Portal:Scotland

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Introduction

Flag of Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjacent islands, principally in the archipelagos of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. In 2022, the country's population was about 5.4 million. Its capital city is Edinburgh, whilst Glasgow is the largest city and the most populous of the cities of Scotland. To the south-east, Scotland has its only land border, which is 96 miles (154 km) long and shared with England; the country is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, the North Sea to the north-east and east, and the Irish Sea to the south. The legislature, the Scottish Parliament, elects 129 MSPs to represent 73 constituencies across the country. The Scottish Government is the executive arm of the devolved government, headed by the first minister who chairs the cabinet and responsible for government policy and international engagement.

The Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the 9th century. In 1603, James VI succeeded to the thrones of England and Ireland, forming a personal union of the three kingdoms. On 1 May 1707, Scotland and England combined to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain, with the Parliament of Scotland subsumed into the Parliament of Great Britain. In 1999, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, and has devolved authority over many areas of domestic policy. The country has its own distinct legal system, education system and religious history, which have all contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and national identity. Scottish English and Scots are the most widely spoken languages in the country, existing on a dialect continuum with each other. Scottish Gaelic speakers can be found all over Scotland, but the language is largely spoken natively by communities within the Hebrides; Gaelic speakers now constitute less than 2% of the total population, though state-sponsored revitalisation attempts have led to a growing community of second language speakers.

The mainland of Scotland is broadly divided into three regions: the Highlands, a mountainous region in the north and north-west; the Lowlands, a flatter plain across the centre of the country; and the Southern Uplands, a hilly region along the southern border. The Highlands are the most mountainous region of the British Isles and contain its highest peak, Ben Nevis, at 4,413 feet (1,345 m). The region also contains many lakes, called lochs; the term is also applied to the many saltwater inlets along the country's deeply indented western coastline. The geography of the many islands is varied. Some, such as Mull and Skye, are noted for their mountainous terrain, while the likes of Tiree and Coll are much flatter.

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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. (... Read the full article)

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" ... Books are a finer world within the world ... "

— Alexander Smith

" ... All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education ... "

— Sir Walter Scott
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" ... Nae man can tether time nor tide ... "

— Robert Burns

" ... In all ages of the world, priests have been the enemies of liberty ... "

— David Hume
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" ... Biography should be written by an acute enemy ... "

— A. J. Balfour

" ... We live in a Newtonian world of Einsteinian physics ruled by Frankenstein logic ... "

— David Russell
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" ... Freedom is best, I tell thee true, of all things to be won ... "

— William Wallace

" ... The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scots as a joke, but the Scots haven't seen the joke yet ... "

— Oliver Herford
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" ... It is a vain hope to make people happy by politics ... "

— Thomas Carlyle

" ... We are never happy; we can only remember that we were so once ... "

— Alexander McCall Smith
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" ... Jimmy Hill is to football what King Herod was to babysitting ... "

— Tommy Docherty

" ... Maybe that's why in England you have better horses, and in Scotland we have better men ... "

— James Boswell responding to Samuel Johnson

("In England we wouldn't think of eating oats. We only feed them to horses.")
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" ... He's very clever, but sometimes his brains go to his head ... "

— Margot Asquith speaking of F. E. Smith

" ... When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe ... "

— John Muir
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" ... My theory is that all of Scottish cuisine is based on a dare ... "

— Mike Myers

" ... A man may well be condemned, not for doing something, but for doing nothing ... "

— William Barclay
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" ... Instinct is untaught ability ... "

— Alexander Bain

" ... The great and good do not die even in this world. Enbalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad ... "

— Samuel Smiles
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" ... There are only two types of music: rock and roll ... "

— Alex Harvey

" ... A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that Fortune's inequality exhibits under this sun ... "

— Thomas Carlyle
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" ... Maxims are the condensed good sense of nations ... "

— James Mackintosh

" ... Who thinks the law has anything to do with justice? It’s what we have because we can’t have justice ... "

— William McIlvanney
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" ... No man can become rich without himself enriching others ... "

— Andrew Carnegie

" ... The old cathedrals are good, but the great blue dome that hangs over everything is better ... "

— Thomas Carlyle
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" ... Whaur's yer Wullie Shakespeare noo? ... "

—Anonymous

(Patriotic shout from an audience member at the 1st Edinburgh performance of the John Home tragedy Douglas)

" ... Law is the reflection of the spirit of a people, and so long as the Scots are conscious that they are a people, they must preserve their law ... "

— Robin Cook
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" ... You talked of Scotland as a lost cause and that is not true. Scotland is an unwon cause ... "

— John Steinbeck, in a letter to Mrs John F. Kennedy

" ... We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing ... "

— Ronald David Laing
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" ... I think for my part one half of the nation is mad – and the other not very sound ... "

— Tobias Smollett

" ... Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice ... "

— Adam Smith
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" ... I fear I have nothing original in me excepting original sin ... "

— Thomas Campbell

" ... Life is a waste of time. Time is a waste of life. Get wasted all the time and you'll have the time of your life ... "

— Billy Connolly
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" ... If something's neither here nor there, where the hell is it? ... "

— Chic Murray

" ... The artist cannot attain to mastery in his art unless he is endowed in the highest degree with the faculty of invention ... "

— Charles Rennie Mackintosh
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" ... God help England if she had no Scots to think for her ... "

— George Bernard Shaw

" ... We have all taken risks in the making of war. Isn’t it time that we should take risks to make peace? ... "

— Ramsay MacDonald
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" ... Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them ... "

— David Hume

" ... We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery ... "

— Samuel Smiles
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" ... I have not yet begun to fight! ... "

— John Paul Jones

" ... Devolution will kill nationalism stone dead ... "

— George Robertson
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" ... A ripple of laughter is worth an ocean of tears. To laugh is to be free of worry ... "

— Harry Gordon

" ... It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important ... "

— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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" ... All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies ... "

— Dr John Arbuthnot

" ... Where all is compulsion and enforcement, it’s the bully that rules ... "

— Neil M. Gunn
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" ... The worst of being a doctor is that one's mistakes matter so much ... "

— Elsie Inglis

" ... The ideal board of directors should be made up of three men - two dead and the other dying ... "

— Tommy Docherty
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" ... I think Calvinism has done more damage to Scotland than drugs ever did ... "

— Ronald David Laing

" ... A sense of proportion is anathema to the Glasgow drinker. When he goes at the bevvy it is a fight to the death ... "

— Hugh McIlvanney
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" ... History is written from then to now but understood back to front ... "

— Allan Massie

" ... Growing old is great. It’s like getting drunk. Everyone around you gets better-looking ... "

— Billy Connolly

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In the news

24 May 2025 – 2024–25 Scottish Cup: In association football, Aberdeen F.C. wins their 9th Scottish Cup and their first in 35 years after defeating 42-time winners Celtic F.C. 4–3 in the final on penalties after a 1–1 draw at Hampden Park in Glasgow. (BBC Sport)

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Selected biography

Portrait of James Boswell by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1785

James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (/ˈbɒzwɛl, -wəl/; 29 October 1740 (N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, Life of Samuel Johnson, which is commonly said to be the greatest biography written in the English language. A great mass of Boswell's diaries, letters, and private papers were recovered from the 1920s to the 1950s, and their publication by Yale University has transformed his reputation. (... Read the full article)

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Image 1
View of Canisp and Suilven from nearby Clachtoll

Canisp and Suilven seen from the coastal fishing and crofting village of Clachtoll in Sutherland county, on the north western edge of Scotland.

Photo credit: Louis_Daillencourt
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Scott's View

Scott's View refers to a viewpoint in the Scottish Borders, overlooking the valley of the River Tweed, which is reputed to be one of the favourite views of Sir Walter Scott. The viewpoint can be located directly from a minor road leading south from Earlston just off the A68 and by travelling north from the village of St. Boswells up the slope of Bemersyde Hill. The view is around 3 miles east of Melrose.

Photo credit: Semi-detached
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Freezing temperatures in Braemar

Braemar is a village in Aberdeenshire, around 58 miles (93 km) west of Aberdeen in the Highlands. Sitting at an altitude of 339 metres (1,112 ft), Braemar is the third coldest low lying place in the UK, after the villages of Dalwhinnie and Leadhills. It has twice entered the UK Weather Records with the lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2^oC, on 11 February 1895, and 10 January 1982.

Photo credit: Paul Chapman
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Hopetoun House

Hopetoun House is the traditional residence of the Earl of Hopetoun (later the Marquess of Linlithgow). It was built 1699-1701, designed by William Bruce. It was then hugely extended from 1721 by William Adam until his death in 1748 being one of his most notable projects. The parklands in which it lies were laid out in 1725, also by William Adam.

Photo credit: George Gastin
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Canada geese at Musselburgh

A group of Canada geese at Musselburgh

Photo credit: Send in the clouds
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The Room de Luxe at the Willow Tearooms

The Willow Tearooms are tearooms at 217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, designed by internationally renowned architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, which opened for business in October 1903.

Photo credit: Dave souza
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Plockton

Plockton (Scottish Gaelic: Am Ploc/Ploc Loch Aillse) is a picturesque settlement in the Highlands on the shores of Loch Carron. It faces east, away from the prevailing winds, which together with the North Atlantic Drift, gives it a mild climate, allowing palm trees (actually cabbage trees) to grow.

Photo credit: Arthur Bruce
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Inveraray Bridge on Loch Fyne

Loch Fyne (Scottish Gaelic: Loch Fìne, meaning "Loch of the Vine or Wine", is a sea loch on the west coast of Argyll and Bute. Although there is no evidence for grapes growing there, it was more metaphorical, such as meaning that the River, Abhainn Fìne, was a well-respected river.

Photo credit: Michael Parry
Image 9
The Queens View, Loch Tummel

Loch Tummel (Scottish Gaelic: Loch Teimhil) is a long, narrow loch, 7 kilometres north west of Pitlochry in Perth and Kinross. A well known view over the loch and the surrounding countryside (with Schiehallion in the background) is the 'Queen's View' from the north shore, which Queen Victoria made famous in 1866.

Photo credit: Paul Hermans
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National Museum of Scotland, main hall

The National Museum of Scotland is one of Scotland's national museums, on Chambers Street, in Edinburgh. The original Royal Museum began in the 19th century and was added to in the 1990s when a new building known as The Museum of Scotland was added, both merging in 2007 into The National Museum of Scotland.

Photo credit: Shimgray
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Sunset in the Trossachs

Sunset in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. The high peak on left of the image is Ben Lomond.

Photo credit: Michal Klajban
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Detail of the V&A museum from the west with the Tay Bridge beyond

Detail of the V&A museum, Dundee from the west with the Tay Bridge beyond.

Photo credit: Richard Szwejkowski
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The Black Cuillin viewed from Sgùrr na Strì

The Black Cuillin, a range of rocky mountains located on the Isle of Skye, viewed from Sgùrr na Strì.

Photo credit: User:YaoAxton
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Coire nan Lochan on the southern side of Glen Coe

Glen Coe ((Scottish Gaelic: Gleann Comhann) is a glen in the Highlands. It lies in the southern part of the Lochaber committee area of Highland Council, and was formerly part of the county of Argyll.

Photo credit: Gil.cavalcanti
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View of Oban and harbour

Oban (Scottish Gaelic: An t-Òban) (meaning "The Little Bay") is a resort town within the council area of Argyll and Bute. Oban Bay is a near perfect horseshoe bay, protected by the island of Kerrera, and beyond Kerrera is Mull. To the north is the long low island of Lismore, and the mountains of Morvern and Ardgour.

Photo credit: Josi
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St John's cross in the Abbey museum

One of the oldest and most important religious centres in western Europe, Iona Abbey is considered the point of origin for the spread of Christianity throughout Scotland. Iona Abbey is located on the Isle of Iona, just off the Isle of Mull on the West Coast.

Photo credit: Dennis Turner
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The William Younger Centre housing Our Dynamic Earth science centre

Our Dynamic Earth is a Scottish science centre and prominent conference venue and visitor attraction located in Holyrood, Edinburgh, beside the Scottish Parliament Building.

Photo credit: Globaltraveller
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The parliament building viewed from Salisbury Crags

The Scottish Parliament Building (Scottish Gaelic: Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, Scots: Scots Pairlament Biggin) is the home of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, within the UNESCO World Heritage Site in central Edinburgh. It was designed by Enric Miralles, the Catalan architect,.and has won a number of awards, including an award at the VIII Biennial of Spanish Architecture, the RIAS Andrew Doolan Award for Architecture, and the 2005 Stirling Prize, the UK's most prestigious architecture award.

Photo credit: Photo Credit: Wangi
Image 19
Mousa Broch, Shetland Islands

A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Their origin is a matter of some controversy.

Photo credit: Otter
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Wellington Church, University Avenue, Glasgow

Wellington Church, a 19th-century church on University Avenue in Glasgow with the frontage in the neoclassical style of a Greek temple.

Photo credit: Mymuk
Image 21
Satellite image of Scotland

The geography of Scotland is highly varied, from rural lowlands to barren uplands, and from large cities to uninhabited islands. Aside from the mainland, Scotland is surrounded by 790 islands encompassing the major archipelagoes of the Shetland Islands, Orkney Islands and the Outer Hebrides.

Photo credit: NASA
Image 22
Crofters cottage and sheep, Cairngorms National Park

Crofters cottage and sheep, Cairngorms National Park.

Photo credit: Thomas_Andy_Branson
Image 23
Armoury, Inveraray Castle

The Armoury at Inveraray Castle

Photo credit: Stuart Wilding
Image 24
A walker slacklining at the Old Man of Hoy

Walker Alex Schulz slacklining at the Old Man of Hoy, a 449-foot (137-metre) sea stack on Hoy, part of the Orkney archipelago .

Photo credit: AlexSchulz91
Image 25
Side view of Mons Meg

Mons Meg is a medieval bombard in the collection of the Royal Armouries, on loan to Historic Environment Scotland and located at Edinburgh Castle. It was built in 1449 on the orders of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and sent by him as a gift to James II, King of Scots, in 1454. The bombard was employed in sieges until the middle of the 16th century

Photo credit: Lee Sie

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Did You Know...

Help available

... that Scottish bricklayer Brian Higgins was unable to find work for 25 years after appearing on a construction-industry blacklist?
... that Scottish painter Gordon Coutts left Australia without paying maintenance to his estranged wife, but was arrested in New Zealand?
... that Jewish tartans have been made for the Jewish community of Scotland?
... that despite his defeat at the battle of Pitgaveny, both of Duncan's sons would later rule Scotland?
... that the Scottish invasion of England in 1648 was defeated by an army less than half their size?
... that Paddy Higson was known as the "mother of Scottish film"?
... that Scottish physician George Gray received the thanks of the Chinese government for his work during the Manchurian plague of 1910–11?
... that George Parks was president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and his son Rowan Parks became president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh?

More did you know items

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Scotland Related WikiProjects and Task forces
	WikiProject Clans of Scotland	talk
	WikiProject Medieval Scotland	talk
	WikiProject Scottish Castles	talk
	WikiProject Scottish Islands	talk
	WikiProject Scottish Television	talk
	WikiProject Transport in Scotland	talk
	WikiProject Edinburgh	talk
	Fife task force	talk
	Scottish Gaelic task force	talk

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