Scotland

Scotland  is  the upper  third of the island of Great Britain. Most of Britain’s mountains are  in Scotland (including the highest), and for  that reason Central Scotland is known as “The Highlands.” Scotland  is best known  for two things: rugged scenery and  rugged people.

 

Three mountain  ranges make up most of Scotland: the Northern Highlands at  the extreme north, the Grampian Mountain range in the middle and the Southern Uplands at the bottom. Between the Grampians  and  the Uplands lies the great valley of the Central Lowland. The rest of Scotland consists of more than 790 islands, which are even windier, colder and  more barren than  the rest  of the country. The climate is  said  be “temperate” by people who have a loose way with words. You can get  a better  idea  of Scotland’s weather if  you  keep in mind that some of it’s terrain is actually tundra. Thanks to the  climate and years of human exploitation, there are few forests in Scotland, and none of great size.

 

The Scots are a mix of Gaels (a kind of Celt), Vikings and Anglo-Saxon intruders. The very name “Scotland” comes from the way the Romans mis-pronounced “Gael.” The Romans were not fans of the Scots. They tried to build a wall (Hadrian’s Wall)  across the border between  Scotland and Occupied Britain. They wanted to keep out Scottish raiders. The Wall was hugely  expensive and didn’t do a bit of good.

 

From approximately the time of the Norman Conquest to 1707, Scotland was technically a unified country under a single crown. “Technically” is a word that here means “the  historians are mostly lying.” During this period Scotland evolved its most distinctive cultural tradition: the Clan system. The  early clans were tribes of families who lived in close proximity. Since  most Scottish  kings  were weak, and because  the mountainous  terrain made it difficult to move troops, people looked to their local Clan Chief to protect them from criminals, dispense  justice and provide for emergencies. The shortage of good land in Scotland led to centuries of Clan warfare.

 

After centuries of trying  to defeat the Scots, the English  gave up and made a Scotsman their  King, in an  effort to unite the two countries. This was King James the First, of  literary  fame. Gradually, the two countries came under  a  common political system. For the first few hundred years, Scotland was the  victim of oppressive  English laws that tried to destroy the Clan system and hand over the best land to English lords. The English tyranny caused hundereds of thousands of  Scotsmen to emigrate, mostly to Canada  and the States. However, there  the  descendents  of Scots to be found in such places as Argentina and  Brazil, not to mention Jamaica, who’s early European settlers were mostly Scots.

 

Today, Scotland is self-governing, with its own Parliment and direct representation in the European Parliment.

 

Scotland  holds a special place in history. The Enlightenment  came to England by way  of Scottish  intellectuals, and Scots engineers and businessmen  started the Industrial Revolution.

 

Scotland has three other cultural traditions that are known around the world:  Scotch Whiskey, bagpipes and the Kilt. The kilt is the only skirt-like garment  routinely worn by Western males. Since Scotsmen tend to be  big and  brawney, they  don’t usually get harassed. The kilted bagpiper is the standard symbol of Scotland, just as the Eiffel Tower stands for Paris and the Statue of Liberty means New York City.

 

The purple thistle is  the national flower of Scotland. It’s stubborn, does well in a cold, dry climate and is dangerously prickly — rather like the Scots themselves.