Scotland is one of the four nations of the United Kingdom, occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It has been in political union with England since 1707 and has never stopped being a distinctly separate place.
What it kept
The 1707 Act of Union merged the parliaments but explicitly preserved three Scottish institutions, and all three still stand:
- Its own legal system — based on Roman law rather than English common law, with different courts and a third possible verdict, “not proven”, alongside guilty and not guilty.
- Its own education system — different qualifications (Highers rather than A-Levels), and four-year undergraduate degrees rather than three.
- Its own national church — the Church of Scotland, Presbyterian rather than Anglican, with no bishops and no royal governor.
Scotland also prints its own banknotes through three separate banks. They are perfectly valid currency, and English shopkeepers decline them often enough that it remains a live irritation.
Devolution
The Scottish Parliament reconvened in 1999 after a gap of nearly three centuries, following a referendum. It sits at Holyrood in Edinburgh and controls health, education, justice, transport, the environment and some taxation. Defence, foreign policy and most economic policy remain at Westminster.
A 2014 independence referendum was lost 55% to 45% on an extraordinary turnout of 85%. The question has not gone away, and Brexit — which Scotland voted against by 62% — sharpened it considerably.
The geography
Three broad regions. The Highlands in the north and west: mountains, glens, sea lochs, and Britain’s most dramatic and emptiest landscape, including Ben Nevis, the highest point in the UK. The Central Belt, holding Glasgow and Edinburgh and about 70% of the population. The Southern Uplands, rolling hill country along the English border.
Add roughly 790 islands — the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland — of which fewer than a hundred are inhabited.
Edinburgh and Glasgow
The two cities are 45 miles apart and could not be less alike, and the rivalry is genuine and enjoyable. Edinburgh is the capital: handsome, Georgian, touristed, and accused by Glaswegians of being reserved and pleased with itself. Glasgow is the larger: Victorian, industrial, blunter, funnier, and the cultural engine of the country. Ask which is better and you will get a straight answer.
Language
Three are spoken. English everywhere; Scots, a Germanic language closely related to English with its own vocabulary, spoken widely in everyday speech; and Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic language now spoken by around 57,000 people, mostly in the Hebrides, and visible on road signs across the Highlands.