Geography

GEOGRAPHY

Scotland lies to the north of England and its population is about five million. This is mainly because it is very montainous country and many areas are uninhabited.

It can be divided into three regions: the Highlands and Islands, the Central Lowlands and the Southern Uplands.

The Higlands are in the far north. Most of scottish population lives in the Central Howlands. The two main cities are Edimburgh, the capital of Scotland , and Glasgow, which is the third largest town in Britain.

The Southern Uplands border on England . Scotland's landscape is very beautiful with its mountain valleys "the glens" and lochs (lakes).

Loch Ness with its celebrated monster, Nessie, is one of the many scottish lakes.

The numerous scottish castles, often haunted by famous historical figures, are another great attraction for the tourists. One of the most popular castle in Scottland is "Cawdar Castle": here you can have a nice time its garden, where there is a mini golf, a pic-nic area, a snack bar, a restaurant and a souvenires shop.

Another romantic scottish castle is "Glamis Castle", the historical home of Earls of Strathmore and kimghome.

G L A S G O W

Glasgow is situated along the river Clyde: it's the second largest city in Scotland and it is the industrial capital after London ad Birmingham.

Glasgow, which started as a fortified prehistoric village, developed in the 15th century as a market place, thenks to its position that crosses many roads.

During the industrial hevolution many industries were created, including a ship building activities.

Many old buildings have disappeared, but the town has large and lovely parks, many cultural facilities and also a large number of schools and colleges.

E D I N B U R G H

Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, is one of the most romantic and cultural cities in the world;it is divided in the medieval old town and the new town.

The former is situated up the hill; in the latter built at the end of the 18th century, there are a lot of large streets, beautiful neoclassical hauses, and elegant squares.

In this historical town there are a lot of lovely buildings amore which the magnificent castle , the Palace of Holyroodhause. It is the Queen's official residence with the appartaments of Bonnie prince Charlie and Mary Stuart. Visitors can see the Palace when the Royal family is not there.

Just in front of the castle every summer in August the Edinburgh Tattoo takes place. It deals with a show of military bands and displays. Besides, soldiers parades on horsebakc and Scottish bagpipes bands, there are also performance of Scottish dances.

The city's attractions are galleries, theatres, museums, restaurants, shops and in august the annual international Festival of music and drama which is seen by people from all over the world.

HISTORY

The Picts were the first people to live in Scotland of whom we have some information. They were Celts and they spoke a kind of gaelic language that is also spoken today in some mountainous regions of Scotland.

St. Columba, the Irish monk, came to Scotland with tha Scots and brought Christianity to Scotland.

The first people that arrived in Scotland vere the Romans. As they vere not able to subdue the Pics and the Scots, king Hadrian decided to make a wall across Great Britain , from Carlisle to Newcastle.

This wall is called "Hadrian's wall". The first scottish king was Kenneth McAlpin, who united the Picts and the Scots. King Duncan of Scotland was killed by his cousin Mcbeth and this event was immortalised by Shakespeare in a tragedy called as the causin of the killed king.

There were several rebellions against the English, but some of them were succesful. The last one was led by Robert Bruce, a scottish champion who defeated the English at B. and obtained indipendence for Scotland in 1328.

The first great Stewart sovereign was queen Mary, who had to face the protestant reformation led by Knox. She was a catholic and she was obliged to leave Scotland and asked her cousin Elisabeth I of England for protection. Elisabeth promised her protection, but when Mary arrived in London, she imprisoned her and in 1587, after twenty years of , Mary was beheaded.

POLITICS

Scotland is a small country in the northern part of Great Britain; it enjoys much more autonomy than Wales. In fact, England and Scotland were united much later, esactly in 1707 after many centuries of fierce battles. Scotland has preserved most of its autonomy in the school and legal systems, it has its own church "of Scoltland", its own football championship and its banknotes are different from those of the other countries of Great Britain .

Like the Welsh, many scots wuold prefer to be completely indipendent and there's a scottish nationalist party, but the british voting system makes it difficult for small parties to have many seats in Parliament.

Scotland has also its own national sport: golf; the scottish patron saint is St. Andrew.

SCOTTISH COSTUME

The traditional scottish costume, which people wear on special occasions, consists of a pleated skirt made of tartan; tartan is a wollen material with coloured square designes usually green, red a blue which has become famous and popular all over the world; these skirts are called "kipts" and are usually worn together with jackets and special accessories.

Sotland's original language is called sottish gaelic; it is an ancient celtic language, but is spoken by only few people.

The traditional musical instruments are bagpipes; they are played at ceremonies by pipers, who wear traditional costumes.

Many scottish families live in "clans", every clan has its own typical tartan. "Clan" is a gaelic word that means "family or tribe".

Whisky is the traditional scottish alcoholic drink; in gaelic it means water of life.

According to an old legend, some scottish farmers, that didn't want to throw away their surplus barley -------------, fermented and distilled it, producing an alcoholic drink that is one of the most popular spirits drunk today throughtout the world.

S P O R T

Togheter with golf, there is another important, tipical sport called "tossing the . In summer in many scottish towns sporting competitions take place. For example, the have to throw a common ball, a hammer or the trunk of a tree called. .

It's one of the most popular contests in the Scottish Highland games.

The winner is the competitor who throws the caber the forthest.

CURIOSITY: NESSIE, the nice monster

People have always told stories about monsters, ghosts or other strange creatures that they have seen.

British people love these stories. One of the most Scottish monster, is call "Nessie", because they think it is a nice monster. They say it is about six meters long and has a long thin neck, a small snake-like head and serveral humps.

It feeds on fish that lives in the loch. The first person who wrote about a monster in the Loch Ness, was St. Columba, an English missionary, in Scotland in 565 a.d..

Much later in 1880 a driver, Dunkan McDonald examined a suncken ship in the loch and saw an enormous animal like a huge frog on a rock. He refused to dive in Loch Ness, ever again. Other persons say that they see Nessie, but now is only a famous scottish legend.