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. 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 population in 2022 was 5,439,842. Edinburgh is the capital and Glasgow is the most populous of the cities of Scotland.

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 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. Further powers are devolved to local government from the Scottish Government to the country's 32 subdivisions (known as "council areas").

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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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. (... Read the full article)

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Image 1

" ... In Scotland, there is no such thing as bad weather - only the wrong clothes ... "

— Billy Connolly

" ... this nation must rank among the most enlightened in the universe. Politics, religion and literature have made of Scotland something beyond compare ... "

— Charles de Rémusat
Image 2

" ... When Scotland forgets Burns, then history will forget Scotland ... "

— John Stuart Blackie

" ... Women do not find it difficult nowadays to behave like men, but they often find it extremely difficult to behave like gentlemen ... "

— Compton Mackenzie
Image 3

" ... I have not yet begun to fight! ... "

— John Paul Jones

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

— George Robertson
Image 4

" ... There is only one word for aid that is without strings, and that word is blackmail ... "

— Colm Brogan

" ... It is unfortunate, considering that enthusiasm moves the world, that so few enthusiasts can be trusted to speak the truth ... "

— A. J. Balfour
Image 5

" ... Politically correct is the language of cowardice ... "

— Billy Connolly

" ... It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine ... "

— P. G. Wodehouse
Image 6

" ... A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence ... "

— David Hume

" ... The surest way to get a thing in this life is to be prepared for doing without it, to the exclusion even of hope ... "

— Jane Welsh Carlyle
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" ... A well-written Life is almost as rare as a well-spent one ... "

— Thomas Carlyle

" ... Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I’m very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that ... "

— Bill Shankly
Image 8

" ... Peace is that state in which fear of any kind is unknown ... "

— John Buchan

" ... There are two great days in a person's life - the day we are born and the day we discover why ... "

— William Barclay
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" ... I'm not young enough to know everything ... "

— J.M.Barrie

" ... When one door closes another door opens, but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us ... "

— Alexander Graham Bell
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" ... No man is useless while he has a friend ... "

— Robert Louis Stevenson

" ... Scottish separation is part of England's imperial disintegration ... "

— John MacLean
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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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" ... He is an egregious dissembler and a great liar. Away with him, he is a greeting divil ... "

— Robert Blair (On Oliver Cromwell, to a fellow Covenanter)

" ... What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom ... "

— Adam Smith
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" ... Teach a parrot the terms "supply and demand" and you've got an economist ... "

— Thomas Carlyle

" ... A man’s real possession is his memory. In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor ... "

— Alexander McCall Smith
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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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" ... Men are immortal till their work is done ... "

— David Livingstone

" ... America would have been a poor show had it not been for the Scots ... "

— Andrew Carnegie
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" ... One can love a country until it hurts ... "

— Alexander McCall Smith

" ... I thought he was a young man of promise, but I see he was a young man of promises ... "

— A. J. Balfour
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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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" ... Celtic jerseys are not for second best, They don't shrink to fit inferior players ... "

— Jock Stein

" ... In every place, where there is any thing worthy of observation, there should be a short printed directory for strangers ... "

— James Boswell
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" ... Custom, then, is the great guide of human life ... "

— David Hume

" ... Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things ... "

— Robert Louis Stevenson
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" ... Some folks are wise and some are otherwise ... "

— Tobias Smollett

" ... It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in restrospect ... "

— Robert Louis Stevenson
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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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" ... 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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" ... Is there anything worn under the kilt? No, it's all in perfect working order ... "

— Spike Milligan

" ... The true definition of a snob is one who craves for what separates men rather than for what unites them ... "

— John Buchan
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" ... A man with God is always in the majority ... "

— John Knox

" ... Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own ... "

— J. M. Barrie
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" ... I must follow them. I am their leader ... "

— Bonar Law

" ... None can destroy Scotland, save Scotland's self ... "

— Lord Belhaven, opposing the union of 1707

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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)
16 April 2025 – Transgender rights in the United Kingdom, For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers: The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom rules that legal gender is based upon biological sex for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010. (BBC News)

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Selected biography

Photograph of Tait in 1870, with signature

Peter Guthrie Tait FRSE (28 April 1831 – 4 July 1901) was a Scottish mathematical physicist and early pioneer in thermodynamics. He is best known for the mathematical physics textbook Treatise on Natural Philosophy, which he co-wrote with Lord Kelvin, and his early investigations into knot theory.

His work on knot theory contributed to the eventual formation of topology as a mathematical discipline. His name is known in graph theory mainly for Tait's conjecture on cubic graphs. He is also one of the namesakes of the Tait–Kneser theorem on osculating circles. (... Read the full article)

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Image 1
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
Image 2
Plane arrival at Barra Airport

Barra Airport (Scottish Gaelic: Port-adhair Bharraigh) (IATA: BRR, ICAO: EGPR) (also known as Barra Eoligarry Airport) is a short-runway airport (or STOLport) situated in the wide shallow bay of Traigh Mhòr at the north tip of the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The airport is unique, being the only one in the world where scheduled flights use a beach as the runway.
Photo credit: Steve Holdsworth
Image 3
Luskentyre Beach, Lewis and Harris, The Outer Hebrides

Luskentyre Beach, Lewis and Harris, the Outer Hebrides

Photo credit: Thomas_Andy_Branson
Image 4
Commando Memorial above Spean Bridge

The Commando Memorial is a monument in Lochaber, dedicated to the men of the original British Commando Forces Situated around a mile from Spean Bridge, it was erected during World War II and unveiled in 1952 by the Queen Mother. The 17 foot high Memorial was designed by Scott Sutherland from Dundee College of Art in 1949 and comprises three gigantic bronze figures clad in battledress, woollen caps and climbing boots looking across the Great Glen.

Photo credit: P A Woodward
Image 5
Glasgow University main building with Dumgoyne and the Campsie Fells in the background

Autumnal view of Glasgow University main building with Dumgoyne and the Campsie Fells in the background

Photo credit: Ian Dick
Image 6
Cape Wrath Peninsula

Cape Wrath (Scottish Gaelic: Am Parbh, known as An Carbh in Lewis) is a cape in the Durness parish of the county of Sutherland in the Highlands of Scotland, and is the most north-westerly point in Great Britain.

Photo credit: RealSnowhunter
Image 7
Lighthouse on the Bass Rock, Firth of Forth

Lighthouse on the Bass Rock, an island in the outer part of the Firth of Forth, home to the world's largest colony of northern gannets.

Photo credit: Ben Clarke
Image 8
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
Image 9
Skara Brae

Skara Brae is a stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, the largest island in the Orkney archipelago. It consists of eight clustered houses, and was occupied from roughly 3180 BCE–2500 BCE. Europe's most complete Neolithic village, Skara Brae gained UNESCO World Heritage Site status as one of four sites making up "The Heart of Neolithic Orkney".

Photo credit: craig w macgregor
Image 10

Rannoch Moor (/ˈrænəx/ ; Scottish Gaelic: Mòinteach Rai(th)neach) is an expanse of around 50 square miles (130 km2) of boggy moorland to the west of Loch Rannoch in Scotland, from where it extends into westerly Perth and Kinross, northerly Lochaber (in Highland), and the area of Highland Scotland toward its south-west, northern Argyll and Bute. Rannoch Moor is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Special Area of Conservation.

Photo credit: Chjris Combe
Image 11
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 12
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
Image 13
The Wallace Monument

The Wallace Monument is a sandstone tower, built in the Victorian Gothic style. It stands on the summit of Abbey Craig, a volcanic crag above Cambuskenneth Abbey, from which Wallace was said to have watched the gathering of the army of English king Edward I, just before the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

Photo credit: Ray Mann
Image 14
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
Image 15
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 16
Overview of Holyrood Palace

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.

Photo credit: Christoph Strässler
Image 17
Evening view across Calton Hill towards the Castle

Evening view from Calton Hill towards an illuminated Edinburgh Castle with the Bank of Scotland headquarters and the Balmoral Hotel illuminated in the intermediate foreground. The sillhouettes of the Scott Monument and the tall gothic spire of the Hub are both prominent in the frame.

Photo credit: Chris Fleming
Image 18
Glenfinnan Viaduct

Glenfinnan Viaduct is a railway viaduct on the West Highland Line in Glenfinnan, Lochaber, Highland. It was built between 1897 and 1901. Located at the top of Loch Shiel in the West Highlands, the viaduct overlooks the Glenfinnan Monument and the waters of Loch Shiel.

Photo credit: Nicolas17
Image 19
View towards the Quiraing

The Quiraing is a landform on the on the Isle of Skye.

Photo credit: Snowmanstudios
Image 20
Armoury, Inveraray Castle

The Armoury at Inveraray Castle

Photo credit: Stuart Wilding
Image 21
Crail Harbour

Crail is a former royal burgh in the East Neuk of Fife. Built around a harbour, it has a particular wealth of vernacular buildings from the 17th to early 19th centuries, many restored by the National Trust for Scotland, and is a favourite subject for artists.

Photo credit: S.moeller
Image 22
Highland Park Distillery

Highland Park Distillery

Photo credit: Alan Jamieson
Image 23
Wemyss Bay railway station.

Wemyss Bay railway station is a railway station on the Inverclyde Line. Located in the village of Wemyss Bay, Inverclyde. The station incorporates the terminal for the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry connecting the mainland to Rothesay on the Isle of Bute.

Photo credit: wilm
Image 24
The Finnieston Crane on the River Clyde

The Finnieston Crane or Stobcross Crane is a disused giant cantilever crane in the centre of Glasgow. It is no longer operational, but is retained as a symbol of the city's engineering heritage. The crane was used for loading cargo, in particular steam locomotives, onto ships to be exported around the world.

Photo credit: VegasGav7777
Image 25
Dean Village, Edinburgh

Building fronting the Water of Leith in the Dean Village, Edinburgh

Photo credit: 瑞丽江的河水

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Did You Know...

Help available

... that buddleia grows from the exterior of the Church Street School swimming pool in Glasgow?
... that today the Bishop of Edinburgh plays a ceremonial role at the coronation of Charles III and Camilla as a representative of the Walker Trustees?
... that comedian Frankie Boyle's debut novel Meantime is about a Glaswegian drug addict investigating his friend's death?
... that the Scottish Register of Tartans has registered district tartans for Australia as a whole, and also a state district tartan for each of Australia's six states?
... that the Aesculapian Club, founded in Edinburgh in 1773, still meets twice a year?
... that Carrbridge Packhorse Bridge is the oldest-known stone bridge in the Scottish Highlands?
... that Ian Begg, known for his work on restoration of castles in Scotland, designed and built his own 20th-century tower house to live in?
... that during the First Bishops' War, the Duke of Hamilton's mother intended to shoot him with silver bullets if he landed in Scotland?

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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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