Scotland
Because of the huge number of books which have been written about Scotland and the increasing number of 'Scottish' websites which continue to appear on-line, it's difficult to find something different to say about this country, in which I was born and still live, that has not been said many times, and in many places, already.
So, except for the very brief introduction below, I'm not even going to try !
Scotland is a relatively small country, approximately 31,500 square miles in area, being only 275 miles from North to South and 150 miles across at the widest point. It has a population of just over 5.1 million people, about 70% of whom live in what is often referred to as the Central Belt.
Scotland's two largest cities lie within this region, the capital, Edinburgh (population : 449,000) in the East, and the largest, Glasgow (population : 630,000) to the West. To put those figures into some kind of perspective, the next two largest cities, Aberdeen and Dundee, have a combined population of around 350,000.
It has often been said that, although there may only be 5.0 million of us here in Scotland, scattered around the globe there are more than 50 million people who can, and often do, claim varying degrees of Scots ancestry.
Some Scottish Links
Some photographs of Scotland
Highland Cattle (Muckle Coos) ~ Let's get the kitsch over and done with at the beginning . . .
the typical Scottish calendar photo !
Portpatrick, Dumfries and Galloway ~ Almost as far as you can go in the south-west of Scotland. In the 1600s and 1700s this was the main port for the crossing to Ireland as it's only 22 miles across the Irish Channel to Donaghadee in County Down. The life-boat station, established here in 1877, is one of 30 in Scotland which is continually 'on call'.
Castle Stalker, Loch Laich, Appin, Argyll ~ Built c.1400 by the Lord of Lorn, Sir John Stewart, father of Dugald, who became the First Chief of Appin. Following extensive renovation between 1965-1975, it is now fully habitable and one of the best-preserved medieval tower-houses surviving in Western Scotland. Used as a location for 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' and 'Highlander : Endgame'.
Loch Lomond . . . the World's most famous Loch ? ~ Twenty-four miles long and five miles wide and has a larger surface area than any other fresh water Loch in the UK. It's difficult to believe that this tranquil scenery only lies about 15 miles to the North of Glasgow.
Tobermory, Isle of Mull ~ Legend has it that a Spanish galleon, loaded with treasure, sank in the Bay in 1588. The fact that a galleon was wrecked whilst trying to make harbour is well documented but nobody has ever found the treasure ! Where most of the BBC 'CBeebies' series, Balamory was filmed.
Toward Point Lighthouse, Dunoon, Argyll & Bute ~ A familiar sight to the many US servicemen who were deployed to the Polaris submarine base in the Holy Loch between 1961-1992.
Inveraray, Loch Fyne, Argyll & Bute ~ Inveraray Castle in the foreground is the ancestral home of the Clan Campbell, the heads of whom have held the title of Duke (originally Earl) of Argyll since the mid-1400s. The town itself is a popular tourist destination having a museum in the old Georgian jail and one of the few remaining Clyde Puffers (shown here moored in the harbour). These little boats were made famous in Neil Munro's Para Handy stories, this one was previously named the VIC 72 and Eilean Eisdeal but has now renamed as the Vital Spark of Glasgow as a tribute to Neil Munro.
The Wallace Monument, Abbey Craig, Stirling & the River Forth ~ Commemorating Sir William Wallace and the Battle of Stirling Bridge (11th September 1297) when, although greatly outnumbered, the Scottish forces led by Wallace and Andrew de Moray routed a professional English army of 3,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry during the first War of Scottish Independence. Following defeat at the Battle of Falkirk (22nd July 1298), Wallace escaped but was eventually captured and executed for treason (23rd August 1305) on the order of Edward I of England.
Portree or Port-an-Righ, Isle of Skye ~ Depending on the reference, the Gaelic translates as 'King's port' or 'port of the hillside'. The last meeting place of Flora MacDonald and Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1746 and the largest town on Skye, one of the islands of the Inner Hebrides.
Oban, Argyll & Bute ~ The structure in the background is McCaig's Tower, more usually referred to as McCaig's Folly, built by a local banker in 1897 to provide work for local stonemasons and provide a lasting monument to his family.
The Falkirk Wheel, Stirlingshire ~ Built to connect the Union Canal with the Forth and Clyde Canal and opened in 2002, it is the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world. It has an overall diameter of 35 metres (110 ft) to compensate for the 24 metre (80 ft) difference in the levels of the two canals at that point.
The Forth Bridge ~ Built by the Glasgow based civil engineering firm of Sir William Arrol & Co. and opened in 1890 to connect Fife and Edinburgh by rail, it has a total length of 1.5 miles (2.5 km) and was the first bridge to be built in steel.
The Skye Bridge ~ Connecting the Isle of Skye with the mainland, across Loch Alsh. It was first opened in 1995 as a toll bridge (although these were subsequently abolished in 2004).
The Erskine Bridge ~ The most downstream of all the Clyde bridges was opened in 1971. It was also a toll bridge until these were abolished in 2006. I've no idea of the total number of bridges there are across the Clyde, there are twenty within the Glasgow city boundaries.
Rannoch Moor and Glencoe, Lochaber, Highland ~ Probably best known as the scene of the infamous 'Massacre of Glencoe' which took place there in February 1692. Described by Robert Louis Stevenson in Kidnapped as 'A wearier looking desert a man never saw'. Contrary to general belief, the massacre was not simply the result of an old feud between clan Campbell and clan McDonald. It was an act of official policy which had been approved by King William II & III and was carried out by a regiment of the British Army. However, under Scots Law, it was defined as an act of 'murder under trust'.
Ardnamurchan Lighthouse, Lochaber, Highland ~ Next landfall on this line of latitude (56°N) would be Labrador in Canada. Often misquoted as the most westerly point on the British mainland, there is actually a small hillock nearby called Corrachadh Mòr which is another 30 to 40 metres further West, it lies at the end of thirty miles of single-track road. It is about twenty-two miles further West than Land's End in Cornwall (which, in turn, is not as far South as Lizard Point).
Dunnet Head or Easter Head, Caithness ~ The sign really says it all ! That's about as far as we go on this short visual tour of Scotland. However, if you wish to venture still further North, I can recommend Sigurd Towrie's excellent website ~ 'Orkneyjar' ~ The Heritage of the Orkney Islands.
My thanks to Ian Smith for kindly granting permission to use several of his photographs on this page.
