Scotland: FLAG
the most northerly of the four parts of the United Kingdom, occupying about one-third of the island of Great Britain. It is bounded by England in the south and on the other three sides by sea: by the Atlantic Ocean on the west and north and by the North Sea on the east. Its mainland area is 28,269 square miles (73,217 square kilometres); including inhabited islands, it has an area of 30,418 square miles. The west coast is fringed by deep indentations (sea lochs or fjords) and by numerous islands, varying in size from mere rocks to the relatively large landmasses of Lewis and Harris, Skye, and Mull. The island clusters of the Orkneys and the Shetlands lie to the north. At its greatest length, measured from Cape Wrath to the Mull of Galloway, the mainland of Scotland extends to 274 miles (441 kilometres), while the maximum breadth, measured from Applecross, in the western Highland region, to Buchan Ness, in the eastern Grampian region, is 154 miles. But, because of the deep penetration of the sea in the sea lochs and firths (estuaries), most places are within 40 to 50 miles of the sea, and only 30 miles of land separate the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth, the two great estuarine inlets on the west and east coasts, respectively.
The name Scotland (in Latin, Scotia) derives from the Scots, a Celtic people from Ireland who settled on the west coast in about the 5th century. The name Caledonia has often been applied to Scotland, especially in poetry. It is derived from the Roman name, Caledonii, of a tribe in the northern part of what is now Scotland. The kingdom of the Scots gradually gained control over neighbouring peoples until, by the 11th century, they ruled over roughly the country's modern mainland area. Medieval struggles for independence from England were successful, but in 1603 the king of Scots became king also of England, and in 1707 Scotland's parliament was joined to that of England. Thus Scotland no longer has a separate legislature or executive, nor diplomatic or consular representation abroad, and its economy is integrated into that of the rest of Britain. It does, however, have a separate administration, and certain important aspects of national life were preserved at the Union of 1707, notably its radically different legal and educational systems and its Presbyterian national church.
Above all, Scotland has retained much of its cultural identity. Superficially, the external perception of this may descend to an image of whiskey-swilling, tartan-clad Highlanders in mist-enshrouded castles, looking backward to bloody battles and romantic tales. But the tenacity of native culture has a deeper reality: in political and social attitudes distinct from those south of the border, in the strength of Scottish literature (still flourishing in three languages--English, Gaelic, and Scots), and in a musical and folktale tradition that survives to the present day. Though Scotland's population is only about five million, many millions abroad proudly claim Scottish descent and keep some of these traditions alive after many generations.
Scotland is traditionally divided into three geographic areas: the Highlands in the north, the Central Lowlands, and the Southern Uplands. A glance at a map will show that lowland areas are not confined to the central belt and indeed extend along the greater part of the eastern seaboard. The east coast also contrasts with the west in its smoother outline, thus creating an east-west distinction in topography as well as a north-south one. The Highlands are bisected by the fault line of the Great Glen, which is occupied by a series of lochs (lakes), the largest of which is Loch Ness, famous for its probably mythical monster. North of the Great Glen is an ancient plateau, which, through long erosion, has been cut into a series of peaks of fairly uniform height separated by glens (valleys) carved out by glaciers. The northwestern fringe of the mainland is particularly barren, the Lewisian gneisses having been worn down by severe glaciation to produce a hummocky landscape, dotted by small lochs and rocks protruding from thin, acidic soil. The landscape is varied by spectacular Torridonian sandstone mountains, weathered into sheer cliffs, rock terraces, and pinnacles. Southeast of the Great Glen are the Grampian Mountains, which were also formed by glaciation, though there are intrusions such as the granitic masses of the Cairngorm Mountains. The Grampians are on the whole less rocky and rugged than the mountains of the northwest, being more rounded and grassy with wider areas of plateau. But many have cliffs and pinnacles that provide challenges for the mountaineer, and the area contains Britain's highest mountains, including Ben Nevis (4,406 feet; 1,343 metres) at the southern end of the Great Glen. There are some flatter areas, the most striking being the Moor of Rannoch, a bleak expanse of bogs and granitic rocks, with narrow, deep lochs, such as Loch Rannoch and Loch Ericht. The southeastern margin of the Highlands is clearly marked by the Highland Boundary Fault, running northeast to southwest from Stonehaven, just south of Aberdeen, to Helensburgh on the River Clyde, and passing through Loch Lomond, Scotland's largest stretch of inland water. The southern boundary of the Central Lowlands is not such a continuous escarpment, but the fault beginning in the northeast with the Lammermuir and Moorfoot hills and extending to Glen App, in the southwest, is a distinct dividing line. In some ways the label Lowlands is a misnomer, for, although this part of Scotland is low by comparison with adjoining areas, it is by no means flat. The landscape includes hills such as the Sidlaws, the Ochils, the Campsies, and the Pentlands, composed of volcanic rocks rising as high as 1,898 feet (579 metres). The Southern Uplands are not so high as the Highlands. Glaciation has resulted in narrow, flat valleys separating rolling mountains. To the east of Nithsdale the hills are rounded, gently sloping, and grass-covered, providing excellent grazing for sheep, and they open out along the valley of the lower Tweed into the rich farming land of the Merse. To the west of Nithsdale the landscape is rougher, with granitic intrusions around Loch Doon, and the soil is more peaty and wet. The high moorlands and hills, of which Merrick (2,766 feet) is the highest, are also suitable for sheep farming. The uplands slope toward the coastal plains along the Solway Firth in the south and to The Machars and the Mull of Galloway farther west.
In spite of the threat of dominance by its more powerful partner, Scottish culture has remained remarkably vigorous in the 20th century. Its strength springs in part from the diverse strands which make up its background, in particular the sharp contacts with the European mainstream cultures. It has also been enriched by contacts with the European mainstream brought about by the mobility of the Scottish people from the Middle Ages on. All of the arts receive support from the Scottish Arts Council, which has a large measure of autonomy from the Arts Council of Great Britain. Scottish writers have the choice of three languages--English, Scots, and Gaelic. Hugh MacDiarmid, the poet, nationalist, and Marxist, gained an international reputation for his Scottish poetry, and others, such as Robert Garioch, followed his lead. Gaelic poets such as Sorley Maclean and Derick Thompson are highly esteemed, as is Iain Crichton Smith, also known for his novels in English. Painting and sculpture flourish, as evidenced not only in official exhibitions but also in the burgeoning of many small galleries. In music the Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Opera, and Scottish Ballet have achieved international standing. The annual Edinburgh International Festival, with its Fringe, has become one of the world's largest cultural events. Scotland has an unparalleled wealth of surviving traditional music, ranging from the work songs of the Hebrides to the ballads of the northeast. There has also been renewed interest in Scotland's traditional instruments, the bagpipe, the fiddle, and the clarsach (the small Celtic harp). All aspects of traditional culture are researched, archived, and taught in the School of Scottish Studies in the University of Edinburgh.
Edinburgh also houses cultural institutions such as the National Library of Scotland, which has a statutory right to receive copies of all books published in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The National Gallery of Scotland has paintings by many famous European artists in addition to works by Allan Ramsay, Sir Henry Raeburn, and other Scottish painters. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery portrays the principal personages in Scotland's history, and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art has works by contemporary European painters and sculptors, as well as those of native artists. The National Museums of Scotland contain archaeological and later evidence for the development of the material and domestic aspects of Scottish society and have extensive collections in their departments of art and archaeology, natural history, technology, and geology. These galleries and museums are the responsibility of the secretary of state and are maintained by public funds.
Evidence of human settlement in the area later known as Scotland dates from the 3rd millennium BC. The earliest people, Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) hunters and fishermen who probably reached Scotland via an ancient land-bridge from the continent, were to be found on the west coast, near Oban, and as far south as Kirkcudbright, where their settlements are marked by large deposits of discarded mollusk shells. Remains suggest that settlers at the Forth estuary, in the area of modern Stirling, obtained meat from stranded whales. By early in the 2nd millennium BC, Neolithic (New Stone Age) farmers had begun cultivating cereals and keeping cattle and sheep. They made settlements on the west coast and as far north as Shetland. Many built collective chamber tombs, the example at Maeshowe in Orkney being the finest in Britain. A settlement of such people at Skara Brae in Orkney consists of a cluster of seven self-contained huts connected by covered galleries or alleys. The "Beaker folk," so called from the shape of their drinking vessels, came to eastern Scotland from northern Europe, probably beginning about 1800 BC. They buried their dead in individual graves and were pioneers in bronze working. The most impressive monuments of Bronze Age Scotland are the stone circles, presumably for religious ceremonies, such as those at Callanish in Lewis and Brodgar in Orkney, the latter being more than 300 feet (91 metres) in diameter.
From about 700 BC onward there was a distinct final period in Scottish prehistory. This period is the subject of current archaeological controversy, with somewhat less stress than in the past being placed on the importance of the introduction of iron fabrication or on the impact of large new groups of iron-using settlers. One key occurrence in the middle of the 1st millennium was the change from a relatively warm and dry climate to one that was cooler and wetter. In terms of technology, this period was marked by the appearance of hill forts, defensive structures having stone ramparts with an internal frame of timber; a good example is at Abernethy near the Tay. Some of these forts have been dated to the 7th and 6th centuries BC, which might suggest that they were adopted by already established tribes rather than introduced by incomers. Massive decorated bronze armlets with Celtic ornamentation, found in northeastern Scotland and dated to the period AD 50-150, suggest that chieftains from outside may have come to these tribes at this period, displaced from farther south by fresh settlers from the Continent and then by the advent of the Romans in AD 43. From 100 BC the "brochs" appeared in the extreme north of Scotland and the northern isles. These were high, round towers, which at Mousa in Shetland stand almost 50 feet (15 metres) in height. The broch dwellers may have carried on intermittent warfare with the fort builders of farther south. On the other hand, the two types of structures may not represent two wholly distinct cultures, and the two peoples may have together constituted the ancestors of the people later known as the Picts.
The houses of this people were circular, sometimes standing alone, sometimes in groups of 15 or more, as at Hayhope Knowe in the Cheviot Hills on the border between modern Scotland and England. Some single steadings, set in bogs or on lakesides, are called crannogs. Corn growing was probably of minor importance in the economy; the people were pastoralists and food gatherers. They were ruled by a warrior aristocracy whose bronze and iron parade equipment has, in a few instances, survived.
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