland and north-eastern Ireland, on each side of the North Channel. At its height in the 6th and 7th centuries, it covered what is now Argyll ("Coast of the Gaels") in Scotland and part of County Antrim in Northern Ireland. After a period of expansion, Dál Riata eventually became associated with the Gaelic Kingdom of Alba.
In Argyll, it consisted of four main kindreds or tribes, each with their own chief: the Cenél nGabráin (based in Kintyre), the Cenél nÓengusa (based on Islay), the Cenél Loairn (who gave their name to the district of Lorn) and the Cenél Comgaill (who gave their name to Cowal). The hillfort of Dunadd is believed to have been its capital. Other royal forts included Dunollie, Dunaverty and Dunseverick. Within Dál Riata was the important monastery of Iona, which played a key role in the spread of Celtic Christianity throughout northern Britain, and in the development of insular art. Iona was a centre of learning and produced many important manuscripts. Dál Riata had a strong seafaring culture and a large naval fleet.
Dál Riata is said to have been founded by the legendary king Fergus Mór (Fergus the Great) in the 5th century. The kingdom reached its height under Áedán mac Gabráin (r. 574–608). During his reign Dál Riata's power and influence grew; it carried out naval expeditions to Orkney and the Isle of Man, and assaults on the Brittonic kingdom of Strathclyde and Anglian kingdom of Bernicia. However, King Æthelfrith of Bernicia checked its growth at the Battle of Degsastan in 603. Serious defeats in Ireland and Scotland during the reign of Domnall Brecc (died 642) ended Dál Riata's "golden age", and the kingdom became a client of Northumbria for a time. In the 730s the Pictish king Óengus I led campaigns against Dál Riata and brought it under Pictish overlordship by 741. There is disagreement over the fate of the kingdom from the late 8th century onwards. Some scholars have seen no revival of Dál Riatan power after the long period of foreign domination (c. 637 to c. 750–760), while others have seen a revival under Áed Find (736–778). Some even claim that the Dál Riata usurped the kingship of Fortriu. From 795 onward there were sporadic Viking raids in Dál Riata. In the following century, there may have been a merger of the Dál Riatan and Pictish crowns. Some sources say Cináed mac Ailpín (Kenneth MacAlpin) was king of Dál Riata before becoming king of the Picts in 843, following a disastrous defeat of the Picts by Vikings. The kingdom's independence ended sometime after, as it merged with Pictland to form the Kingdom of Alba..
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The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, 9 miles (14 kilometres) west of central Edinburgh. Completed in 1890, it is considered a symbol of Scotland (having been voted Scotland's greatest man-made wonder in 2016), and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was designed by English engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker. It is sometimes referred to as the Forth Rail Bridge (to distinguish it from the adjacent Forth Road Bridge), although this is not its official name.
Construction of the bridge began in 1882 and it was opened on 4 March 1890 by the Duke of Rothesay, the future Edward VII. The bridge carries the Edinburgh–Aberdeen line across the Forth between the villages of South Queensferry and North Queensferry and has a total length of 2,467 metres (8,094 ft). When it opened it had the longest single cantilever bridge span in the world, until 1919 when the single 1,801 ft (549 m) span Quebec Bridge in Canada was completed. It continues to be the world's second-longest single cantilever span, with two spans of 1,709 feet (521 m).
The bridge and its associated railway infrastructure are owned by Network Rail.Before the construction of the bridge, ferries were used to cross the Firth. In 1806, a pair of tunnels, one for each direction, was proposed, and in 1818 James Anderson produced a design for a three-span suspension bridge close to the site of the present one. Calling for approximately 2,500 tonnes (2,500 long tons; 2,800 short tons) of iron, Wilhelm Westhofen said of it "and this quantity [of iron] distributed over the length would have given it a very light and slender appearance, so light indeed that on a dull day it would hardly have been visible, and after a heavy gale probably no longer to be seen on a clear day either".
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Glasgow is the most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in west central Scotland. It is the third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom and the 27th-most-populous city in Europe, and comprises 23 wards which represent the areas of the city within Glasgow City Council. Glasgow is a leading city in Scotland for finance, shopping, industry, culture and fashion, and was commonly referred to as the "second city of the British Empire" for much of the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
In 2020, it had an estimated population as a defined locality of 632,350. More than 1,000,000 people live in the Greater Glasgow contiguous urban area, while the wider Glasgow City Region is home to more than 1,800,000 people (its defined functional urban area total was almost the same in 2020), around a third of Scotland's population. The city has a population density of 3,562 people per km2, much higher than the average of 70/km2 for Scotland as a whole. Glasgow grew from a small rural settlement close to Glasgow Cathedral and descending to the River Clyde to become the largest seaport in Scotland, and the tenth-largest by tonnage in Britain. Expanding from the medieval bishopric and episcopal burgh (subsequently royal burgh), and the later establishment of the University of Glasgow in the 15th century, it became a major centre of the Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century.
Glasgow became a county in 1893, the city having previously been in the historic county of Lanarkshire, and later growing to also include settlements that were once part of Renfrewshire and Dunbartonshire. It now forms the Glasgow City Council area, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and is administered by Glasgow City Council. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Glasgow's population grew rapidly, reaching a peak of 1,127,825 people in 1938 (with a higher density and within a smaller territory than in subsequent decades). The population was greatly reduced following comprehensive urban renewal projects in the 1960s which resulted in large-scale relocation of people to designated new towns, such as Cumbernauld, Livingston, East Kilbride and peripheral suburbs, followed by successive boundary changes.Selected articles 19
Ben Nevis (/ˈnɛvɪs/ NEV-iss; Scottish Gaelic: Beinn Nibheis, Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [pe(ɲ) ˈɲivɪʃ]) is the highest mountain in Scotland, the United Kingdom, and the British Isles. Ben Nevis stands at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Highland region of Lochaber, close to the town of Fort William.
The mountain is a popular destination, attracting an estimated 150,000 visitors a year, around three-quarters of whom use the Mountain Track from Glen Nevis. The mountain has hosted a foot race since 1898. The 2,300-foot (700 m) cliffs of the north face are among the highest in Scotland, providing classic scrambles and rock climbs of all difficulties for climbers and mountaineers. They are also the principal locations in Scotland for ice climbing. The cliffs of the north face can be viewed from the Charles Inglis Clark Memorial Hut, a private alpine hut.
The summit is 4,413 feet (1,345 m) above sea level and is the highest land in any direction for 459 miles (739 kilometres). The summit is a stony plateau (a felsenmeer). It features a number of monuments and the ruins of an observatory which was continuously staffed between 1883 and 1904. The meteorological data collected during this period is still important for understanding Scottish mountain weather. C. T. R. Wilson was inspired to invent the cloud chamber after a period spent working at the observatory.
Ben Nevis is the namesake for a distillery at its base, a packet ship, a mountain in Svalbard, a mountain in Hong Kong, and a cartoon character.The name comes from the Gaelic Beinn Nibheis, meaning "mountain of the Nevis" (referring to the river that skirts the base of the mountain). The river's name is of unclear origin. William J. Watson derived it from Old Gaelic *Nemess, "venomous one", from ne(i)m, "venom". W. F. H. Nicolaisen, however, favoured a derivation from the Indo-European root *nebh-, which is connected with water and clouds, giving a meaning of "the moist one" or "the misty one".
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Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called rocks, across the ice curling sheet toward the house, a circular target marked on the ice. Each team has eight stones, with each player throwing two. The goal is to accumulate the highest score for a game; points are scored for the stones resting closest to the centre of the house at the conclusion of each end, which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones once. A game usually consists of eight or ten ends.
Players induce a curved path, described as curl, by causing the stone to slowly rotate as it slides. The path of the rock may be further influenced by two sweepers with brooms or brushes, who accompany it as it slides down the sheet and sweep the ice in front of the stone. "Sweeping a rock" decreases the friction, which makes the stone travel a straighter path (with less curl) and a longer distance. A great deal of strategy and teamwork go into choosing the ideal path and placement of a stone for each situation, and the skills of the curlers determine the degree to which the stone will achieve the desired result.
Evidence that curling existed in Scotland in the early 16th century includes a curling stone inscribed with the date 1511 found (along with another bearing the date 1551) when an old pond was drained at Dunblane, Scotland. The world's oldest curling stone and the world's oldest football are now kept in the same museum (the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum) in Stirling. The first written reference to a contest using stones on ice coming from the records of Paisley Abbey, Renfrewshire, in February 1541. Two paintings, "Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap" and "The Hunters in the Snow" (both dated 1565) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, depict Flemish peasants curling, albeit without brooms; Scotland and the Low Countries had strong trading and cultural links during this period, which is also evident in the history of golf.
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Single malt Scotch refers to single malt whisky made in Scotland. To qualify for this category, a whisky must have been distilled at a single distillery using a pot still distillation process and made from a mash of malted barley. Therefore, a single malt means that the whisky has not been blended elsewhere with whisky from other distilleries. As with any Scotch whisky, a single malt Scotch must be distilled in Scotland and matured in oak casks in Scotland for at least three years, although most single malts are matured longer.
- "Malt" indicates that the whisky is distilled from "malted" barley. Malting calls for soaking the grains in water for several days until it germinates. Heat is then applied to stop the germination, often using peat as the fuel. Other grains, such as rye or wheat, can be malted for other types of whisky, but barley must be used for single malt Scotch. The dry malt is ground into flour (grist) and mixed with hot water; this mashing process converts the starch into sugar. Later, yeast is added to increase the process of fermentation. Finally, impurities such as methanol are removed during distillation; this also increases the alcohol content.
- "Single" indicates that all the spirits in the bottle come from a single distillery. That distillery may combine single malt whiskies of several ages in a bottle.
Another term is sometimes seen, "double malt Scotch" or "triple malt". This designation indicates that the whisky was aged in two or three types of casks, but was not blended; hence, it still falls into the single malt category. The more common term for this type of whisky is "double wood" or "triple wood". Examples include The Balvenie 12 Years Old DoubleWood and Laphroaig Triple Wood.
Many companies use malt whisky purchased from multiple distilleries, and these whiskies combined into "blended malt".
Until the Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 (SWR 2009), the word "blended" only appeared (in the context of Scotch whisky) on bottles of whisky that contained a mixture of both barley and non-barley grain whisky, but this is no longer the case. Under the terminology established by the SWR 2009, the term "blended malt Scotch whisky" replaced the term "vatted malt" to describe a mixture of single malt Scotch whiskies (malted barley whisky).
Only about 10% of the Scotch whiskies on the market are defined as single malt. The other 90% is made by combining numerous whiskies, typically two-thirds grain whisky (non-barley) and one-third malt whisky, from several, or numerous, distilleries in Scotland. The resulting products are labeled "blended Scotch whisky", without the word "malt". Nearly 90% of Scotch whisky sold each year is a blended type. Nonetheless, in 2018, single malt Scotch made up nearly 28% by value of the £4.7 billion of whisky exported from Scotland.
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Cutty Sark is a British clipper ship. Built on the River Leven, Dumbarton, Scotland in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, at the end of a long period of design development for this type of vessel, which ended as steamships took over their routes. She was named after the short shirt of the fictional witch in Robert Burns' poem Tam o' Shanter, first published in 1791.
After the big improvement in the fuel efficiency of steamships in 1866, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave them a shorter route to China, so Cutty Sark spent only a few years on the tea trade before turning to the trade in wool from Australia, where she held the record time to Britain for ten years. Continuing improvements in steam technology early in the 1880s meant that steamships also came to dominate the longer sailing route to Australia, and the ship was sold to the Portuguese company Ferreira and Co. in 1895 and renamed Ferreira. She continued as a cargo ship until purchased in 1922 by retired sea captain Wilfred Dowman, who used her as a training ship operating from Falmouth, Cornwall. After his death, Cutty Sark was transferred to the Thames Nautical Training College, Greenhithe, in 1938 where she became an auxiliary cadet training ship alongside HMS Worcester. By 1954, she had ceased to be useful as a cadet ship and was transferred to permanent dry dock at Greenwich, London, for public display.
Cutty Sark is listed by National Historic Ships as part of the National Historic Fleet (the nautical equivalent of a Grade 1 Listed Building). She is one of only three remaining intact composite construction (wooden hull on an iron frame) ships from the nineteenth century, the others being the clipper City of Adelaide, now in Port Adelaide, South Australia, and the warship HMS Gannet in Chatham. The beached skeleton of Ambassador, of 1869 lying near Punta Arenas, Chile is the only other significant remnant of this construction method.Selected articles 23
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The Palace of Holyroodhouse (/ˈhɒlɪruːd/ or /ˈhoʊlɪruːd/), commonly known as Holyrood Palace, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood has served as the principal royal residence in Scotland since the 16th century, and is a setting for state occasions and official entertaining.
The palace adjoins Holyrood Abbey, and the gardens are set within Holyrood Park. The King's Gallery was converted from existing buildings at the western entrance to the palace and was opened in 2002 to exhibit works of art from the Royal Collection.
King Charles III spends one week in residence at Holyrood at the beginning of summer, where he carries out a range of official engagements and ceremonies. The 16th-century historic apartments of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the State Apartments, used for official and state entertaining, are open to the public throughout the year, except when members of the royal family are in residence. The palace also serves as the official residence of the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland during the annual meeting of the General Assembly.The ruined Augustinian Holyrood Abbey that stands next to the palace was founded in 1128 on the orders of King David I. The name derives either from a legendary vision of the cross witnessed by David I, or from a relic of the True Cross known as the Holy Rood or Black Rood, which had belonged to Saint Margaret, David's mother. As a royal foundation, and sited close to Edinburgh Castle, it became an important administrative centre. A Papal legate was received here in 1177, while in 1189 a council of nobles met to discuss a ransom for the captive William the Lion. The Parliament of Scotland met at the abbey seven times between 1256 and 1410, and in 1328 the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton was signed by Robert the Bruce in the 'King's Chamber' at the abbey, indicating that it may already have been in use as a royal residence. In 1371, David II became the first of several kings to be buried at Holyrood Abbey, and James II was born, crowned, married, and buried there. James III and Margaret of Denmark were married at Holyrood in 1469. The early royal residence was in the abbey guesthouse, and by the later 15th century the king occupied dedicated royal lodgings.
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Aberdeen (/ˌæbərˈdiːn/ ⓘ AB-ər-DEEN; locally [ˌeːbərˈdin] ⓘ or [ˈeːbərdin] ⓘ; Scottish Gaelic: Obar Dheathain [ˈopəɾ ˈʝɛ.ɪɲ]) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeenshire, but is now separate from the council area of Aberdeenshire. Aberdeen City Council is one of Scotland's 32 local authorities (commonly referred to as councils). Aberdeen has a population of 198,590 (2020) for the main urban area and 220,690 (2020) for the wider settlement including outlying localities, making it the United Kingdom's 39th most populous built-up area. Aberdeen has a long, sandy coastline and features an oceanic climate, with cool summers and mild, rainy winters.
Aberdeen received royal burgh status from David I of Scotland (1124–1153), which transformed the city economically. The traditional industries of fishing, paper-making, shipbuilding, and textiles have been overtaken by the oil industry and Aberdeen's seaport. Aberdeen Heliport is one of the busiest commercial heliports in the world, and the seaport is the largest in the north-east part of Scotland. A university town, the city is known for the University of Aberdeen, founded in 1495 as the fifth oldest university in the English-speaking world and located in Old Aberdeen.
During the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries, Aberdeen's buildings incorporated locally quarried grey granite, which may sparkle like silver because of its high mica content. Since the discovery of North Sea oil in 1969, Aberdeen has been known as the offshore oil capital of Europe. Based upon the discovery of prehistoric villages around the mouths of the rivers Dee and Don, the area around Aberdeen is thought to have been settled for at least 6,000 years.Selected articles 25
The Glasgow Subway is an underground light metro system in Glasgow, Scotland. Opened on 14 December 1896, it is the third-oldest underground metro system in the world after the Metropolitan Railway in London, 1863, and the Budapest Metro, 1896. It is also one of the very few railways in the world with a track running gauge of 4 ft (1,219 mm). Originally a cable railway, the subway was later electrified, but the double-track circular line has never been expanded. The line was originally known as the Glasgow District Subway, and was thus the first mass transit system to be known as a "subway"; it was later renamed Glasgow Subway Railway. In 1936 it was renamed the Glasgow Underground. Despite this rebranding, many Glaswegians continued to refer to the network as "the Subway". In 2003, the name "Subway" was officially readopted by its operator, the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT).
The system is not the oldest underground railway in Glasgow: that distinction belongs to a three-mile (five-kilometre) section of the Glasgow City and District Railway opened in 1886, now part of the North Clyde Line of the suburban railway network, which runs in a tunnel under the city centre between High Street and west of Charing Cross. Another major section of underground suburban railway line in Glasgow is the Argyle Line, which was formerly part of the Glasgow Central Railway.
The subway system was constructed as a circular loop almost 6+1⁄2 miles (10.5 kilometres) long and extends both north and south of the River Clyde. The tracks have the unusual narrow gauge of 4 ft (1,219 mm) and a nominal tunnel diameter of 11 ft (3.4 m), even smaller than that of the deep-level lines of the London Underground (11 ft 8+1⁄4 in or 3.56 m at their smallest); consequently, the rolling stock for the Glasgow Subway is considerably smaller.
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Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age. There has been a royal castle on the rock since the reign of Malcolm III in the 11th century, and the castle continued to be a royal residence until 1633. From the 15th century, the castle's residential role declined, and by the 17th century it was principally used as a military garrison. Its importance as a part of Scotland's national heritage was recognised increasingly from the early 19th century onwards, and various restoration programmes have been carried out over the past century and a half.
Edinburgh Castle has played a prominent role in Scottish history, and has served variously as a royal residence, an arsenal, a treasury, a national archive, a mint, a prison, a military fortress, and the home of the Honours of Scotland – the Scottish regalia. As one of the most important strongholds in the Kingdom of Scotland, the castle was involved in many historical conflicts from the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 14th century to the Jacobite rising of 1745. Research undertaken in 2014 identified 26 sieges in its 1,100-year history, giving it a claim to having been "the most besieged place in Great Britain and one of the most attacked in the world". Few of the present buildings pre-date the Lang Siege of 1573, when the medieval defences were largely destroyed by artillery bombardment. The most notable exceptions are St Margaret's Chapel from the early 12th century, which is regarded as the oldest building in Edinburgh, the Royal Palace, and the early 16th-century Great Hall. The castle is the site of the Scottish National War Memorial and the National War Museum. The British Army is still responsible for some parts of the castle, although its presence is now largely ceremonial and administrative. The castle is the regimental headquarters of the Royal Regiment of Scotland and the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and houses their regimental museums, along with that of the Royal Scots.Selected articles 27
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The Queensferry Crossing (formerly the Forth Replacement Crossing) is a road bridge in Scotland. It was built alongside the existing Forth Road Bridge and the Forth Bridge. It carries the M90 motorway across the Firth of Forth between Edinburgh, at South Queensferry, and Fife, at North Queensferry.
Proposals for a second Forth Road crossing, to meet unexpected demand, were first put forward in the 1990s, but no action was taken until structural issues were discovered in the Forth Road Bridge in 2004. In 2006–07 Transport Scotland carried out a study, and in December 2007 decided to proceed with a replacement bridge. The following year it was announced that the existing bridge would be retained as a public transport link. The Forth Crossing Act received royal assent in January 2011. In April 2011, the Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors consortium was awarded the contract, and construction began in late summer/autumn of 2011.
The Queensferry Crossing is a three-tower cable-stayed bridge, with an overall length of 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometres). Around 2.5 miles (4 kilometres) of new connecting roads were built, including new and upgraded junctions at Ferrytoll in Fife, South Queensferry and Junction 1A on the M9.
The bridge was first due to be completed by December 2016, but this deadline was extended to August 2017 after several delays. It is the third bridge across the Forth at Queensferry, alongside the Forth Road Bridge completed in 1964, and the Forth Rail Bridge completed in 1890. Following a public vote, it was formally named on 26 June 2013 and opened to traffic on 30 August 2017. The bridge was formally opened on 4 September 2017 by Queen Elizabeth II, fifty-three years to the day after she opened the adjacent Forth Road Bridge.Selected articles 28
Rosslyn Chapel, also known as the Collegiate Chapel of Saint Matthew, is a 15th-century Episcopal chapel located in the village of Roslin in Midlothian, Scotland. The chapel was founded by William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness with a ground-breaking ceremony in 1456. After the Scottish Reformation in 1560, it was largely abandoned but, following a visit by Queen Victoria, it was rededicated in 1862. It was the target of a bombing in 1914 during the suffragette bombing and arson campaign. The interior contains some fine carvings which many historians have sought to interpret.
Since the late 1980s, the chapel has been the subject of speculative theories concerning a connection with the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail, and Freemasonry. It was prominently featured in this role in Dan Brown's bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code (2003) and its 2006 film adaptation. Medieval historians say these accounts have no basis in fact. Rosslyn Chapel remains privately owned.The chapel is dedicated to Saint Matthew the Evangelist and was founded on a small hill above Roslin Glen as a collegiate church (with between four and six ordained canons and two boy choristers) in the mid-15th century. The chapel was founded by William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness of the Scoto-Norman Sinclair family. Rosslyn Chapel is the third Sinclair place of worship at Roslin, the first being in Roslin Castle and the second (whose crumbling buttresses can still be seen today) in what is now Roslin Cemetery.
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The recorded history of Scotland begins with the arrival of the Roman Empire in the 1st century, when the province of Britannia reached as far north as the Antonine Wall. North of this was Caledonia, inhabited by the Picti, whose uprisings forced Rome's legions back to Hadrian's Wall. As Rome finally withdrew from Britain, a Gaelic tribe from Ireland called the Scoti began colonising Western Scotland and Wales. Before Roman times, prehistoric Scotland entered the Neolithic Era about 4000 BC, the Bronze Age about 2000 BC, and the Iron Age around 700 BC.
The Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata was founded on the west coast of Scotland in the 6th century. In the following century, Irish missionaries introduced the previously pagan Picts to Celtic Christianity. Following England's Gregorian mission, the Pictish king Nechtan chose to abolish most Celtic practices in favour of the Roman rite, restricting Gaelic influence on his kingdom and avoiding war with Anglian Northumbria. Towards the end of the 8th century, the Viking invasions began, forcing the Picts and Gaels to cease their historic hostility to each other and to unite in the 9th century, forming the Kingdom of Scotland.
The Kingdom of Scotland was united under the House of Alpin, whose members fought among each other during frequent disputed successions. The last Alpin king, Malcolm II, died without a male issue in the early 11th century and the kingdom passed through his daughter's son to the House of Dunkeld or Canmore. The last Dunkeld king, Alexander III, died in 1286. He left only his infant granddaughter, Margaret, as heir, who died herself four years later. England, under Edward I, would take advantage of this questioned succession to launch a series of conquests, resulting in the Wars of Scottish Independence, as Scotland passed back and forth between the House of Balliol and the House of Bruce through the late Middle Ages. Scotland's ultimate victory confirmed Scotland as a fully independent and sovereign kingdom.Selected articles 30
Hadrian's Wall (Latin: Vallum Hadriani, also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or Vallum Aelium in Latin) is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Running from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west of what is now northern England, it was a stone wall with large ditches in front and behind, stretching across the whole width of the island. Soldiers were garrisoned along the line of the wall in large forts, smaller milecastles, and intervening turrets. In addition to the wall's defensive military role, its gates may have been customs posts.
Hadrian's Wall Path generally runs close along the wall. Almost all the standing masonry of the wall was removed in early modern times and used for local roads and farmhouses. None of it stands to its original height, but modern work has exposed much of the footings, and some segments display a few courses of modern masonry reconstruction. Many of the excavated forts on or near the wall are open to the public, and various nearby museums present its history. The largest Roman archaeological feature in Britain, it runs a total of 73 miles (117.5 kilometres). Regarded as a British cultural icon, Hadrian's Wall is one of Britain's major ancient tourist attractions. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. The turf-built Antonine Wall of AD 142 in what is now central Scotland, which briefly superseded Hadrian's Wall before being abandoned, was declared a World Heritage Site in 2008.
Hadrian's Wall lies entirely within England and has never formed the Anglo-Scottish border, though it is sometimes loosely or colloquially described as such.The length of the wall was 80 Roman miles, equivalent to 73 modern miles; or 117 kilometres (1 Roman mile is equivalent to 1,620 yards; or 1,480 metres). This traversed the entire width of the island, from Bowness-on-Solway in the west to Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east. Not long after construction began, the wall's width was reduced from the originally planned 10 feet (3.0 m) to about 8 feet (2.4 m), or even less depending on the terrain. Some sections were originally constructed of turf and timber, eventually replaced by stone years or decades later. Bede, a monk and historian who died in 735, wrote that the wall stood 12 feet (3.7 metres) high, with evidence suggesting it could have been a few feet higher at its formation. Along the length of the wall there was a watch-tower turret every third of a mile, also providing shelter and living accommodation for Roman troops.
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The flora of Scotland is an assemblage of native plant species including over 1,600 vascular plants, more than 1,500 lichens and nearly 1,000 bryophytes. The total number of vascular species is low by world standards but lichens and bryophytes are abundant and the latter form a population of global importance. Various populations of rare fern exist, although the impact of 19th-century collectors threatened the existence of several species. The flora is generally typical of the north-west European part of the Palearctic realm and prominent features of the Scottish flora include boreal Caledonian forest (much reduced from its natural extent), heather moorland and coastal machair. In addition to the native species of vascular plants there are numerous non-native introductions, now believed to make up some 43% of the species in the country.
There are a variety of important tree species and specimens; in particular, the Fortingall Yew may be the oldest tree in Europe. The Arran Whitebeams, Shetland Mouse-ear and Scottish Primrose are endemic flowering plants and there are a variety of endemic mosses and lichens. Conservation of the natural environment is well developed and various organisations play an important role in the stewardship of the country's flora. Numerous references to the country's flora appear in folklore, song and poetry.Scotland enjoys a diversity of temperate ecologies, incorporating both deciduous and coniferous woodlands, and moorland, montane, estuarine, freshwater, oceanic, and tundra landscapes. Approximately 18.5% of Scotland is wooded, 14.5% of which is non-native forestry plantation, but prior to human clearing there would have been much larger areas of boreal Caledonian and broad-leaved forest. Although reduced significantly (some estimates are as high as 98%), significant remnants of the native Scots Pine woodlands can be found in places. 17% of Scotland is covered by heather moorland and peatland. Caithness and Sutherland have some of the largest and most intact areas of blanket bog in the world, supporting a distinctive wildlife community. 75% of Scotland's land is classed as agricultural (including some moorland) with urban areas accounting for around 3% of the total. The number of islands with terrestrial vegetation is nearly 800, about 600 of them lying off the west coast. Scotland has more than 90% of the volume and 70% of the total surface area of fresh water in the United Kingdom. There are more than 30,000 freshwater lochs and 6,600 river systems.
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Raasay (/ˈrɑːseɪ/; Scottish Gaelic: Ratharsair), sometimes the Isle of Raasay, is an island between the Isle of Skye and the mainland of Scotland. It is separated from Skye by the Sound of Raasay and from Applecross by the Inner Sound. It is famous for being the birthplace of Gaelic poet Sorley MacLean, an important figure in the Scottish Renaissance.
Traditionally the home of Clan MacSween, the island was ruled by the MacLeods from the 15th to the 19th century. Subsequently, a series of private landlords held title to the island, which is now largely in public ownership. Raasay House, which was visited by James Boswell and Samuel Johnson in 1773, is now a hotel, restaurant, bar and outdoor activity centre. Raasay means "Isle of the Roe Deer" and the island is home to an endemic subspecies of bank vole.About 14 miles (23 kilometres) north to south and 3 miles (5 kilometres) east to west (at its widest), Raasay's terrain is varied. The highest point, at 443 metres (1,453 feet), is Dùn Caan – an unusual, flat-topped peak. The island of Rona lies just off the north coast and the tidal islets of Eilean Fladday and Eilean Tigh are to the northwest. Other smaller surrounding islands are Eilean Aird nan Gobhar, Eilean an Inbhire, Holoman Island, Manish Island, Fraoch Eilean, Glas Eilean, Griana-sgeir and Eilean an Fhraoich. The main village of Inverarish is near the southwest coast and contiguous with both Clachan at the west end where the main pier is situated and Suishnish to the east. Oskaig is a small settlement further up the west coast.
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The Scottish Enlightenment (Scots: Scots Enlichtenment, Scottish Gaelic: Soillseachadh na h-Alba) was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By the eighteenth century, Scotland had a network of parish schools in the Scottish Lowlands and five universities. The Enlightenment culture was based on close readings of new books, and intense discussions which took place daily at such intellectual gathering places in Edinburgh as The Select Society and, later, The Poker Club, as well as within Scotland's ancient universities (St Andrews, Glasgow, Edinburgh, King's College, and Marischal College).
Sharing the humanist and rational outlook of the Western Enlightenment of the same time period, the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment asserted the importance of human reason combined with a rejection of any authority that could not be justified by reason. In Scotland, the Enlightenment was characterised by a thoroughgoing empiricism and practicality where the chief values were improvement, virtue, and practical benefit for the individual and society as a whole.
Among the fields that rapidly advanced were philosophy, political economy, engineering, architecture, medicine, geology, archaeology, botany and zoology, law, agriculture, chemistry and sociology. Among the Scottish thinkers and scientists of the period were Joseph Black, James Boswell, Robert Burns, William Cullen, Adam Ferguson, David Hume, Francis Hutcheson, James Hutton, Lord Monboddo, John Playfair, Thomas Reid, Adam Smith, and Dugald Stewart.
The Scottish Enlightenment had effects far beyond Scotland, not only because of the esteem in which Scottish achievements were held outside Scotland, but also because its ideas and attitudes were carried all over Great Britain and across the Western world as part of the Scottish diaspora, and by foreign students who studied in Scotland.The union with the Kingdom of England in 1707, which formed the Kingdom of Great Britain, meant the end of the Scottish Parliament. The parliamentarians, politicians, aristocrats, and placemen moved to London. Scottish law remained entirely separate from English law, so the civil law courts, lawyers and jurists remained in Edinburgh. The headquarters and leadership of the Church of Scotland also remained, as did the universities and the medical establishment. The lawyers and the divines, together with the professors, intellectuals, medical men, scientists and architects formed a new middle class elite that dominated urban Scotland and facilitated the Scottish Enlightenment.
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The Forth Road Bridge is a suspension bridge in east central Scotland. The bridge opened in 1964 and at the time was the longest suspension bridge in the world outside the United States. The bridge spans the Firth of Forth, connecting Edinburgh, at South Queensferry, to Fife, at North Queensferry. It replaced a centuries-old ferry service to carry vehicular traffic, cyclists and pedestrians across the Forth; railway crossings are made by the nearby Forth Bridge, opened in 1890.
The Scottish Parliament voted to scrap tolls on the bridge from February 2008. The adjacent Queensferry Crossing was opened in August 2017 to carry the M90 motorway across the Firth of Forth, replacing the Forth Road Bridge which had exceeded its design capacity. At its peak, the Forth Road Bridge carried 65,000 vehicles per day.
The Forth Road Bridge was subsequently closed for repairs and refurbishment. It reopened in February 2018, now redesignated as a dedicated Public Transport Corridor, with access to motor vehicles other than buses and taxis restricted; pedestrians and cyclists are still permitted to use the bridge. In May 2023, Stagecoach Fife started the first driverless bus service to carry passengers in the United Kingdom along a park-and-ride route which includes the Forth Road Bridge as its main section.The first crossing at the site of the bridge was established in the 11th century by Margaret, queen consort of King Malcolm III, who founded a ferry service to transport religious pilgrims from Edinburgh to Dunfermline Abbey and St Andrews. Its creation gave rise to the port towns of Queensferry and North Queensferry, which remain to this day; the passenger ferry service continued without interruption for over 800 years. There were proposals as early as the 1740s for a road crossing at the site, although its viability was only considered after the Forth Bridge was built in 1890.
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The Lewis chessmen (Scottish Gaelic: Fir-thàilisg Leòdhais [fiɾʲˈhaːlɪʃkʲ loː.ɪʃ]) or Uig chessmen, named after the island or the bay where they were found, are a group of distinctive 12th-century chess pieces, along with other game pieces, most of which are carved from walrus ivory. Discovered in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, they may constitute some of the few complete, surviving medieval chess sets, although it is not clear if a single complete period-accurate set can be assembled from the pieces. When found, the hoard contained 94 objects: 78 chess pieces, 14 tablemen (pieces for backgammon or similar games) and one belt buckle. Today, 82 pieces are owned and usually exhibited by the British Museum in London, and the remaining 11 are at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh; at least one chess piece is owned privately.
A newly identified piece, a "warder", the equivalent of a rook, was sold for £735,000 in July 2019. Four other major pieces, and many pawns, remain missing from the chess sets.Most accounts have said the pieces were found at Uig Bay () on the west coast of Lewis, but Caldwell et al. of National Museums Scotland consider that Mealista () – which is also in the parish of Uig and some 6 miles (10 km) further south down the coast—is a more likely place for the hoard to have been discovered. The hoard was divided and sold in the 19th century; the British Museum holds 82 pieces, and the National Museum of Scotland has 11 pieces, and the recently rediscovered piece is owned privately.
At the British Museum, F. Madden, Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts, persuaded the trustees to purchase for 80 guineas (£84) the 82 pieces which he had been misled into believing was the entire hoard. Madden was a palaeographer, a scholar of early vernacular literature, but he was especially intrigued by these artifacts because he was a chess enthusiast. Madden immediately began writing a research paper about the collection; the paper remains informative today.
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Papa Stour is one of the Shetland Islands in Scotland, with a population of fifteen people, some of whom immigrated after an appeal for residents in the 1970s. Located to the west of mainland Shetland and with an area of 828 hectares (3.2 square miles), Papa Stour is the ninth largest island in Shetland. Erosion of the soft volcanic rocks by the sea has created an extraordinary variety of caves, stacks, arches, blowholes, and cliffs. The island and its surrounding seas harbour diverse populations of wildlife. The west side of the island is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and the seas around the island are a Special Area of Conservation.
The island has several Neolithic burial chamber sites, as well as the remains of Duke Hakon's 13th-century house dating from the Norse occupation of the island. The population reached 380 or more in the 19th century, when a fishing station was opened at Crabbaberry in West Voe. Subsequently, there was a steady decline in population.
Today the main settlement on the island is Biggings, just to the east of which is Housa Voe from where the Snolda ferry arrives from its base at West Burrafirth on the Shetland Mainland. Crofting, especially sheep rearing, is the mainstay of island life.
Numerous shipwrecks have occurred around the coast, and the celebrated poem Da Sang o da Papa Men by Vagaland recalls the drama of the days when Papa Stour was a centre for deep-sea fishing.
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Elgin Cathedral, a historic ruin in Elgin, Moray, northeast Scotland, was dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It was established in 1224 on land granted by King Alexander II and stood outside the burgh of Elgin, close to the River Lossie. It replaced the cathedral at Spynie located 3 kilometres (2 mi) to the north, which was served by a small chapter of eight clerics. By 1226, the new and developing cathedral was staffed with 18 canons, a number that increased to 23 by 1242. A damaging fire in 1270 led to significant enlargement. It remained unscathed during the Wars of Scottish Independence but suffered extensive fire damage in 1390 when attacked by Robert III's brother Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, also known as the Wolf of Badenoch. In 1402, the cathedral precinct faced another incendiary attack by the Lord of the Isles followers.
As the cathedral grew, so did the number of clerics and craftsmen. Repairs following the fires of 1270 and 1390 resulted in the choir's doubling in length and the addition of outer aisles to both the nave and choir. While some parts of walls retain their full height, others are at foundation level, yet the overall cruciform shape is still discernible. A mostly intact octagonal chapter house dates from the major enlargement after the fire of 1270. The near intact gable wall above the double door entrance linking the west towers was rebuilt after the fire of 1390. It contains fragments of a large rose window with remnants of tracery work. The transepts and the south aisle of the choir contain recessed and chest tombs with effigies of bishops and knights. The now grass-covered floor bears large flat slabs marking early graves. The residences of the dignitaries, canons and chaplains within the chanonry were also destroyed during the fires of 1270, 1390 and 1402, forming part of the overall reconstruction process. Only the precentor's manse remains substantially intact, while two others have been incorporated into private buildings. Both west front towers, part of the initial construction, are mostly complete. A massive protective wall surrounded the cathedral precinct, but only two small sections have survived. Of the wall's four access gates, only the Pans Port remains.Selected articles 38
The geology of Scotland is unusually varied for a country of its size, with a large number of different geological features. There are three main geographical sub-divisions: the Highlands and Islands is a diverse area which lies to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault; the Central Lowlands is a rift valley mainly comprising Palaeozoic formations; and the Southern Uplands, which lie south of the Southern Uplands Fault, are largely composed of Silurian deposits.
The existing bedrock includes very ancient Archean gneiss, metamorphic beds interspersed with granite intrusions created during the Caledonian mountain building period (the Caledonian orogeny), commercially important coal, oil and iron-bearing carboniferous deposits and the remains of substantial Palaeogene volcanoes. During their formation, tectonic movements created climatic conditions ranging from polar to desert to tropical and a resultant diversity of fossil remains.
Scotland has also had a role to play in many significant discoveries such as plate tectonics and the development of theories about the formation of rocks, and was the home of important figures in the development of the science including James Hutton (the "father of modern geology"), Hugh Miller and Archibald Geikie. Various locations such as 'Hutton's Unconformity' at Siccar Point in Berwickshire and the Moine Thrust in the northwest were also important in the development of geological science.{pb}}
From a geological and geomorphological perspective the country has three main sub-divisions all of which were affected by Pleistocene glaciations.
The Highlands and Islands lie to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Arran to Stonehaven. This part of Scotland largely comprises ancient rocks, from Cambrian and Precambrian times, that were uplifted to form a mountain chain during the later Caledonian orogeny. These foundations are interspersed with many igneous intrusions of more recent age, the remnants of which have formed mountain massifs such as the Cairngorms and Skye Cuillins. A significant exception to the above are the fossil-bearing beds of the Old Red Sandstone found principally along the Moray Firth coast and in the Orkney islands. These rocks are around 400 million years old, and were laid down in the Devonian period. The Highlands are generally mountainous and are bisected by the Great Glen Fault. The highest elevations in the British Isles are found here, including Ben Nevis, the highest peak at 1,344 metres (4,409 ft). Scotland has over 790 islands, divided into four main groups: Shetland, Orkney, and the Hebrides, further sub-divided into the Inner Hebrides and Outer Hebrides.
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The Tay Bridge carries rail traffic across the Firth of Tay in Scotland between Dundee and the suburb of Wormit in Fife. Its span is 2+3⁄4 miles (4.4 kilometres). It is the second bridge to occupy the site.
Plans for a bridge over the Tay to replace the train ferry service emerged in 1854, but the first Tay Bridge did not open until 1878. It was a lightweight lattice design of relatively low cost with a single track. On 28 December 1879, the bridge suddenly collapsed in high winds while a train was crossing, killing everybody on board. The incident is one of the worst bridge-related engineering disasters in history. An enquiry determined that the bridge was insufficiently engineered to cope with high winds.
It was replaced by a second bridge constructed of iron and steel, with a double track, parallel to the remains of the first bridge. Work commenced on 6 July 1883 and the bridge opened in 1887. The new bridge was subject to extensive testing by the Board of Trade, which resulted in a favourable report. In 2003, the bridge was strengthened and refurbished, winning a British Construction Industry Engineering Award to mark the scale and difficulty of the project.Proposals to build a bridge across the Tay date to 1854 but it was not until 15 July 1870 that the (33 & 34 Vict. c. cxxxv) received royal assent. On 22 July 1871, the foundation stone of the bridge was laid.
The bridge was designed by engineer Thomas Bouch, who received a knighthood following the bridge's completion. The bridge was a lattice-grid design, combining cast and wrought iron. The design had been used by Thomas W. Kennard in the Crumlin Viaduct in South Wales in 1858, after the use of cast iron in the Crystal Palace. The Crystal Palace was not as heavily loaded as a railway bridge. An earlier cast-iron design, the Dee bridge collapsed in 1847, having failed because of poor use of cast-iron girders. Gustave Eiffel used a similar design to create several large viaducts in the Massif Central in 1867.
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St Mary's Abbey, Melrose is a partly ruined monastery of the Cistercian order in Melrose, Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Borders. It was founded in 1136 by Cistercian monks at the request of King David I of Scotland and was the chief house of that order in the country until the Reformation. It was headed by the abbot or commendator of Melrose. Today the abbey is maintained by Historic Environment Scotland as a scheduled monument.
The east end of the abbey was completed in 1146. Other buildings in the complex were added over the next 50 years. The abbey was built in the Gothic manner and in the form of a St. John's Cross. A considerable portion of the abbey is now in ruins. A structure dating from 1590 is maintained as a museum open to the public.
Alexander II and other Scottish kings and nobles are buried at the abbey. A lead container believed to hold the embalmed heart of Robert the Bruce was found in 1921 below the Chapter House site; it was found again in a 1998 excavation and documented in records of his death. The rest of his body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey.
The abbey is known for its many carved decorative details, including likenesses of saints, dragons, gargoyles and plants. On one of the abbey's stairways is an inscription by John Morow, a master mason, which says, Be halde to ye hende ("Keep in mind, the end, your salvation"). This has become the motto of the town of Melrose.An earlier monastery was founded by, then later dedicated to, Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne on a site about two miles (3.5 km) east of Melrose Abbey. This was shortly before his death in 651 at Bamburgh. Set in a bend of the River Tweed, a graveyard marks the site. Saint Cuthbert (died 687), who grew up nearby, trained at Old Melrose abbey. He was prior from 662 before he moved to Lindisfarne (Holy Island). Æthelweald was a novice at Lindisfarne when Cuthbert became bishop. He attended Cuthbert on some of his missionary journeys, and witnessed at least one of his miracles. He later became prior and then abbot at Melrose. Saint Oduvald (died 698) was a Scottish nobleman who followed Cuthbert as abbot. The visionary Dryhthelm was also a monk there in the early eighth century. The abbey site was raided by Kenneth I of Scotland in 839.
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Pan Am Flight 103 (PA103/PAA103) was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, the Boeing 747 "Clipper Maid of the Seas" was destroyed by a bomb while flying over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew aboard. Large sections of the aircraft crashed in a residential street in Lockerbie, killing 11 residents. With a total of 270 fatalities, the event, which became known as the Lockerbie bombing, is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the United Kingdom.
Following a three-year joint investigation by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), arrest warrants were issued for two Libyan nationals in 1991. After protracted negotiations and United Nations sanctions, in 1999, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi handed over the two men for trial at Camp Zeist, the Netherlands. In 2001, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, was found guilty of 270 counts of murder in connection with the bombing, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. His co-accused, Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, was acquitted. In 2009, Megrahi was released by the Scottish Government on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. He died in 2012 as the only person to be convicted for the attack.
In 2003, Gaddafi accepted Libya's responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing, and paid more than US$1 billion in compensation to the families of the victims. Although Gaddafi maintained that he had never personally given the order for the attack, acceptance of Megrahi's status as a government employee was used to connect responsibility by Libya with a series of requirements laid out by a UN resolution for sanctions against Libya to be lifted. In 2011, during the First Libyan Civil War, former Minister of Justice Mustafa Abdul Jalil said that Gaddafi personally ordered the bombing.Selected articles 42
In the early 18th century, the Edinburgh instrument maker Thomas Short leased some land on Calton Hill to display his instruments to the public. As his lease stipulated female relatives of Thomas could not inherit the building and its contents, his wife and children did not inherit it when he died in 1788. In 1827, Maria Theresa Short returned to Edinburgh from the West Indies claiming to be Thomas Short’s daughter and attempted to claim his "Great Telescope" for her inheritance. Despite strong competition from other parties, she received the telescope and set up "Short's Popular Observatory" in 1835, housed in a wooden and stone building next to the National Monument on Calton Hill. She exhibited many scientific instruments and kept her Observatory open till 9pm each evening.
After this very popular observatory was pulled down by authorities against her protests in 1851, she moved to Castlehill. In 1852, she bought the Laird of Cockpen’s townhouse, adding two storeys to create Short's Observatory, Museum of Science and Art, in existence from 1853 to 1892. The tenement is thought to be the original mansion of the Ramsays of Dalhousie (the "Lairds of Cockpen"), turned into small flats in the 18th century. The main attraction in "Short's Observatory" was the camera obscura occupying the topmost room. Her husband, Robert Henderson, continued to run the attraction after Maria died in 1869.
In 1892, Patrick Geddes, a pioneering Scottish urban planner, sociologist, and ecologist, assumed management of the site, renamed it the "Outlook Tower," and organized it as a museum and urban study centre demonstrating his philosophy of planning, which was based on comprehensive surveys of the site, city, and region. He installed a series of exhibits on progressively broader geographic themes as one ascended the tower — first the world on the ground floor, then Europe, the English-speaking countries, Scotland, and Edinburgh — with the camera obscura itself continuing to project a real-time image of the city at the very top. People from all walks of life were invited to come to the tower to study and learn about their city.
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Scots is a West Germanic language variety descended from Early Middle English. As a result, Modern Scots is a sister language of Modern English. Scots is an official language of Scotland, a regional or minority language of Europe, and a vulnerable language by UNESCO. In a Scottish census from 2022, over 1.5 million people in Scotland reported being able to speak Scots.
Most commonly spoken in the Scottish Lowlands, the Northern Isles of Scotland, and northern Ulster in Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots), it is sometimes called Lowland Scots, to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language that was historically restricted to most of the Scottish Highlands, the Hebrides, and Galloway after the sixteenth century; or Broad Scots, to distinguish it from Scottish Standard English. Most Scottish people's speech exists on a dialect continuum ranging between Broad Scots and Standard English.
Given that there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing a language from a dialect, scholars and other interested parties often disagree about whether Scots is a dialect of English or a separate language.
Native speakers sometimes refer to their vernacular as braid Scots (or "broad Scots" in English) or use a dialect name such as the "Doric" or the "Buchan Claik". The old-fashioned Scotch, an English loan, occurs occasionally, especially in Ulster. The term Lallans, a variant of the Modern Scots word lawlands [ˈlo̜ːlən(d)z, ˈlɑːlənz], is also used, though this is more often taken to mean the Lallans literary form. Scots in Ireland is known in official circles as Ulster-Scots (Ulstèr-Scotch in revivalist Ulster-Scots) or "Ullans", a recent neologism merging Ulster and Lallans.
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The Darien scheme was an unsuccessful attempt, backed largely by investors of the Kingdom of Scotland, to gain wealth and influence by establishing New Caledonia, a colony in the Darién Gap on the Isthmus of Panama, in the late 1690s. The plan was for the colony, located on the Gulf of Darién, to establish and manage an overland route to connect the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The backers knew that the first sighting of the Pacific Ocean by Vasco Núñez de Balboa was after crossing the isthmus through Darién. The expedition also claimed sovereignty over "Crab Isle" (modern day Vieques, Puerto Rico) in 1698, yet sovereignty was short-lived. The attempt at settling the area did not go well; more than 80 percent of participants died within a year, and the settlement was abandoned twice.
There are many explanations for the disaster. Rival claims have been made suggesting that the undertaking was beset by poor planning and provisioning; divided leadership; a lack of trade with local indigenous tribes or neighbouring Dutch and English colonies; epidemics of tropical disease; widespread opposition to the scheme from commercial interests in England; and a failure to anticipate a military response from the Spanish Empire. It was finally abandoned in March 1700 after a siege by Spanish forces, which also blockaded the harbour.
As the Company of Scotland was backed by approximately 20 per cent of all the money circulating in Scotland, its failure left the entire Scottish Lowlands in financial ruin. This was an important factor in weakening resistance to the Act of Union (completed in 1707).
The land where the Darien colony was built is located in the modern territory of Guna Yala.
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The Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (SNAE), 1902–1904, was organised and led by William Speirs Bruce, a natural scientist and former medical student from the University of Edinburgh. Although overshadowed in terms of prestige by Robert Falcon Scott's concurrent Discovery Expedition, the SNAE completed a full programme of exploration and scientific work. Its achievements included the establishment of a staffed meteorological station, the first in Antarctic territory, and the discovery of new land to the east of the Weddell Sea. Its large collection of biological and geological specimens, together with those from Bruce's earlier travels, led to the establishment of the Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory in 1906.
Bruce had spent most of the 1890s engaged on expeditions to the Antarctic and Arctic regions, and by 1899 was Britain's most experienced polar scientist. In March of that year, he applied to join the Discovery Expedition; however, his proposal to extend that expedition's field of work into the Weddell Sea quadrant, using a second ship, was dismissed as "mischievous rivalry" by Royal Geographical Society (RGS) president Sir Clements Markham. Bruce reacted by obtaining independent finance; his venture was supported and promoted by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.
The expedition has been described as "by far the most cost-effective and carefully planned scientific expedition of the Heroic Age." Despite this, Bruce received no formal honour or recognition from the British Government, and the expedition's members were denied the prestigious Polar Medal despite vigorous lobbying. After the SNAE, Bruce led no more Antarctic expeditions, although he made regular Arctic trips. His focus on serious scientific exploration was out of fashion with his times, and his achievements, unlike those of the polar adventurers Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen, soon faded from public awareness. The SNAE's permanent memorial is the Orcadas weather station, which was set up in 1903 as "Omond House" on Laurie Island, South Orkneys, and has been in continuous operation ever since.
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Jarlshof (/ˈjɑːrlzhɒf/ YARLZ-hof) is the best-known prehistoric archaeological site in Shetland, Scotland. It lies in Sumburgh, Mainland, Shetland and has been described as "one of the most remarkable archaeological sites ever excavated in the British Isles." It contains remains dating from 2500 BC up to the 17th century AD.
The Bronze Age settlers left evidence of several small oval houses with thick stone walls and various artefacts including a decorated bone object. The Iron Age ruins include several different types of structures, including a broch and a defensive wall around the site. The Pictish period provides various works of art including a painted pebble and a symbol stone. The Viking Age ruins make up the largest such site visible anywhere in Britain and include a longhouse; excavations provided numerous tools and a detailed insight into life in Shetland at this time. The most visible structures on the site are the walls of the Scottish period fortified manor house, which inspired the name "Jarlshof" that first appears in an 1821 novel by Walter Scott.
The site is in the care of Historic Scotland and is open year-round, with longer opening hours during April to September. In 2012, Jarlshof, Mousa and Old Scatness were added to the UK's tentative list of proposed World Heritage Sites in a combination called the "Zenith of Iron Age Shetland."Jarlshof lies near the southern tip of the Shetland Mainland, close to the settlements of Sumburgh and Grutness and to the south end of Sumburgh Airport. The site overlooks an arm of the sea called the West Voe of Sumburgh and the nearby freshwater springs and building materials available on the beach will have added to the location's attraction as a settlement. The south Mainland also provides a favourable location for arable cultivation in a Shetland context and there is a high density of prehistoric settlement in the surrounding area. Jarlshof is only one mile from Scatness where the remains of another broch and other ruins of a similar longevity were discovered in 1975. There is a small visitor centre at Jarlshof with displays and a collection of artefacts.
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Scots law (Scottish Gaelic: Lagh na h-Alba) is the legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. Together with English law and Northern Irish law, it is one of the three legal systems of the United Kingdom. Scots law recognises four sources of law: legislation, legal precedent, specific academic writings, and custom. Legislation affecting Scotland and Scots law is passed by the Scottish Parliament on all areas of devolved responsibility, and the United Kingdom Parliament on reserved matters. Some legislation passed by the pre-1707 Parliament of Scotland is still also valid.
Early Scots law before the 12th century consisted of the different legal traditions of the various cultural groups who inhabited the country at the time, the Gaels in most of the country, with the Britons and Anglo-Saxons in some districts south of the Forth and with the Norse in the islands and north of the River Oykel. The introduction of feudalism from the 12th century and the expansion of the Kingdom of Scotland established the modern roots of Scots law, which was gradually influenced by other, especially Anglo-Norman and continental legal traditions. Although there was some indirect Roman law influence on Scots law, the direct influence of Roman law was slight up until around the 15th century. After this time, Roman law was often adopted in argument in court, in an adapted form, where there was no native Scots rule to settle a dispute; and Roman law was in this way partially received into Scots law.
Since the Union with England Act 1707, Scotland has shared a legislature with England and Wales. Scotland retained a fundamentally different legal system from that south of the border, but the Union exerted English influence upon Scots law. Since the UK joined the European Union, Scots law has also been affected by European law under the Treaties of the European Union, the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights (entered into by members of the Council of Europe) and the creation of the devolved Scottish Parliament which may pass legislation within all areas not reserved to Westminster, as detailed by the Scotland Act 1998.
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Golf in Scotland was first recorded in the Scottish late Middle Ages, and the modern game of golf was first developed and established in the country. The game plays a key role in the national sporting consciousness.
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, known as the R&A, was the world governing body for the game (except in the United States and Mexico). The R&A, a separate organisation from the club, was created in 2004 as the governing body. The Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association was founded in 1904 and the Scottish Golf Union (SGU) in 1920. They merged in 2015 into a new organization, Scottish Golf.
To many golfers, the Old Course at St Andrews, an ancient links course dating to before 1574, is considered to be a site of pilgrimage. There are many other famous golf courses in Scotland, including Carnoustie, Gleneagles, Muirfield, Kingsbarns, Turnberry and Royal Troon. The world's first Open Championship was held at Prestwick in 1860, and Scots golfers have the most victories at the Open at 42 wins, one ahead of the United States.
Although golf is often seen as an elitist sport elsewhere in the world, in the land of its birth it enjoys widespread appeal across the social spectrum, in line with the country's egalitarian tradition. For example, the Old Course at St Andrews is a charitable trust and Musselburgh Links are public courses. Council-owned courses, with low fees and easy access, are common throughout the country wherever demography and geography allow. Therefore, golf courses, whether public or private, are far more common in the Lowlands than in the Highlands and Islands, where shinty (a game which may share a common ancestry with golf) is often the traditional sport.Selected articles 49
The Bell Rock Lighthouse, off the coast of Angus, Scotland, is the world's oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse. It was built between 1807 and 1810 by Robert Stevenson on the Bell Rock (also known as Inchcape) in the North Sea, 11 miles (18 km) east of the Firth of Tay. Standing 35 metres (115 ft) tall, its light is visible from 35 statute miles (56 km) inland.
The masonry work on which the lighthouse rests was constructed to such a high standard that it has not been replaced or adapted in 200 years. The lamps and reflectors were replaced in 1843; the original ones are now in the lighthouse at Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland, where they are currently on display. The working of the lighthouse has been automated since 24 October 1988. The Northern Lighthouse Board, which has had its headquarters at 84 George Street in Edinburgh since 1832, remotely monitors the light.
The lighthouse previously operated in tandem with a shore station, the Bell Rock Signal Tower, built in 1813 at the mouth of Arbroath harbour. Today this building houses the Signal Tower Museum, a visitor centre that offers a detailed history of the lighthouse.
Because of the engineering challenges that were overcome to build the lighthouse, it has been described as one of the Seven Wonders of the Industrial World.According to legend, Bell Rock got its name because, in the 14th century, the Abbot of Arbroath had had a warning bell installed on it, which was stolen a year later by a Dutch pirate. (This legend is immortalised in "The Inchcape Rock", a poem by the 19th-century poet Robert Southey.)
Before the construction of the lighthouse, the rock had caused many shipwrecks because, except for a few hours a day at low tide, it lies just below the surface of the sea. By the turn of the 19th century, it was estimated that, in a typical winter, as many as six ships were wrecked on the rock. (In one storm, seventy ships had been lost off the east coast of Scotland.)
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St Giles' Cathedral (Scottish Gaelic: Cathair-eaglais Naomh Giles), or the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in the Old Town of Edinburgh. The current building was begun in the 14th century and extended until the early 16th century; significant alterations were undertaken in the 19th and 20th centuries, including the addition of the Thistle Chapel. St Giles' is closely associated with many events and figures in Scottish history, including John Knox, who served as the church's minister after the Scottish Reformation.
Likely founded in the 12th century and dedicated to Saint Giles, the church was elevated to collegiate status by Pope Paul II in 1467. In 1559, the church became Protestant with John Knox, the foremost figure of the Scottish Reformation, as its minister. After the Reformation, St Giles' was internally partitioned to serve multiple congregations as well as secular purposes, such as a prison and as a meeting place for the Parliament of Scotland. In 1633, Charles I made St Giles' the cathedral of the newly created Diocese of Edinburgh. Charles' attempt to impose doctrinal changes on the presbyterian Scottish Kirk, including a Prayer Book causing a riot in St Giles' on 23 July 1637, which precipitated the formation of the Covenanters and the beginnings of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. St Giles' role in the Scottish Reformation and the Covenanters' Rebellion has led to its being called "the Mother Church of World Presbyterianism".
St Giles' is one of Scotland's most important medieval parish church buildings. The first church of St Giles' was a small Romanesque building of which only fragments remain. In the 14th century, this was replaced by the current building which was enlarged between the late 14th and early 16th centuries. The church was altered between 1829 and 1833 by William Burn and restored between 1872 and 1883 by William Hay with the support of William Chambers. Chambers hoped to make St Giles' a "Westminster Abbey for Scotland" by enriching the church and adding memorials to notable Scots. Between 1909 and 1911, the Thistle Chapel, designed by Robert Lorimer, was added to the church.Selected articles 51
Dunfermline (/dʌnˈfɜːrmlɪn/ ⓘ; Scots: Dunfaurlin, Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Phàrlain) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, 3 miles (5 km) from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries.
The earliest known settlements around Dunfermline probably date to the Neolithic period, growing by the Bronze Age. The city was first recorded in the 11th century, with the marriage of Malcolm III of Scotland, and Saint Margaret at Dunfermline. As Queen consort, Margaret established a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, which evolved into Dunfermline Abbey under their son David I in 1128, and became firmly established as a prosperous royal mausoleum for the Scottish Crown. A total of eighteen royals, including seven Kings, were buried here between 1093 and 1420 including Robert the Bruce in 1329.
By the 18th century, Dunfermline became a regional economic powerhouse with the introduction of the linen industry, and produced industrialists including Andrew Carnegie. Dunfermline was awarded city status as part of Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee Civic Honours in 2022. Today, the city is a major service centre, with the largest employers being Sky UK, Amazon, Best Western, TechnipFMC, Lloyds and Nationwide. Dunfermline sits on the Fife Pilgrim Way. In 2020, the locality had an estimated population of 54,990 and the wider settlement had a population of 76,210.
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Aberdour Castle is in the village of Easter Aberdour, Fife, Scotland. Parts of the castle date from around 1200, making Aberdour one of the two oldest datable standing castles in Scotland, along with Castle Sween in Argyll, which was built at around the same time.
The earliest part of the castle was a modest hall house, on a site overlooking the Dour Burn. Over the next 400 years, the castle was successively expanded according to contemporary architectural ideas. The hall house became a tower house in the 15th century, and was extended twice in the 16th century. The final addition was made around 1635, with refined Renaissance details, and the whole was complemented by a walled garden to the east and terraced gardens to the south. The terraces, dating from the mid-16th century, form one of the oldest gardens in Scotland, and offer extensive views across the Firth of Forth to Edinburgh.
The castle is largely the creation of the Douglas Earls of Morton, who held Aberdour from the 14th century. The earls used Aberdour as a second home until 1642, when their primary residence, Dalkeith House, was sold. A fire in the late 17th century was followed by some repairs, but in 1725 the family purchased nearby Aberdour House, and the medieval castle was allowed to fall into decay. Today, only the 17th-century wing remains roofed, while the tower has mostly collapsed. Aberdour Castle is now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland, and is open to the public all year.The barony of Aberdour was acquired in 1126, by Sir Alan de Mortimer, on his marriage to Anicea, daughter of Sir John de Vipont. Sir Alan built St Fillan's Church, which still stands, next to the castle, in around 1140, and his family probably built the original hall house in around 1200, or possibly even earlier. In 1216, another Alan de Mortimer is recorded granting land to the monks of Inchcolm Abbey. There is no record of what happened to the de Mortimers, but in the early 14th century, King Robert the Bruce granted Aberdour to his kinsman, Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray (d. 1332). Moray's grandson granted the barony in turn to Sir William Douglas of Liddesdale (c. 1300–1353), in 1342.
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Stirling (/ˈstɜːrlɪŋ/; Scots: Stirlin; Scottish Gaelic: Sruighlea [ˈs̪t̪ɾuʝlə]) is a city in central Scotland, 26 miles (42 km) northeast of Glasgow and 37 miles (60 km) north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its merchants and tradesmen, the Old Bridge and the port. Located on the River Forth, Stirling is the administrative centre for the Stirling council area, and is traditionally the county town and historic county of Stirlingshire. Stirling's key position as the lowest bridging point of the River Forth before it broadens towards the Firth of Forth made it a focal point for travel north or south. It has been said that "Stirling, like a huge brooch clasps Highlands and Lowlands together". The city's status as "Gateway to the Highlands" also historically lent it great strategic importance—the credo "he who holds Stirling, holds Scotland" is sometimes attributed to Robert the Bruce.
When Stirling was temporarily under Anglo-Saxon sway, according to a 9th-century legend, it was attacked by Danish invaders. The sound of a wolf roused a sentry, however, who alerted his garrison, which forced a Viking retreat. This led to the wolf being adopted as a symbol of the town as is shown on the 1511 Stirling Jug. The area is today known as Wolfcraig. Even today the wolf appears with a goshawk on the council's coat of arms along with the recently chosen motto: "Steadfast as the Rock".
Once the capital of Scotland, Stirling is visually dominated by Stirling Castle. Stirling also has a medieval parish church, the Church of the Holy Rude, where, on 29 July 1567, the infant James VI was anointed King of Scots by Adam Bothwell, the Bishop of Orkney, with the service concluding after a sermon by John Knox. The poet King was educated by George Buchanan and grew up in Stirling. He was later also crowned King of England and Ireland on 25 July 1603, bringing closer the countries of the United Kingdom. Modern Stirling is a centre for local government, higher education, tourism, retail, and industry. The mid-2012 census estimate for the population of the city is 36,440; the wider Stirling council area has a population of about 93,750.Selected articles 54
The University of Edinburgh (Scots: University o Edinburgh, Scottish Gaelic: Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as Edin. in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the town council under the authority of a royal charter from King James VI in 1582 and officially opened in 1583, it is one of Scotland's four ancient universities and the sixth-oldest university in continuous operation in the English-speaking world. The university played a crucial role in Edinburgh becoming a leading intellectual centre during the Scottish Enlightenment and contributed to the city being nicknamed the "Athens of the North".
The three main global university rankings (ARWU, THE, and QS) place the University of Edinburgh within their respective top 40. It is a member of several associations of research-intensive universities, including the Coimbra Group, League of European Research Universities, Russell Group, Una Europa, and Universitas 21. In the fiscal year ending 31 July 2024, the university had a total income of £1.386 billion, with £365.2 million from research grants and contracts. It has the third-largest endowment in the UK, behind only Cambridge and Oxford. The university occupies five main campuses in the city of Edinburgh, which include many buildings of historical and architectural significance, such as those in the Old Town.
Edinburgh is the fourth-largest university in the United Kingdom by total enrolment and the second largest university in Scotland, receiving over 66,000 undergraduate applications per year, making it the fifth-most popular university in the UK by application volume. In 2021, Edinburgh had the seventh-highest average UCAS points among British universities for new entrants. The university maintains strong links to the royal family, with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, serving as its chancellor from 1953 to 2010, and Anne, Princess Royal, holding the position since March 2011.Selected articles 55
Glen Coe (Scottish Gaelic: Gleann Comhann pronounced [klan̪ˠˈkʰo.ən̪ˠ]) is a glen of glacial origins that cuts though volcanic rocks in the Highlands of Scotland. It lies in the north of the county of Argyll, close to the border with the historic province of Lochaber, within the modern council area of Highland. Glen Coe is regarded as the home of Scottish mountaineering and is popular with hillwalkers and climbers.
A 2010 review by Scottish Natural Heritage into the special qualities of Scotland's National scenic areas listed the "soaring, dramatic splendour of Glen Coe", and "the suddenness of the transition between high mountain pass and the lightly wooded strath" as being of note. The review also described the journey through the glen on the main A82 road as "one of the classic Highland journeys". The main settlement is the village of Glencoe located at the foot of the glen.
On 13 February 1692, in the aftermath of the Jacobite uprising of 1689, an incident known as the Massacre of Glencoe took place in the glen. Thirty-eight men from Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed by government forces who were billeted with them on the grounds that they had not been prompt in pledging allegiance to the new monarchs, William and Mary.
The Glen is named after the River Coe which runs through it. The name of the river may predate the Gaelic language, as its meaning is not known. It is possible that the name stems from an individual personal name, Comhan (genitive Comhain).Selected articles 56
Tartan or plaid (Scottish Gaelic: breacan [ˈpɾʲɛxkən]) is a patterned cloth consisting of crossing horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours, forming repeating symmetrical patterns known as setts. Originating in woven wool, tartan is most strongly associated with Scotland, where it has been used for centuries in traditional clothing such as the kilt. Historically, specific tartans were linked to Scottish clans, families, or regions, with patterns and colours derived from local dyes.
Tartan became a symbol of Scottish identity, especially from the 16th century onward, despite bans following the Jacobite rising of 1745 under the Dress Act 1746. The 19th-century Highland Revival popularized tartan globally, associating it with Highland dress and the Scottish diaspora. Today, tartan is used worldwide in clothing, accessories, and design, transcending its traditional roots. Modern tartans are registered for organisations, individuals, and commemorative purposes, with thousands of designs in the Scottish Register of Tartans.
While often linked to Scottish heritage, tartans exist in other cultures, such as Africa, East and South Asia, and Eastern Europe. They also serve institutional roles, like military uniforms and corporate branding. Tartan patterns vary in complexity, from simple two-colour designs to intricate motifs with over twenty hues. Colours historically derived from natural dyes, such as lichens and alder bark, are now produced synthetically.Selected articles 57
The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and 14th centuries.
The First War (1296–1328) began with the English invasion of Scotland in 1296 and ended with the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton in 1328. The Second War (1332–1357) began with the English-supported invasion by Edward Balliol and the "Disinherited" in 1332 and ended in 1357 with the signing of the Treaty of Berwick. The wars were part of a great crisis for Scotland, and the period became one of the most defining times in its history. At the end of both wars, Scotland retained its status as an independent state. The wars were important for other reasons, such as the emergence of the longbow as a key weapon in medieval warfare.King Alexander III of Scotland died in 1286, leaving his three-year-old granddaughter Margaret, Maid of Norway, as his heir. In 1290, the Guardians of Scotland signed the Treaty of Birgham agreeing to the marriage of the Maid of Norway and Edward of Caernarvon, the son of Edward I. This marriage would not create a union between Scotland and England because the Scots insisted that the Treaty declare that Scotland was separate and divided from England and that its rights, laws, liberties and customs were wholly and inviolably preserved for all time.
However, Margaret, travelling to her new kingdom, died shortly after landing in the Orkney Islands around 26 September 1290. After her death, there were 13 rivals for succession. The two leading competitors for the Scottish crown were Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale (grandfather of the future King Robert the Bruce) and John Balliol, Lord of Galloway. Fearing civil war between the Bruce and Balliol families and supporters, the Guardians of Scotland wrote to Edward I of England, asking him to come north and arbitrate between the claimants in order to avoid civil war.
Edward agreed to meet the guardians at Norham in 1291. Before the process got underway Edward insisted that he be recognised as Lord Paramount of Scotland. When they refused, he gave the claimants three weeks to agree to his terms, knowing that by then his armies would have arrived and the Scots would have no choice. Edward's ploy worked, and the claimants to the crown were forced to acknowledge Edward as their Lord Paramount and accept his arbitration. Their decision was influenced in part by the fact that most of the claimants had large estates in England and, therefore, would have lost them if they had defied the English king. However, many involved were churchmen such as Bishop Wishart for whom such mitigation cannot be claimed.
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Dirleton Castle is a medieval fortress in the village of Dirleton, East Lothian, Scotland. It lies around 2 miles (3.2 km) west of North Berwick, and around 19 miles (31 km) east of Edinburgh. The oldest parts of the castle date to the 13th century, and it was abandoned by the end of the 17th century.
Begun in around 1240 by John De Vaux, the castle was heavily damaged during the Wars of Scottish Independence, when it was twice taken by the English. In the 14th century, Dirleton was repaired by the Haliburton family, and it was acquired by the Ruthvens in 1505. The Ruthvens were involved in several plots against Mary, Queen of Scots, and King James VI, and eventually forfeited the castle in 1600. Dirleton ceased to be a residence, although Oliver Cromwell was forced to besiege the castle to flush out a band of "mosstroopers" (marauders), during the Third English Civil War in 1650. The damaged castle was then acquired by John Nisbet, Lord Dirleton, who decided to build a new country house on the nearby Archerfield Estate. The Nisbet family of Dirleton continued to maintain the castle's gardens, before handing Dirleton into state care in 1923. The ruins and gardens are now maintained by Historic Environment Scotland.
Dirleton Castle stands on a rocky outcrop, at the heart of the rich agricultural lands of the barony of Dirleton, and guards the coastal approach to Edinburgh from England, via the port of North Berwick. The ruins comprise a 13th-century keep, and a 16th-century house which the Ruthvens built adjacent. Only the basement levels survive of the 14th- and 15th-century additions built by the Haliburtons, although these comprised a large hall and tower house along the east range. Other buildings within the courtyard have also been demolished. Surrounding the castle are gardens, which may have been first laid out in the 16th century, although the present planting is largely of the 20th century. The garden walls enclose a 16th-century doocot, or pigeon house.
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The great Highland bagpipe (Scottish Gaelic: a' phìob mhòr pronounced [a ˈfiəp ˈvoːɾ] lit. 'the great pipe') is a type of bagpipe native to Scotland, and the Scottish analogue to the great Irish warpipes. It has acquired widespread recognition through its usage in the British military and in pipe bands throughout the world.
The bagpipe of any kind is first attested in Scotland around 1400. The earliest references to bagpipes in Scotland are in a military context, and it is in that context that the great Highland bagpipe became established in the British military and achieved the widespread prominence it enjoys today, whereas other bagpipe traditions throughout Europe, ranging from Portugal to Russia, almost universally went into decline by the late 19th and early 20th century.
Though widely famous for its role in military and civilian pipe bands, the great Highland bagpipe is also used for a solo virtuosic style called pìobaireachd, ceòl mòr, or simply pibroch. Through development over the centuries, the great Highland bagpipes probably reached something like their distinctive modern form in the 18th century.
Though popular belief sets varying dates for the introduction of bagpipes to Scotland, concrete evidence is limited until approximately the 15th century. One clan still owns a remnant of a set of bagpipes said to have been carried at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, though the veracity of this claim is debated. There are many ancient legends and stories about bagpipes which were passed down through minstrels and oral tradition, whose origins are now lost. However, textual evidence for Scottish bagpipes is more definite in 1396, when records of the Battle of the North Inch of Perth reference "warpipes" being carried into battle. These references may be considered evidence as to the existence of particularly Scottish bagpipes, but evidence of a form peculiar to the Highlands appears in a poem written in 1598 and later published in The Complaynt of Scotland which refers to several types of pipe, including the Highland: "On hieland pipes, Scotte and Hybernicke / Let heir be shraichs of deadlie clarions."
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St Andrews (Latin: S. Andrea(s); Scots: Saunt Aundraes; Scottish Gaelic: Cill Rìmhinn, pronounced [kʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ]) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, 10 miles (16 kilometres) southeast of Dundee and 30 miles (50 kilometres) northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 as of 2011[update], making it Fife's fourth-largest settlement and 45th most populous settlement in Scotland.
The town is home to the University of St Andrews, the third oldest university in the English-speaking world and the oldest in Scotland. It was ranked as the best university in the UK by the 2022 Good University Guide, which is published by The Times and The Sunday Times. According to other rankings, it is ranked as one of the best universities in the United Kingdom.
The town is named after Saint Andrew the Apostle. The settlement grew to the west of St Andrews Cathedral, with the southern side of the Scores to the north and the Kinness Burn to the south. The burgh soon became the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland, a position which was held until the Scottish Reformation. The famous cathedral, the largest in Scotland, now lies in ruins.
St Andrews is also known globally as the "home of golf". This is in part because of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, founded in 1754, which until 2004 exercised legislative authority over the game worldwide (except in the United States and Mexico). It is also because the famous Old Course of St Andrews Links (acquired by the town in 1894) is the most frequent venue for The Open Championship, the oldest of golf's four major championships. Visitors travel to St Andrews in great numbers for several courses ranked amongst the finest in the world, as well as for the sandy beaches.
