Portal:Scotland
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Loch Leven near Glencoe village. -
The Culloden Viaduct near to Culloden battlefield. -
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Loch Lubnaig seen from the path to Ben Ledi. -
Looking southwest from Ben_Lawers.
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Introduction
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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 members 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 is 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, although 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.
Selected article
Dundee (/dʌnˈdiː/ ⓘ; 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. (... Read the full article)
Selected quotes
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" ... The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none ... "
— Thomas Carlyle
" ... This is our land, this is our Scotland, these are our people, these are our men, our works, our women and children: can you beat it? ... "
— James Maxton -
" ... Every line of strength in American history is a line coloured with Scottish blood ... "
— Woodrow Wilson
" ... The result of our present enquiry is that we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end ... "
— James Hutton on the immensity of geological time at the Royal Society of Edinburgh -
" ... Every man has a sane spot somewhere ... "
— Robert Louis Stevenson
" ... You cannot force ideas. Successful ideas are the result of slow growth ... "
— Alexander Graham Bell -
" ... Few delights can equal the presence of one whom we trust utterly ... "
— George MacDonald
" ... The real price of every thing, what every thing really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it ... "
— Adam Smith -
" ... History, a distillation of Rumour ... "
— Thomas Carlyle
" ... Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary ... "
— Robert Louis Stevenson -
" ... 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 -
" ... Come along inside. We'll see if tea and buns can make the world a better place ... "
— Kenneth Grahame
" ... All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer ... "
— Robert Louis Stevenson -
" ... The cruellest lies are often told in silence ... "
— Robert Louis Stevenson
" ... It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important ... "
— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -
" ... All government is a monopoly of violence ... "
— Sir Walter Scott
" ... In order to enjoy leisure, it is absolutely necessary it should be preceded by occupation ... "
— Hugh MacDiarmid -
" ... Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open ... "
— Sir James Dewar
" ... The world is neither Scottish, English, nor Irish, neither French, Dutch, nor Chinese, but human ... "
— Sir Alexander Gray -
" ... God gave us our memories so that we might have roses in December ... "
— J. M. Barrie
" ... A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with – a man is what he makes of himself ... "
— Alexander Graham Bell -
" ... Burns of all poets is the most a Man ... "
— Dante Gabriel Rossetti
" ... No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men ... "
— Thomas Carlyle -
" ... Avarice, the spur of industry ... "
— David Hume
" ... No enemy is half so fatal as a friend estranged ... "
— John Davidson -
" ... Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes ... "
— J. M. Barrie
" ... I am not here, then, as the accused; I am here as the accuser of capitalism dripping with blood from head to foot ... "
— John Maclean from his famous "speech from the dock" -
" ... 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 -
" ... The secret of long life is always be doing something you enjoy ... "
— Tom Weir
" ... War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle ... "
— Thomas Carlyle -
" ... Golf is an indispensable adjunct to high society ... "
— Andrew Carnegie
" ... We are bought and sold for English gold. Such a parcel of rogues in a nation ... "
— Robert Burns -
" ... History is the essence of innumerable biographies ... "
— Thomas Carlyle
" ... for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule.
It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself ... "
— Declaration of Arbroath -
" ... Authors and captured criminals are the only people free from routine ... "
— Eric Linklater
" ... The world is neither Scottish, English, nor Irish, neither French, Dutch, nor Chinese, but human ... "
— James Grant -
" ... 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 -
" ... 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 -
" ... 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 -
" ... My wife says I'm Scotch by absorption ... "
— Magnus Magnusson
" ... Parents learn a lot about coping with life from their children ... "
— Muriel Spark -
" ... The Scots are steadfast - not their clime ... "
— Thomas Crawford
" ... We do have the greatest fans in the world but I’ve never seen a fan score a goal ... "
— Jock Stein -
" ... I have forgot a great deal more than most other men know ... "
— Lord Monboddo
" ... I tell you truly, liberty is the best of things; never live under the halter of slavery ... "
— William Wallace
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Selected biography
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Sir Patrick Geddes FRSE (2 October 1854 – 17 April 1932) was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, Comtean positivist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner. He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning and sociology. His works contain one of the earliest examples of the 'think globally, act locally' concept in social science.[dubious – discuss]
Following the philosophies of Auguste Comte and Frederic Le Play, he introduced the concept of "region" to architecture and planning and coined the term "conurbation". Later, he elaborated "neotechnics" as the way of remaking a world apart from over-commercialization and money dominance.
An energetic Francophile, Geddes was the founder in 1924 of the Collège des Écossais (Scots College), an international teaching establishment in Montpellier, France, and in the 1920s he bought the Château d'Assas to set up a centre for urban studies. (... Read the full article)
Selected picture
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The second chamber of the Smoo Cave, Durness in Sutherland, Scotland -
Meall a' Bhùiridh and Lochan na h-Achlaise as seen from the A82 road driving towards Glen Coe
Meall a' Bhùiridh and Lochan na h-Achlaise on Rannoch Moor viewed from the A82 en route to Glen Coe in the HIghlands..
Photo credit: Fuzzy14 -
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 -27.2oC, on 11 February 1895, and 10 January 1982.
Photo credit: Paul Chapman -
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 -
Eilean Donan Castle
The castle on Eilean Donan (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Donnain), a small tidal island where three sea lochs meet, Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh, in the western Highlands.
Photo credit: Gillfoto -
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 -
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 -
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 -
Glasgow Necropolis
The Glasgow Necropolis is a Victorian cemetery in Glasgow. It sits on a hill above, and to the east of, St. Mungo's Cathedral. It was conceived as a Père Lachaise for Glasgow, and subsequently established by the Merchants' House of Glasgow in 1831. Fifty thousand individuals have been buried in approximately 3500 tombs.
Photo credit: Finlay McWalter -
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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 -
St Mary's Cathedral viewsedfrom Manor Place, Edinburgh -
The Dunmore Pineapple, a folly in Dunmore Park, near Airth in Stirlingshire
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The Dunmore Pineapple, a folly in Dunmore Park, near Airth in Stirlingshire
Photo credit: George.Gastin -
Statue of Robert the Bruce, Bannockburn
Robert the Bruce statue at the Bannockburn Visitor Centre, Bannockburn, Stirling, is a 1964 work by Pilkington Jackson. The bronze sculpture depicts Robert the Bruce wielding an axe and on a war horse.
Photo credit: Martin Kraft -
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 -
Hill House, Helensburgh
Hill House in Helensburgh, Scotland, was created by architects and designers Charles and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. The house was built in a Modern Style way.
Photo credit: JeremyA -
Dunfermline Abbey, east side viewed from the south
Dunfermline Abbey is a large Benedictine abbey in Dunfermline, Fife. It was administered by the Abbot of Dunfermline. The abbey was founded in 1128 by King David I, but the monastic establishment was based on an earlier foundation dating back to the reign of King Máel Coluim mac Donnchada (i.e. "Malcolm III" or "Malcolm Canmore", r. 1058-93).
Photo credit: Mussklprozz -
Ben Vorlich and Loch Tay seen from Ben Lawers
Sunrise over Ben Vorlich , a mountain in the Southern Highlands and Loch Tay, the largest body of fresh water in Perth and Kinross.
Photo credit: Michal Klajban -
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 -
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 -
Luskentyre Beach, Lewis and Harris, The Outer Hebrides -
Comon seal basking on rocks
A common seal (Phoca vitulina) seen basking on rocks off Lismore, Argyll.
Photo credit: Sharp Photography -
Vat of Kirbister -
Blackrock cottage, Rannoch Moor
A view of Blackrock Cottage on Rannoch Moor with Buachaille Etive Mor in the background.
Photo credit: Andrewmckie -
Reaper under full sail.
Reaper is a restored historic Fifie herring drifter which is registered by the National Historic Ships Committee as part of the Core Collection of historic vessels in the UK, and currently operates as a museum ship.
Photo credit: Scottish Fisheries Museum Boats Club
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Did You Know...
- ... that Carrbridge Packhorse Bridge is the oldest-known stone bridge in the Scottish Highlands?
- ... that Colin Mackay, the political editor at Scottish Television, was "very sad" when Colin MacKay, the political editor at Scottish Television, died?
- ... that the 1830 abandonment of Chipewyan woman Matooskie by her Scottish husband was eventually settled with a dowry payment of £200?
- ... that the New York Yankees were first named after a Scottish regiment?
- ... that the 2024 Hillhead by-election was the first by-election won by the Scottish Green Party?
- ... that Thomas Kerr protested the Iraq War with his SNP-supporting aunt, later campaigned for Labour, joined the Conservatives, and defected to Reform UK?
- ... that Davy Russell won a 2025 Scottish election despite being dubbed the "invisible man" by an opponent?
- ... that a lane behind a tenement in Edinburgh is decorated as a Wild West town?
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- Add the Project Banner to Scottish articles around Wikipedia.
- Participate in WikiProject Scotland's Peer Review, including responding to PR requests and nominating Scottish articles.
- Help nominate and select new content for the Scotland portal.
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