Portal:Scotland
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Loch Leven near Glencoe village. -
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The Culloden Viaduct near to Culloden battlefield. -
Loch Lubnaig seen from the path to Ben Ledi. -
Looking southwest from Ben_Lawers.
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| Main Page | Selected articles 1 | Selected articles 2 | Selected biographies | Selected quotes | Selected pictures | Featured Content | Categories & Topics |
Introduction
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjacent islands, principally in the archipelagos of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. To the south-east, Scotland has its only land border, which is 96 miles (154 km) long and shared with England; the country is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, the North Sea to the north-east and east, and the Irish Sea to the south. The population in 2022 was 5,439,842. Edinburgh is the capital and Glasgow is the most populous of the cities of Scotland.
The Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the 9th century. In 1603, James VI succeeded to the thrones of England and Ireland, forming a personal union of the three kingdoms. On 1 May 1707, Scotland and England combined to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain, with the Parliament of Scotland subsumed into the Parliament of Great Britain. In 1999, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, and has devolved authority over many areas of domestic policy. The Scottish Government is the executive arm of the devolved government, headed by the first minister who chairs the cabinet and responsible for government policy and international engagement. Further powers are devolved to local government from the Scottish Government to the country's 32 subdivisions (known as "council areas").
The country has its own distinct legal system, education system and religious history, which have all contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and national identity. Scottish English and Scots are the most widely spoken languages in the country, existing on a dialect continuum with each other. Scottish Gaelic speakers can be found all over Scotland, but the language is largely spoken natively by communities within the Hebrides; Gaelic speakers now constitute less than 2% of the total population, though state-sponsored revitalisation attempts have led to a growing community of second language speakers.
The mainland of Scotland is broadly divided into three regions: the Highlands, a mountainous region in the north and north-west; the Lowlands, a flatter plain across the centre of the country; and the Southern Uplands, a hilly region along the southern border. The Highlands are the most mountainous region of the British Isles and contain its highest peak, Ben Nevis, at 4,413 feet (1,345 m). The region also contains many lakes, called lochs; the term is also applied to the many saltwater inlets along the country's deeply indented western coastline. The geography of the many islands is varied. Some, such as Mull and Skye, are noted for their mountainous terrain, while the likes of Tiree and Coll are much flatter.
Selected article
A kilt (Scottish Gaelic: fèileadh [ˈfeːləɣ]) is a garment resembling a wrap-around knee-length skirt, made of twill-woven worsted wool with heavy pleats at the sides and back and traditionally a tartan pattern. Originating in the Scottish Highland dress for men, it is first recorded in the 16th century as the great kilt, a full-length garment whose upper half could be worn as a cloak. The small kilt or modern kilt emerged in the 18th century, and is essentially the bottom half of the great kilt. Since the 19th century, it has become associated with the wider culture of Scotland, and more broadly with Gaelic or Celtic heritage.
Although the kilt is most often worn by men on formal occasions and at Highland games and other sporting events, it has also been adapted as an item of informal male clothing, returning to its roots as an everyday garment. Kilts are now made for casual wear in a variety of materials. Alternative fastenings may be used and pockets inserted to avoid the need for a sporran. Kilts have also been adopted as female wear for some sports. (... Read the full article)
Selected quotes
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" ... Some folks are wise and some are otherwise ... "
— Tobias Smollett
" ... It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in restrospect ... "
— Robert Louis Stevenson -
" ... Few delights can equal the presence of one whom we trust utterly ... "
— George MacDonald
" ... The real price of every thing, what every thing really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it ... "
— Adam Smith -
" ... Biography: One of the new terrors of death ... "
— John Arbuthnot
" ... It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding ... "
— Sydney Smith
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" ... Insanity - a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world ... "
— Ronald David Laing
" ... To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life ... "
— Robert Louis Stevenson -
" ... It is a vain hope to make people happy by politics ... "
— Thomas Carlyle
" ... We are never happy; we can only remember that we were so once ... "
— Alexander McCall Smith -
" ... Come along inside. We'll see if tea and buns can make the world a better place ... "
— Kenneth Grahame
" ... All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer ... "
— Robert Louis Stevenson -
" ... There are only two types of music: rock and roll ... "
— Alex Harvey
" ... A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that Fortune's inequality exhibits under this sun ... "
— Thomas Carlyle -
" ... Custom, then, is the great guide of human life ... "
— David Hume
" ... Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things ... "
— Robert Louis Stevenson -
" ... We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation ... "
— Voltaire
" ... Many a clever boy is flogged into a dunce and many an original composition corrected into mediocrity ... "
— Sir Walter Scott -
" ... No man can become rich without himself enriching others ... "
— Andrew Carnegie
" ... The old cathedrals are good, but the great blue dome that hangs over everything is better ... "
— Thomas Carlyle -
" ... Politically correct is the language of cowardice ... "
— Billy Connolly
" ... It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine ... "
— P. G. Wodehouse -
" ... He's very clever, but sometimes his brains go to his head ... "
— Margot Asquith speaking of F. E. Smith
" ... When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe ... "
— John Muir -
" ... I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom ... "
— Thomas Carlyle
" ... Kilt, n. - a costume sometimes worn by Scotsmen in America and Americans in Scotland ... "
— Ambrose Bierce -
" ... The worst of being a doctor is that one's mistakes matter so much ... "
— Elsie Inglis
" ... The ideal board of directors should be made up of three men - two dead and the other dying ... "
— Tommy Docherty -
" ... Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others ... "
— Robert Louis Stevenson
" ... Work is the grand cure of all maladies and miseries that ever beset mankind ... "
— Thomas Carlyle -
" ... No man is useless while he has a friend ... "
— Robert Louis Stevenson
" ... Scottish separation is part of England's imperial disintegration ... "
— John MacLean -
" ... You ought to be roasted alive, though even then you would not be to my taste ... "
— J. M. Barrie speaking to George Bernard Shaw
" ... We are often unable to tell people what they need to know because they want to know something else ... "
— George MacDonald -
" ... No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober ... "
— Samuel Smiles
" ... It is a great mortification to the vanity of man, that his utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of nature's productions, either for beauty or value ... "
— David Hume -
" ... Authors and captured criminals are the only people free from routine ... "
— Eric Linklater
" ... The world is neither Scottish, English, nor Irish, neither French, Dutch, nor Chinese, but human ... "
— James Grant -
" ... My theory is that all of Scottish cuisine is based on a dare ... "
— Mike Myers
" ... A man may well be condemned, not for doing something, but for doing nothing ... "
— William Barclay -
" ... I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his subject ... "
— William Wallace
" ... People in Scotland have a queer idea of the arts. They think you can be an artist in your spare time, though nobody expects you to be a spare-time dustman, engineer, lawyer or brain surgeon ... "
— Alasdair Gray -
" ... The secret of long life is always be doing something you enjoy ... "
— Tom Weir
" ... War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle ... "
— Thomas Carlyle -
" ... The cruellest lies are often told in silence ... "
— Robert Louis Stevenson
" ... It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important ... "
— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -
" ... A man with God is always in the majority ... "
— John Knox
" ... Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own ... "
— J. M. Barrie -
" ... A ripple of laughter is worth an ocean of tears. To laugh is to be free of worry ... "
— Harry Gordon
" ... It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important ... "
— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
In the news
- 24 May 2025 – 2024–25 Scottish Cup
- In association football, Aberdeen F.C. wins their 9th Scottish Cup and their first in 35 years after defeating 42-time winners Celtic F.C. 4–3 in the final on penalties after a 1–1 draw at Hampden Park in Glasgow. (BBC Sport)
- 16 April 2025 – Transgender rights in the United Kingdom, For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers
- The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom rules that legal gender is based upon biological sex for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010. (BBC News)
Selected biography
Charlotte Stuart, styled Duchess of Albany (29 October 1753 – 17 November 1789) was the illegitimate daughter of the Jacobite pretender Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie" or the "Young Pretender") and his only child to survive infancy.
Charlotte's mother was Clementina Walkinshaw, who was mistress to Charles Edward from 1752 until 1760. After years of abuse, Clementina left him, taking Charlotte with her. Charlotte spent most of her life in French convents, estranged from a father who refused to make any provision for her. Unable to marry, she herself became a mistress with illegitimate children, taking Ferdinand de Rohan, Archbishop of Bordeaux, as her lover.
She was finally reconciled with her father in 1784, when he legitimised her and created her Duchess of Albany in the Jacobite peerage. She left her children with her mother, and became her father's carer and companion in the last years of his life, before dying less than two years after him. Her offspring was raised in anonymity; however, as Prince Charles Stuart's only grandchildren, they have been the subject of Jacobite interest since their lineage was uncovered in the 20th century. (... Read the full article)
Selected picture
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Skara Brae
Skara Brae is a stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, the largest island in the Orkney archipelago. It consists of eight clustered houses, and was occupied from roughly 3180 BCE–2500 BCE. Europe's most complete Neolithic village, Skara Brae gained UNESCO World Heritage Site status as one of four sites making up "The Heart of Neolithic Orkney".
Photo credit: craig w macgregor -
The William Younger Centre housing Our Dynamic Earth science centre
Our Dynamic Earth is a Scottish science centre and prominent conference venue and visitor attraction located in Holyrood, Edinburgh, beside the Scottish Parliament Building.
Photo credit: Globaltraveller -
Meall a' Bhùiridh and Lochan na h-Achlaise as seen from the A82 road driving towards Glen Coe
Meall a' Bhùiridh and Lochan na h-Achlaise on Rannoch Moor viewed from the A82 en route to Glen Coe in the HIghlands..
Photo credit: Fuzzy14 -
Looking south from the Quiraing, Skye
The Isle of Skye, commonly known as Skye, is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides. In Scottish Gaelic it is commonly referred to as An t-Eilean Sgiathanach ("The Winged Isle").
Photo credit: masher2 -
A walker slacklining at the Old Man of Hoy
Walker Alex Schulz slacklining at the Old Man of Hoy, a 449-foot (137-metre) sea stack on Hoy, part of the Orkney archipelago .
Photo credit: AlexSchulz91 -
Kyle of Durness
Durness (Scottish Gaelic: Diùirnis) is a huge but remote parish in the northwestern Highlands, encompassing all the land between the Moine to the East (separating it from Tongue parish) and the Gualin to the West (separating it from Eddrachilis).
Photo credit: Neil Booth -
Inveraray Bridge on Loch Fyne
Loch Fyne (Scottish Gaelic: Loch Fìne, meaning "Loch of the Vine or Wine", is a sea loch on the west coast of Argyll and Bute. Although there is no evidence for grapes growing there, it was more metaphorical, such as meaning that the River, Abhainn Fìne, was a well-respected river.
Photo credit: Michael Parry -
The supply boat Good Shepherd III is tied up on the jetty on Fair Isle, 1974
Fair Isle (from Old Norse Frjóey) (Scottish Gaelic: Eileann nan Geansaidh) is an island off Scotland, lying around halfway between Shetland and the Orkney Islands. The most remote inhabited island in the United Kingdom, it is famous for its bird observatory and a traditional style of knitting.
Photo credit: Julian Paren -
The Forth Bridge
The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth. It was opened on 4 March 1890, and spans a total length of 2,528.7 metres (8,296 ft). It is often called the Forth Rail Bridge or Forth Railway Bridge to distinguish it from the Forth Road Bridge.
Photo credit: George Gastin -
National Museum of Scotland, main hall
The National Museum of Scotland is one of Scotland's national museums, on Chambers Street, in Edinburgh. The original Royal Museum began in the 19th century and was added to in the 1990s when a new building known as The Museum of Scotland was added, both merging in 2007 into The National Museum of Scotland.
Photo credit: Shimgray -
Eilean Donan Castle
The castle on Eilean Donan (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Donnain), a small tidal island where three sea lochs meet, Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh, in the western Highlands.
Photo credit: Gillfoto -
Statue of Robert the Bruce, Bannockburn
Robert the Bruce statue at the Bannockburn Visitor Centre, Bannockburn, Stirling, is a 1964 work by Pilkington Jackson. The bronze sculpture depicts Robert the Bruce wielding an axe and on a war horse.
Photo credit: Martin Kraft -
The Falkirk Wheel.
The Falkirk Wheel, named after the nearby town of Falkirk, is a rotating boat lift connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. The wheel raises boats by 24 metres (79 ft).
Photo credit: User:SeanMack -
Traigh Iar (Horgabost beach), Harris, which is part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island in the Outer Hebrides, .
Photo credit: Gordon Hatton -
Crail Harbour
Crail is a former royal burgh in the East Neuk of Fife. Built around a harbour, it has a particular wealth of vernacular buildings from the 17th to early 19th centuries, many restored by the National Trust for Scotland, and is a favourite subject for artists.
Photo credit: S.moeller -
Panorma of Loch Torridon
Loch Torridon (Scottish Gaelic: Loch Thoirbheartan) is a sea loch on the west coast of the Northwest Highlands. The loch was created by glacial processes and is in total around 15 miles (25 km) long. It has two sections: Upper Loch Torridon to landward, east of Rubha na h-Airde Ghlaise, at which point it joins Loch Sheildaig; and the main western section of Loch Torridon proper.
Photo credit: Stefan Krause -
Hill House, Helensburgh
Hill House in Helensburgh, Scotland, was created by architects and designers Charles and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. The house was built in a Modern Style way.
Photo credit: JeremyA -
The Wallace Monument
The Wallace Monument is a sandstone tower, built in the Victorian Gothic style. It stands on the summit of Abbey Craig, a volcanic crag above Cambuskenneth Abbey, from which Wallace was said to have watched the gathering of the army of English king Edward I, just before the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
Photo credit: Ray Mann -
The Room de Luxe at the Willow Tearooms
The Willow Tearooms are tearooms at 217 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, designed by internationally renowned architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, which opened for business in October 1903.
Photo credit: Dave souza -
Sunset in the Trossachs
Sunset in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. The high peak on left of the image is Ben Lomond.
Photo credit: Michal Klajban -
Comon seal basking on rocks
A common seal (Phoca vitulina) seen basking on rocks off Lismore, Argyll.
Photo credit: Sharp Photography -
Plockton
Plockton (Scottish Gaelic: Am Ploc/Ploc Loch Aillse) is a picturesque settlement in the Highlands on the shores of Loch Carron. It faces east, away from the prevailing winds, which together with the North Atlantic Drift, gives it a mild climate, allowing palm trees (actually cabbage trees) to grow.
Photo credit: Arthur Bruce -
View of Oban and harbour
Oban (Scottish Gaelic: An t-Òban) (meaning "The Little Bay") is a resort town within the council area of Argyll and Bute. Oban Bay is a near perfect horseshoe bay, protected by the island of Kerrera, and beyond Kerrera is Mull. To the north is the long low island of Lismore, and the mountains of Morvern and Ardgour.
Photo credit: Josi -
Thistle flower head
Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. In the language of flowers, the thistle (like the burr) is an ancient Celtic symbol of nobility of character as well as of birth, for the wounding or provocation of a thistle yields punishment.
Photo credit: Fir0002 -
The parliament building viewed from Salisbury Crags
The Scottish Parliament Building (Scottish Gaelic: Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, Scots: Scots Pairlament Biggin) is the home of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, within the UNESCO World Heritage Site in central Edinburgh. It was designed by Enric Miralles, the Catalan architect,.and has won a number of awards, including an award at the VIII Biennial of Spanish Architecture, the RIAS Andrew Doolan Award for Architecture, and the 2005 Stirling Prize, the UK's most prestigious architecture award.
Photo credit: Photo Credit: Wangi
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Did You Know...
- ... that the Scottish surgeon John Blair was the only dux of his high school to receive his gold medal in the presence of his wife and child?
- ... that the unlicensed Willy's Chocolate Experience in Scotland led to a crossover event between the American television series Abbott Elementary and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia?
- ... that the Scottish medical missionary Ernest Muir championed the use of the traditional Ayurvedic cure chaulmoogra oil in treating Hansen's disease (leprosy)?
- ... that East Suffolk Park, a former student hostel in Edinburgh, was once an internment camp for enemy aliens?
- ... that despite his defeat at the battle of Pitgaveny, both of Duncan's sons would later rule Scotland?
- ... that Prince Philip was the first member of the British royal family to fly in a helicopter?
- ... that Davy Russell won a 2025 Scottish election despite being dubbed the "invisible man" by an opponent?
- ... that the Aesculapian Club, founded in Edinburgh in 1773, still meets twice a year?
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To get involved in helping to improve Wikipedia's Scotland related content, please consider doing some of the following tasks or joining one or more of the associated Wikiprojects:
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- Visit Wikipedia:WikiProject Scotland/Assessment, and help out by assessing unrated Scottish articles.
- Add the Project Banner to Scottish articles around Wikipedia.
- Participate in WikiProject Scotland's Peer Review, including responding to PR requests and nominating Scottish articles.
- Help nominate and select new content for the Scotland portal.
Do you have a question about The Scotland Portal that you can't find the answer to?
Post a question on the Talk Page or consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk.
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