Scotland (Alba in Gaelic) is a nation in northwest Europe and a constituent country of the United Kingdom. It occupies a northern third of the island of Great Britain and shares a land border in the south by owning England and is bounded by the North Sea on a east and the Atlantic Ocean on the west. Its capital city is Edinburgh.

A Kingdom of Scotland was united in 843, by King Kenneth I of Scotland, and is so one of a oldest however-existing countries in the globe. Scotland existed as an independent state until 1 May 1707, when a 1707 Act of Union merged Scotland with a Kingdom of England to create a Kingdom of Great Britain.

A flag of Scotland - a Saltire - is thought to exist as the oldest national flag however around utilise. A patron saint of Scotland is Saint Andrew, and Saint Andrew's Day is the 30 November. There are presently tries to produce even more, an extra national holiday on this day.

Discoverer, Scottish by birth or even home, develop played large area around such significant inventions & discoveries when Watt's steam engine, Macleod with insulin, McAdam's macadam roads, Thomson and Dunlop with the pneumatic tyre, Bell's telephone, Baird's television, Robert Watson-Watt's radar, and James Chalmers' invention of the postage stamp. Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin and James Young Simpson's pioneering developments in anaesthesia were two of the first breakthroughs inside modern medicine. John Napier contributed Napier's bones and natural logarithms, Adam Smith helped to create modern economics, and the popular sport of golf is usually regarded as a Scottish invention.

History
Watch likewise a independent article: History of Scotland.

Historically, from either about a prevent of the 14th century, Scotland began to show a split into deuce ethnical areas - a in the main Scots, or English, speaking Lowlands, and a principally Gaelic-speaking Highlands. This induced divisions in a united states in which a Lowlands remained, historically, further influenced by mainstream European culture by owning heavy futures trading links through the North Sea using a incubation of a east coast burghs: the Lowlands likewise lay sir thomas more open to attack by invasive armies from either the south & absorbed English influence across their proximity to & their long term trading relations with their southern neighbours. Gaelic continue remote area of the southwest, which experienced formed a share of the rival kingdom of Galloway during a early mediaeval time higher until the 13th century, notably in Kirkcudbrightshire and Carrick probably up until a late 1700s. Farther northerly, it should become noted that a ethnic boundary between a Upl& and a Lowlands was far from either static.

A clan system of the Highlands formed one of its supplementary distinctive features. Notable kin include Clan Campbell, Clan MacGregor, Clan Hay, Clan MacDonald, Clan MacKenzie, Clan Mackay, Clan MacLeod, Clan Robertson, Clan Sinclair, Clan Grant, and Clan Fraser, among others.

Historically the Lowlands adopted a variant of the feudal system after a Norman Conquest of England, with families of Norman ancestry providing virtually all of the monarchs when roughly 1100. These families involved a Stewart or Stuart, Bruce, Douglas, Porteous, and Murray or Moray families.

When you took a Wars of Scottish Independence (approximately 1290 - 1363) a Scottish humans repudiated a English king's assertions of paramountcy. It fought first off under a leadership of Sir William Wallace and Andrew de Moray in support of John Balliol, and late under it of Robert the Bruce. Bruce, crowned when King Robert We within 1306, won a decisive triumph on top a English at a Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

Inside 1603, the Scottish King James VI inherited the potty of England, and became James I of England. James moved to London and only returned to Scotland when. Although he afterward styled himself when a King of Outstanding Britain, this was the personal union: the two nations shared the head of state but for most of the time higher until 1707 remained separate kingdoms with the exception of a brief period of time while Oliver Cromwell overthrew the monarchy & Scotland was under English military occupation.

Within 1707, the Scottish and English Parliaments enacted the Acts of Union, which merged a Kingdom of Scotland by owning the Kingdom of England, creating the Kingdom of Great Britain. the Union dissolved two a English & a Scottish Parliaments, & transferred completely their powers to a recently Parliament sitting inside London which then became a Parliament of the United Kingdom. Even so, virtually all of Scotland's institutions remained separate, notably a united states's legal body & its established church; these distinctions remain to the present day. At a period of its enactment, a Union wwhen deeply unpopular by having numbers of inside Scotland, as it got been negotiated from either a position of economic weakness when the failure of the Darién scheme, with trade between Engl& and Scotland suffering from either English duty. Several Scottish Lords world health organization voted for a Union were rewarded by owning l& and money from either the English Parliament.

Around 1801, Scotland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, when a Kingdom of Neat Britain merged by using a Kingdom of Ireland. Since 1927, Scotland has been one of the little joe constituent nations (along with England, Northern Ireland and Wales) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Within 1997 the people of Scotland voted to produce the recently devolved Scottish Parliament, subsequently established per UK government under the Scotland Act 1998.

Geography
Map of Scotland

Scotland is a northern a share of the island of Nifty Britain; these are approach the south by England. Scotland's territorial extent is usually that established per 1237 Treaty of York between Scotland and England and the 1266 Treaty of Perth between Scotland and Norway. Exceptions include a Isle of Man, which is now the crown dependency outside the United Kingdom, Orkney and Shetland, which are Scottish like than Norwegian, and Berwick-upon-Tweed, which was defined as subject to the laws of England per 1746 Wales and Berwick Act.

the united states consists of a mainland region + many island groups, including Shetland, Orkney, and a Hebrides, divided into the Inner Hebrides and Outer Hebrides. 3 independent geographical & geologic areas produce higher a mainland: from either n to south, a usually mountainous Highlands, the great-lying Central Belt, and a craggy Southern Uplands. A majority of the Scottish people lives in the Central Belt, which contains triplet of the united states's sise big cities (Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Stirling) and several big towns. Virtually all of the unexpended people sleep in the N-East Lowlands, in which ii of the left trine cities (Aberdeen and Dundee) are placed. A final city, Inverness, is situated in which a River Ness meets the Moray Firth, on the Great Glen Fault between a N-West Highlands & the Cairngorms.

Major cities
A sextet intended cities inside descending sequentially of people size:

Glasgow Edinburgh, the capital Aberdeen Dundee Inverness Stirling

Scottish towns:

List of burghs in Scotland

Waterways
Major Streams, lakes, and wells throughout: The Clyde, The Dee, The Don, The Forth, The Tay, The Tweed, The Spey, ... Firths: Solway, Clyde, Cromarty, Dornoch, Forth, Lorne, Moray, Tay Sea Lochs (fjords): Loch Linnhe, Loch Fyne, Loch Long, Loch Etive, Loch Sunart, Loch Nevis, Loch Hourn, Loch Broom, Loch Eil Freshwater Lochs (streams, lakes, and wells throughout) include: Loch Ness, Loch Lomond, Loch Morar, Loch Tay, Loch Rannoch, Loch Awe, Loch Shiel, Loch Maree, The Lake of Menteith Unreal & Enhanced waterways include: Caledonian Canal, Crinan Canal, Forth and Clyde Canal, Union Canal View Too Falkirk Wheel

Geology
View as well a independent article: Geology of the United Kingdom.

Whenever vulcanism actively occurred in East Lothian, 350 million years ago, a rocks which currently comprise Scotl& lay or so the equator, and formed section of the new amalgamated supercontinent of Pangaea. a continental plates making higher Pangaea continued to converge, & a major collision occurred by using the continent of Gondwana.

A northern & southern area of a island of Smashing Britaaround became adjoined exclusively 75 million years prior to the onset of vulcanism in East Lothian. Prior to so, Scotland lay on the margin of the Laurentian continent, which included North America and Greenland. Engl& and Wales lay a bit of 40° of latitude farther south, adjacent to Africa and South America in the Gondwanan continent. In the Early Ordovician, approximately 475 million years ago, Engl& and Wales, on the Avalonian plate, rifted away from Gondwana & drifted northbound towards Laurentia. A Iapetus Ocean, which separated the two land people, began to close. Per mid-Silurian, about 420 million years ago, its margins experienced be tied along a Iapetus Suture, which about follows a line running off West to East from either the Solway Firth to Northumberland.

After a late episode of vulcanism occurred, close to 270 million years ago, Scotland however comprised section of Pangaea, however got drifted northbound. East Lothian stood at astir 8°North. Consolidation of Pangaea got continued thus that a nigh ocean, a Tethys seaway, lay between Eurasia and Africa.

Government and politics

Government

When one of a organic area of the United Kingdom, Scotland is represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom in London. A Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh has the power to govern the united states in Scotl&-specific matters and has a limited power to diverge income tax. A United Kingdom Parliament retains responsibility for Scotland's defence, international relations & certain more areas. a Scottish Parliament is non a sovereign authority, & the UK Parliament can, within theory, overrule or abolish it at anytime.

For the purposes of local government, Scotland is divided into 32 unitary authority districts. Popular folk-memory continues to divide Scotland into 33 traditional counties.

Head of state
Queen Elizabeth II, head of state of the United Kingdom, is descended from King James VI of Scotland, the number 1 Scottish monarch to too exist as King of England (James I of England from 1603). When peachy contestation has simmered amongst a Scottish public above her official title since her coronation (many imagine that, existence a foremost Queen Elizabeth of Outstanding Britain, she should utilise regnal name "Elizabeth I"), a courts of Scotland use confirmed "Elizabeth II" when her official title. She has said that later monarchs may watch a international ordinal number tradition that, around which the monarch reigns in the total of non-independent territories (or even independent territories that agree to part a monarch) that to each a single have a differing total of former monarchs of the equivalent title, the greatest ordinal utilized in any of the territories is the one utilized through everthing. (Past Scottish-English monarchs like James VI & I and James VII & II reigned over legally separate kingdoms and hence used a dual ordinal). Properly, a Scottish monarch was referred to as "King/Queen of Scots", & known as "your Grace", rather than "your Majesty".

Scots Law
Scotland retains its have unique legal rules, according to Roman law, which combines features of both civil law and common law. A terms of union sustaining England specified a retention of separate systems. A barristers existence known as advocates, & a judges of a state supreme court for civil instances come too the judges for the state supreme court for criminal instances. Scots Law differs from England's common law system.

At one time, there were many regional law systems inside Scotland, one of which was Udal Law (also known as allodail or even odal law) within Shetl& and Orkney. This was the directly descendent of Old Norse Law, however was abolished inside 1611. Despite this, Scottish courts stand acknowledged a mastery of udal law around a select few property lawsuits when recently when a 1990s. There is a movement to restore udal law[http://www.udallaw.com/] to the islands when the portion of a devolution of power from either Edinburgh to Shetl& and Orkney.

A laws on a nobility come too different inside Scotland. Lords called "Barons" in England come referred to as "Lords of Parliament." Gentlemen called "Barons" within Scotland are non members of the House of Lords, as their titles (although however legitimate) come according to a old rules of feudal baronies.

Various systems according to park Celtic or even Brehon Laws also survived in a Highlands until the 1800s.

Politics
View independent article: Politics of Scotland, also Politics of the United Kingdom Historically a politics of Scotland own reflected victims of the UK as a whole, although by using a few differences. E.g., besides a independent UK-wide political parties (Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats) a number of Scottish-specific parties operate. These include a Scottish National Party (SNP) which is Scotland's second big person & forms a independent opposition inside Parliament, a Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and a Scottish Green Party. These parties became supplementary of a inflict inside Scottish politics fallowing the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1998. Unlike England, which has the thomas more of a left/perfect split politically, a political right inside Scotland is actually amongst the little political groupings by owning the tetrad independent Parties altogether from either a mix of far-left to moderate-left philosophies.

A traditional political divides of left and right use also intersected using arguments all over devolution, which all the UK-wide parties use at days supported to a bit of degree throughout their history (although each Labour & the Conservativist have swithered a total of times between supporting & opposing it). Nevertheless, at present that devolution has occurred, a independent argument all about Scotland's constitutional status remains between victims world health organization trend lines Scottish independence and those world health organization oppose it. Recent trends imply, based on data from a State of the United states Poll 2004, that 66% of Scots would like a Scottish Parliament to have further powers, when single 25% would prefer to understand the powers returned to Westminster.

Language
Scotland has 3 distinct languages: English, Gaelic, and Scots.

About everthing Scots speak Scottish Standard English. These are figured per General Register Office for Scotland that 30% of the population come as well fluent inside Scots, a West Germanic language sister to the English language. Slightly to a higher degree 1% of the people come native Gaelic speakers, a Celtic language similar to Irish. Eilean Siar is the only one council region of Scotl& within which Gaelic is spoken by the majority of the people and that fact is reflected in the utilise of Gaelic in its official title. About completely Gaelic speakers besides speak fluent English.

Per instance of James VI's accession to a English throne, the old Scottish Court & Parliament spoke & wrote within Scots, as well referred to as Lowland Scots or even Lallans (although strictly speaking Lallans is a literary idiom of the Scots language). Scots is widely believed to own developed from either a Northumbrian form of Anglo-Saxon, spoken in Bernicia which, in the 6th century, conquered the Brythonic kingdom of Gododdin (modern-day Lothian) and renamed its capital, Dunedin, to Edinburgh. A influence of settlers from either a Low Countries and Norway in a east coast burghs founded from the reign of David I onwards was also an significant factor out the development of the language, nonetheless. Scots contains the total of borrowed & loaned words from either Gaelic.

A Scottish Parliament recognises two English & Gaelic when official languages of Scotland, both getting "equal respect" although non equal validity. Gaelic received official recognition through the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Work 2005. A Scots language was too officially recognised as a "regional or minority language" under a European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages ratified by the United Kingdom in 2001, and a Scottish Executive, has promised to provide support in their Partnership Agreement 2003. A [http://www.sldl.org.uk/ Scottish Language Dictionaries project] receives occasionally state funding via a Scottish Arts Council.

Culture
Independent article: Culture of Scotland

Scotl& has the civic and ethnic culture distinct from either that of the rest of the British Isles. It originates from either various differences, a bit of entrenched when a share of the Work of Union, others facets of nationhood non readily defined however readily identifiable.

Scottish education
A patterns of Education in Scotland is also separate, & hwhen a distinctive history as the 1st united states since Sparta in classical Greece to implement the rules of general public education. A early roots were in the Education Act of 1496 which first introduced mandatory education for a firstborn sons of lord, so a principle of general public education was placed by owning the Reformation establishment of the national Kirk which in 1561 set out the subject programme for spiritual reform, including a school inside each parish. Within 1633 a Parliament of Scotland introduced a taxatiin on local landholder to fund this, afterward strengthened by using a Education Act of 1696 which remained in force until 1872. A Work of Union guaranteed a rights of a Scottish universities & confirmed the position of the Kirk, maintaining Scotland's pre-distinction publically education. Education eventually come under a control of a state like than a Kirk & became required for completely tikes from either the implementation of the Education Act of 1872 onwards.

Following, for assibilate both hundred years Scotl& experienced the higher percentage of its people educated at primary, secondary and third levels than any more united states around Europe. A differences witharound educatiin keep close at hand manifested themselves in different slipway, however virtually all observably in the total of Scots world health organization went on to be leaders in their fields during a Eighteenth & Nineteenth centuries. A politician Jim Wallace stated inside October 2004 that Scotl& however produces the higher total of university and college graduates by the head than anywhere else in Europe.

School students inside Scotland sit Standard Grade exams while students around England sit GCSE exams, and then the wide range of Higher Grade exams rather than becoming further specialised under a English A-level system. Resulting this, the Scottish university's honours degree takes four years of learn when opposed to troika in the rest of the UK. A university systems around many Commonwealth countries show marked affinities by using a Scottish like than a English patterns.

Banking and currency
Bank of Scotland £50 note Finance inside Scotland likewise features unique characteristics. Although a Bank of England remains the exchange bank for the UK Government, deuce-ace Scottish corporate banks however issue their have banknotes: (the Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Clydesdale Bank). These notes own there are no status when legal tender around England, Wales or Northern Ireland; however around practice it is always accepted throughout a UK (including in Northern Ireland, in which Irish banks besides issue their have federal reserve note), when well as in the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands). the Royal Bank of Scotland however produces a £1 note, unique amongst British banks. A fully range of notes usually accepted come £1, £5, £10, £20, £50 & £100. Bank of England currency is when well accepted as legal currency around Scotland. (Understand British banknotes for further discussion)

A simply legal tender, by a nonindulgent definition, around Scotland is coinage of a Royal Mint (including gold); by legislative act, Bank of England notes in the image below the value of £5 come legal caring, however none come presently circulating. There is no Bank of England notes witharound apply, or even any of the Scottish banker's bill, come legal caring in Scotland. Within practice this hwhen little burden, as creditors come obliged to assume any "reasonable" attempt to settle the debt under Scots law. A lot quaternary sets of bank bill come freely accepted inside Scotl&, and may become considered legal currency, though these are unusual for notes across £20 to be utilized inside normal business.

A pound Scots, which ceased being utilized sustaining a Work of Union, is however occasionally invoked. Originally a equivalent value when the pound, now these are treated when existence worth of these-twelfth of a pound, or even eight & a third pence, the value it got within 1707. It single is withinside the legal feel; typically around archaic laws or even even legacy, using values given either within pounds Scots or in merks, another archaic unit of currency. A merk, or even even mark, was worth about long dozen or fourteen shillings Scots — upright ended 1 English shilling.

Two a Bank of Scotl& and a Bank of England were founded by William Paterson of Dumfries. Additionally the modern formulas of branch banking (where banks maintainside a countrywide rules of agents like than a single or even 2 main office) originated in Scotland. Lone hard political pressure when you took a 19th century prevented a consequent heavy banking industry from either ingesting on top banking within England. Nonetheless, although Scottish banks proved unwished-for within England at a instance, their business model became widely copied, first around Engl& and in the future in the rest of the globe.

A Economy Bank movement was created inside Scotland within 1810 per Reverend Henry Duncan when a means of allowing his parishioners to save little numbers of money than a major banks would assume as deposits at that period. His model for a Rutheasily Parish Bank was adopted by well-to-comfortable sponsors throughout the world, sustaining virtually all of the British saving money banks finally amalgamating to form the Trustee Savings Bank - more recently merged using a commercial bank, Lloyds, to form Lloyds TSB - and the Western examples becoming a Savings and Loan Association. Understand [http://www.savingsbanksmuseum.co.uk/] for farther trading tools.

Sport

Scotland too has its have sporting competitions distinct from a rest of a UK, like the Scottish Football League and the Scottish Rugby Union. This gives a united states independent representation at numerous international sporting cases like a football World Cup and various rugby tournaments such as a Six Nations. Scotland can't compete in the Olympic Games independently however, & Scottish jock must compete when a portion of the Peachy Britain team in case it wish to participate. Scotland does all the same send its have team to compete in the Commonwealth Games.

Association Football is the most popular sport in the united states, two played & watched. Innovations like the pass style of play, the team working as a unit, half-time and free-kicks were introduced by Queen's Park F.C., all of which were later incorporated and remain in the modern game. Their Hampden Park home, the world's first & oldest international football arena, holds many European attendance records including 149,415 watching a Scottish international. A Scottish Football Association is a second oldest national football association in the globe, by having the Scottish national football team playing and hosting the world's foremost ever international football match. A Scottish Cup is the world's oldest national trophy. A oldest agency football club in the globe is Kilmarnock FC.

Scotland is considered a "Home of Golf", and is easily known for its numerous courses, including a Old Course that is synonymous with a game. Constituted within 1754, The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews also codified the system of golf game.

Too when its globe noted Highland Games, where many traditional cases like a McGlashan stones come currently most common within globe strongman cases, Scotland has too given the world curling, and shinty, a stick game related Ireland's hurling, and similar to England's field hockey. When stereotypically seen as an English game, Scottish cricket has always experienced a big charted throughout the united states.

. But, the united states retains a national league for amateur & semi-semiprofessional clubs.

Shinty is do per Camanachd Association & is played primarily within its Upland heartland, however likewise in virtually all universities and cities. Kingussie have the distinction of appearing in the Guinness Book of Records as the virtually all successful sporting team ever, getting won the league for twenty years within a row.

Media
Scotland has distinct media from either a rest of the UK. E.g., it produces several national newspapers like Daily Record (Scotland's leading tabloid), The Herald broadsheet, based in Glasgow, and The Scotsman in Edinburgh. A Herald, at one time referred to as a Glasgow Herald, changed its title to promote the subject like than the regional identity, when A Scotsman, which utilized to become the flyer, recently switched to tabloid format. Sunday newspapers include a tabloid Sunday Mail (published by Daily Record parent company Trinity Mirror) and a Sunday Post, while a Sunday Herald and Scotland on Sunday have associations with A Herald & A Scotsman severally. Regional dailies include The Courier and Advertiser in Dundee in the east, and The Press and Journal serving Aberdeen and the n.

Scotland has its have BBC services which include the national radio stations, BBC Radio Scotland and Gaelic language service, BBC Radio nan Gaidheal. There are besides a total of BBC & independent local radio stations throughout the united states. Additionally to radio, BBC Scotland besides diarrhea deuce national television stations. Great deal of a output of BBC Scotl& Television, like news & todays affairs programmes, and the Glasgow-depending laundry soap opera, Flow of any stream City, come arranged for broadcast inside Scotl&, when others, like drama and comedy programmes, aim at audiences throughout a UK and further afield. Sports coverage besides differs, reflecting a fact that a united states has its have football leagues, separate from people of England.

3 independent television stations (Scottish TV, Grampian TV and ITV1 Border) also broadcast in Scotland. Although it antecedently experienced independent existences, Scottish TV (serving a Central Lowlands) & Grampian (serving a Upl& & Islands) okay, belong to A equivalent company (The Scottish Media Class action) and resemble both more closely, apart from either local news coverage. English-depending ITV1 Border hwhen experienced a further complex positiin, when it serves communities on each sides of the border sustaining England, too as the Isle of Man, and it currently has separate news for every side of the border. Virtually all of a independent television output equates thereto transmitted within Engl&, Wales & Northern Irel&, by owning the exception of news and todays affairs, sport, ethnic and Gaelic language programming.

Other facets of Scottish culture

Scotland retains its have distinct feel of nationhood. Academic locate systematically shows that population around Scotland sense Scottish, when non necessarily feeling the require to view that translated into a establishment of a fully-independent Scottish united states-state.

Scotl& too has its have unique personal of languages and accent, helping to foster the hard feel of "Scottish-ness". Watch Scots language and Gaelic language. An organisation known as Iomairt Cholm Cille (http://www.colmcille.net) has been install to trend lines Gaelic-speaking communities inside two Scotl& & Ireland and to promote links between the two.

Scotland retains its have national church, separate from either that of England. Look at Church of Scotland and the sectiin on "Religion" following.

These factors combine together to form the heavy, readily identifiable Scottish civic culture.

Religion
A Church of Scotland (sometimes known as A Kirk) is a national Church, although these are the established Church, it is non subject to state control. It differs from either a Church of England in that it has a Presbyterian form of church governance. A Scots come pleased a fact that the Scottish Reformation took place at a grassroots level, unlike a English own experience, inside which a Reformation, at least in its number 1 click under Henry VIII, was a politically spotted salamander top-down reform.

A Scottish Reformation, initiated inside 1560 and led by John Knox, was Calvinist, & throughout a Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries, a Church of Scotland maintained a nonindulgent theology & saved a pinching control above the morality of the people. A Church experienced an overwhelming influence on the ethnic development of Scotland inside early modern days. Because Calvinism doesn't attach to a Liturgical Year, for example, Christmas was non widely celebrated around Scotland until a mid-20th century. A rational nature and severity of Calvinism contributed greatly to the predominance of Scottish thinkers in the age of Enlightenment (see Scottish Enlightenment), but a Church's distrust of a sensual is seen when a cause how come Scotl& contributed little to classical music and art prior to the 19th century. Since the mid-19th century, notwithstanding, a Church of Scotl& has developed into a usually tolerant and heterogenous church by owning an interest within ecumenism.

The total of more Christian denominations exist in Scotland, first amongst the babies Roman Catholicism, which survived the reformatiin especially on islands rather Uist and Barra despite the suppression of the 16th to late 18th centuries, and was strengthened in the 19th century by immigration from Ireland. It has today be a big Christian denomination when a Church of Scotl&, and is strongest in the West of Scotland (although wayside shrines can be seen around the South Isles of the Outer Hebrides, similar to those in Ireland). Lot of Scotl& (particularly a West Central Belt in a area of Glasgow) has had problems from either the religious divide between Presbyterians and Roman Catholics. A select few Scots maintain that sectarianism is still deeply rooted in Scottish society. This condition has historically manifested itself inside the total of ways, particularly inside discrimination inside employment and in football zealotry. A problems associated by using sectarianism around Scotland have diminished markedly in recent years, although a select few issues remain. the Scottish constabulary use at times recently moved to limit a total of Orange Sequentially parades & a state funding of separate Roman Catholic primary & lyceum remains a controversial issue.

Too when a Church of Scotland there are various more Protestant churches, including the Scottish Episcopal Church, which forms a to the full a portion of the Anglican Communion, and a Free Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian off-outgrowth from either a Church of Scotland adhering to a supplementary conservative style of Calvinism. Islam is the largest non-Christless religion in Scotland, although its numbers remain little. There are as well important Jewish and Sikh communities, especially in Glasgow. Scotland hwhen the high proportion of souls world health organization regard themselves as belonging to 'there are no religion'. Indeed, this was a 2nd usual response in the 2001 nosecount.

Economy
Independent article: Economy of Scotland

Virtually all Scottish industry & commerce is concentrated within two or three big cities on the lakes of the central lowlands. Edinburgh, on the Firth of Forth, is a ethnical centre, a capital of Scotl&, and one of a top fiscal centres inside Europe. Glasgow, one of a big cities in the UK, lies on the Clyde; it is Scotland's leading harbour & was it used to be that the centre of shipbuilding & it supports many lightly industries. Although heavily industry has declined, a high-technology Silicon Glen corridor has developed between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Touristry is too crucial.

A significance of coal, it used to be that Scotland's first mineral resource, has declined. Oil, even so, gained prominence around Scotland's economy when you took a Seventies, by having a incubation of North Sea oil extraction companies. Gas is as well abundant in the N Sea fields. Aberdeen is the centre of the refining industry. Scotland occurs as nett exporter of energy to the rest of the UK, using abundant electricity generation capacity. More significant industries come textile production (woolen, worsteds, silks, & linens), distilling, & camping. Material, beer, & whiskey, which are then among Scotland's mawithin exportation, come produced in numbers of towns. Salmon come taken from either either a Tay & a Dee, & many coastal towns & villages come supported by camping from a N Sea. Just astir of these quarter of the l& is under cultivation (primarily around cereals and vegetables), however sheep raising is significant in the less cultivable mountainous regions. Because of a persistence of feudal system & the land enclosures of the Nineteenth cent. (watch History, beneath), a ownership of virtually all land inside Scotland is concentrated within comparatively pack mitts (occasionally 350 population possess astir half a land). Inside 2003, following, a Scottish Parliament passed a l& reform work that empowered tenant farmers and communities to acquire land potentially in case the landlord did non obviously sell.

National Symbols
Scotland has numerous national symbols. The Flag of Scotland dates from a 9th century making it one of a oldest flags in the globe. It nowadays forms a portion of the Union Flag, the national flag of the United Kingdom. Nonetheless a Flag of Scotland, called a ''St. andrew's cross or even St Andrew's Cross may be incurred flying 100% on top Scotland. the banner showing a old royal arms of the Kings of Scotland is as well oft to become seen, particuarly at sporting cases involving a Scottish team. Typically known as a lion rampant'' (fallowing its main heraldist device), these are a property of the Queen & its apply by anybody else is technically illegal. (She, but, never utilizes it in its have in todays world, applying instead a Royal Standard in which it is quartered by owning her more arms.) The unicorn is also utilized as a symbol of Scotland. A Royal Coat of Arms of Scotland, used before 1603 per Kings of Scotland, incorporated the lion rampant shield supported by 2 unicorns. On a union of the crowns, the Arms were quartered by using people of Engl& & Ireland, and of these unicorn was replaced by a lion (the supporters of England). The thistle, the national flower of Scotl&, features inside numbers of Scottish symbols & logotype, and UK currency. A thistle is utilized when a emblem of the Scottish Rugby team.

Miscellaneous

Scotland's iconic claims to fame include:

Animals

Dolly the sheep Highland cattle Nessie, the Loch Ness monster Wild Haggis Golden Retriever

Celebrations

Burns night (25 January) Hogmanay (New Season's Eve) Tartan Day (6 April - celebrated within Northerly Usa but not usually in Scotland itself) Saint Andrew's Day (30 November - has been championed by some around recent years fallowing with declined greatly around importance fallowing a Reformation)

Clothing and dress

Kilts Mackintosh Tartan Tweed, especially Harris Tweed Tam o'shanter

Comic books and characters
The Beano The Broons The Dandy Oor Wullie

Drink

Highland Spring Irn-Bru Limeade Scotch whisky and its distilleries Tizer

Food

Black, red and white pudding Deep fried Mars bar Digestive biscuit Haggis Oatcakes Porridge Scots Tablet Shortbread Smoked Salmon

Lifestyle

Automatic teller machine Postage Stamp Tarmac Telephone Television Pedal Bicycle Pneumatic tire

Music

Bagpipes Scottish country dancing

Famous Scots
understand List of Scots

Places

Loch Ness Scottish Highlands (Aviemore, Cairngorms, Munros) and islands (Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland)

Other

Cutty Sark A thistle, the united states's national emblem - according to legend a Danish assailant stepped in a single when asleep, and then alerting the defenders of a Scottish castle, hence these are known as the "guardian thistle". Scottish sundial — the ancient renaissance sundials of Scotland.