Scotland

Alternate uses. See Scotland (disambiguation).

Scotland was first united with England in 1603, when the Scottish King James the Sixth became James the First of England and Scotland. On March 26, 1707, the Scottish and English parliaments merged to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, which eventually became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, though some aspects, notably Scotland's legal system, did remain separate. In 1999, Scotland received its own devolved home rule parliament to govern the country on purely domestic matters. Scotland is the second-largest nation in the United Kingdom (after England).

Scotland (Scots/English)
Alba (Gaelic)

(In detail) (Full size)
Royal motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (Latin: No one provokes me with impunity)
Scotland's location within the UK
Official languages	English (de facto), Scots Gaelic, Scots
Capital	Edinburgh
First Minister	Jack McConnell MSP
Area  - Total  - % water	Ranked 2nd 78,782 km² 1.9%
Population  - Total (2001)  - Density	Ranked 2nd 5,062,011 64/km²
Establishment	Kenneth MacAlpin, 843
Currency	Pound Sterling (£) (GBP)
Time zone	WET (UTC; UTC+1 in summer)
National anthem	Flower of Scotland (unofficial)
NUTS 1:	UKM
Internet TLD	.uk
Calling Code	44
International call prefix	00

Table of contents

1 Head of State 2 Geography 3 Geology 3.1 Tectonic Plate Movement 4 Language 5 History 6 Modern Scotland 7 Culture 7.2 Scots Law 7.3 Scottish Education 7.4 Banking 7.5 Sports 7.6 Media 7.7 Other facets of Scottish Culture 7.8 Miscellaneous 8 Religion 9 Politics 10 The Scottish Economy 11 See also 12 External links

Head of State

Queen Elizabeth II Head of State of the United Kingdom is descended from King James VI, the first Scottish monarch to also be King of England (James I of England from 1603). While some controversy has simmered amongst the Scottish public over her official title since her coronation (many believe that, logically, she should use the style "Elizabeth I"), the courts of Scotland have confirmed "Elizabeth II" as her official title. She has said that in future monarchs will follow the international ordinal tradition that, where a monarch reigns in a number of non-independent territories (or independent territories that agree to share a monarch) that each have a differing number of previous monarchs of the same name, the highest ordinal used in any of the territories is the one used across all. (Past Scottish-English monarchs such as James VI & I and James VII & II reigned over legally separate kingdoms and hence used a dual ordinal.)

Geography

Scotland comprises the northern part of the island of Great Britain; it is bordered on the south by England. The country consists of a mainland area plus several island groups, including Shetland, Orkney, and the Hebrides, divided into the Inner Hebrides and Outer Hebrides. Three main geographical and geological areas make up the mainland: from north to south, the generally mountainous Highlands, the low-lying Central Belt, and the hilly Southern Uplands. The majority of the Scottish population resides in the Central Belt, which contains three of the country's six cities, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, and many large towns. Most of the remaining population lives in the North East Lowlands where the remaining three cities, Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness, are situated.

Geology

The northern and southern parts of the island of Great Britain became adjoined only 75 million years before the onset of vulcanism in East Lothian. Before then, Scotland lay on the margin of the Laurentian continent, which included North America and Greenland. England and Wales lay some 40° of latitude further south, adjacent to Africa and South America in the Gondwanan continent. In the Early Ordovician, approximately 475 million years ago, England and Wales, on the Avalonian plate, rifted away from Gondwana and drifted northward towards Laurentia. The Iapetus Ocean, which separated the two land masses, began to close. By the mid-Silurian, about 420 million years ago, its margins had become attached along the Iapetus Suture, which roughly follows a line running West to East from the Solway Firth to Northumberland.

When the later episode of vulcanism occurred, approximately 270 million years ago, Scotland still comprised part of Pangaea, but had drifted northward. East Lothian stood at about 8° North. Consolidation of Pangaea had continued so that the nearest ocean, the Tethys seaway, lay between Eurasia and Africa.

See http://www.glg.ed.ac.uk/home/s9810658/eastlothian/plates/tectonics.html and Geology of the United Kingdom.

Language

Almost all residents of Scotland speak English, although many speak various Scots dialects which differ markedly from Scottish Standard English. Approximately 2% of the population use Scots Gaelic as their language of every-day use, primarily in the northern and western regions of the country. Almost all Gaelic speakers also speak fluent English.

By the time of James VI's accession to the English throne the old Scottish Court and Parliament spoke Scots, also known as Lallans. Scots developed from the Anglian spoken in the Northumbrian kingdom of Bernicia, which in the 6th century conquered the Brythonic kingdom of Gododdin and renamed its capital of Dunedin to Edinburgh.

History

Historically, from at least the reign of David I (ruled 1124 - 1153), Scotland began to show a split into two cultural areas - the mainly Scots, latterly English-speaking Lowlands, and the mainly-Gaelic speaking Highlands. This caused divisions in the country where the Lowlands remained, historically, more influenced by the English to the south: the Lowlands lay more open to attack by invading armies from the south and absorbed English influence through their proximity to and their trading relations with their southern neighbours.

The clan system in Highland Scotland formed one of its more distinctive features. Notable clans include Clan MacGregor, Clan MacDonald, Clan Mackenzie, Clan Mackie, Clan MacLeod, Clan Robertson, Clan Campbell and others.

Historically the Lowlands adopted a variant of the feudal system after the Norman Conquest of England, with families of Norman ancestry providing most of the monarchs after approximately 1100 AD. These families included the Stewart or Stuart, Bruce, Douglas, Porteous, and Murray or Moray families.

During the Wars of Scottish Independence (approximately 1290 - 1363) the Scottish people rose up against English rule, firstly, under the leadership of Sir William Wallace, and later, under that of Robert the Bruce. Bruce won a famous victory over the English at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

In 1603 the Scottish King James VI inherited the throne of England, and became James I of England. James moved to London and only returned once to Scotland. In 1707 the Scottish and English Parliaments signed a Treaty of Union. Implementing the treaty involved dissolving both the English and the Scottish Parliaments, and transferring all their powers to a new Parliament in London which then became the United Kingdom Parliament. A customs and currency union also took place.

This state of affairs continued until May 1999 when Scotland gained a new Scottish Parliament. Whereas the old Scottish parliament had functioned as a full national parliament of a sovereign state, the new parliament governs the country only on domestic matters, the United Kingdom parliament having retained responsibility for Scotland's defence, international relations and certain other areas.

Modern Scotland

Scotland comprises 32 unitary authority regions.

Popular folk-memory continues to divide Scotland into 33 traditional counties.

Scotland has six designated cities: in descending order of population size:

• Glasgow
• Edinburgh, the capital
• Aberdeen
• Dundee
• Inverness
• Stirling

• Major Rivers:
  • The Clyde, The Dee, The Don, The Forth, The Tay, The Tweed, The Spey, ...
• Firths (estuaries)
  • Solway, Clyde, Lorn, Dornoch, Inverness, Moray, Tay, Forth
• Sea Lochs (fjords)
  • Loch Linnhe, Loch Fyne, Loch Long, Loch Etive, Loch Sunart, Loch Nevis, Loch Hourn, Loch Broom
• Freshwater Lochs (lakes) include:
  • Loch Ness, Loch Lomond, Loch Morar, Loch Tay, Loch Rannoch, Loch Awe, Loch Shiel, Loch Maree, The Lake of Menteith,...
• Artificial & Enhanced waterways include:
  • Caledonian Canal, Crinan Canal, Forth & Clyde Canal;, Union Canal
    • See Also Falkirk Wheel

Scots Law

Scotland retains its own unique legal system, based on Roman law, which combines features of both civil law and common law. The terms of union with England specified the retention of separate systems. Scots Law differs from England's common law system.

Scottish Education

Scotland also has a separate Scottish education system. The Act of Union guaranteed the rights of the Scottish universities, but more importantly, Scotland became the first country since Sparta in classical Greece to implement a system of general public education. This began with the Education Act of 1696 and became compulsory for children from the implementation of the Education Act of 1872 onwards. As a result, for over two hundred years Scotland had a higher percentage of its population educated at primary, secondary and tertiary levels than any other country in Europe. The differences in education have manifested themselves in different ways, but most noticeably in the number of Scots who went on to become leaderss in their fields during the 18th and 19th centuries.

School students in Scotland sit Higher exams rather than the English A-Level system. Also, a Scottish university's honours degree takes four years of study as opposed to three in the rest of the UK. The university systems in several Commonwealth countries show marked affinities with the Scottish rather than the English system.

Banking

Banking in Scotland also features unique characteristics. Although the Bank of England remains the central bank for the UK Government, three Scottish corporate banks still issue their own banknotes: (the Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Clydesdale Bank). These notes have no status as legal tender in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. In Scotland, neither they nor the Bank of England's notes rank as legal tender (as Scots law lacks the concept), however banknotes issued by any of the four banks meet with common acceptance. See British banknotes.

For a further discussion read Legal Tender

The modern system of branch banking (in which banks maintain a nationwide system of offices rather than one or two central offices) originated in Scotland. Only strong political pressure during the 19th century prevented the resultant strong banking system from taking over banking in England. However, although Scottish banks proved unwelcome in England at the time, their business model became widely copied, firstly in England and later in the rest of the world.

Sports

Scotland has many national sporting associations, such as the Scottish Football Association or the Scottish Rugby Union. This gives the country independent representation at many international sporting events such as the football World Cup. Scotland cannot compete in the Olympic Games independently however, and Scottish athletes must compete as part of the Great Britain team if they wish to take part. Scotland does however send its own team to compete in the Commonwealth Games.

Scotland also has its own sporting competitions distinct from the rest of the UK, such as the Scottish Football League.

Media

Scotland has distinct media from the rest of the UK. For example, it produces many national newspapers such as The Daily Record (Scotland's leading Source | Copyright