Discover Scotland: A Unique Country in Great Britain
A Special Country
There is nowhere like Scotland. Scotland is a country in a country. It is part of Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales), and of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). Scotland is in the far north-west of Europe, between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. It is often cold and grey, and it rains a lot in some parts of the country. But the people of Scotland love their country, and many visitors to Scotland love it too. They love the beautiful hills and mountains of the north, the sea and the 800 islands, and the six cities — Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness, and Stirling. The country is special and Scottish people are special too: often warm and friendly. There are about five million people in Scotland. Most Scots live in the south, in or near the big cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Most of the north of the country is very empty; not many people live there.
A Scottish person is also called a Scot, but you cannot talk about a Scotch person: Scotch means whisky, a drink made in Scotland. Scottish people are British, because Scotland is part of Great Britain, but you must not call Scottish people English! The Scots and the English are different. These days everyone in Scotland speaks English, but at one time, people in the north and west of Scotland did not speak English. They had a different language, a beautiful language called Gaelic. About 60,000 people – 1 per cent of the people in Scotland – speak Gaelic now. But many more want Gaelic in their lives because it is part of the story of Scotland.
Scotland’s Climate and Economy
Scotland is not a very hot country. In the summer the days are long and it can be warm. But in the winter the days can be just seven hours long, and it often rains. For many years, Scotland was a poor country, but now things are better for most people. There is oil and gas in the sea between Scotland and Norway. Edinburgh is an important place for money, and there are big banks there like the Royal Bank of Scotland. People in many countries drink Scotch whisky, and the whisky business makes a lot of money for Scotland. Tourists visit this beautiful country and that brings money to Scotland too. Many people love living and working there, and more than 20 million visitors go to Scotland each year.
Scotland’s Past
Scotland is the oldest country in the world. Why? Because the hills of the north-west and the Hebridean islands are more than 2,700 million years old. You can walk on some of the oldest rocks in the world there. People first lived there 9,000 years ago. At Skara Brae on the Orkney Islands, in the far north of Scotland, you can see the houses of early people from about five thousand years ago. The houses at Knap of Howar, also on the Orkneys, are the oldest in Europe.
Early Inhabitants and Roman Influence
The Romans went to Scotland, but they did not stay there for long. Between AD 122 and 128 they built Hadrian’s Wall. It was 117 kilometers long, and went from sea to sea across the most northern part of England. The Romans stayed in England for nearly three hundred years until about AD 400, and then they left and went back to Rome. Today you can visit Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England and walk along parts of it.
The First Scots and Their Kings
Who were the first Scots? The people north of Hadrian’s Wall were called Picts by the Romans. We can still see some of their story in their pictures in stone. But there were also Scotti from Ireland (the name ‘Scotland’ comes from the Scotti), Vikings from Norway, and some English people from the south. These different peoples came under one king in the 800s. The first king of all the Scots, many people say, was Kenneth MacAlpin. He was king from 843 to 858. But the most famous Scottish king of this early time is Macbeth (1040-1057). He is famous because Shakespeare wrote about him. For Shakespeare, Macbeth was a very bad man – but he was not worse than many other kings of those early days.
Battles and Independence
There were many battles between England and Scotland. One important Scot was William Wallace (about 1270-1305). You can learn about him in the film Braveheart. Then in 1314, the Scottish King Robert the Bruce took his men to the Battle of Bannockburn. After the battle, 10,000 Englishmen were dead, and Robert became one of the most important kings in the story of Scotland. Soon after, Scotland was free and stayed free for nearly three hundred years.
A Young Queen
In 1542, a little girl called Mary became queen of Scotland: she was six days old, and only the second woman to be queen of this country.