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Scotland not only defies description, it gets positively irritated by it. Clichéd images of the place abound – postcards of wee Highland terriers, tartan tins of shortbread, ranks of diamond-patterned golf jerseys … and they drive many Scots to apoplexy. And yet Scotland has a habit of delivering on its classic images: ruined castles really do perch on just about every hilltop, in summer the glens inevitably turn purple with heather and, if you’re lucky, you just might bump into a formation of bagpipers marching down the village street on gala day.
Scotland is a difficult country, where Celtic hedonism intertwines, somehow, with stern Calvinism, where the losers of battles (and football games) are more romanticized than the winners. It’s often defined by its scenery – known to make poets weep, but half the time hidden under a pall of drizzly mist. The country’s major contribution to medieval warfare was the chaotic, blood-curdling charge of the half-naked Highlander, yet it’s civilized enough to have given the world steam power, the television and penicillin. Chefs from Paris to Prague rhapsodize over Scottish wild salmon and Aberdeen Angus steaks, even while the locals are tucking happily into another deep-fried supper of haggis and chips.
Naturally, the tourist industry tends to play up the heritage and play down the contemporary, but beyond the tartan lies a modern, dynamic nation. Oil and micro-processors now matter more to the Scottish economy than Harris tweed. Edinburgh still has its genteel Royal Mile, but just as many folk are drawn by its clubs and cappuccino culture, while out in the Hebrides, the locals are more likely to be building websites than shearing sheep. The Highland huntin’ shootin’ fishin’ set are these days outnumbered by mountain bikers and wide-eyed whale-watchers. Much as folk bands are knocking out old tunes on electronic fiddles, reinvention of tradition has become a Scottish art form.
- Scotland covers an area of just over 30,000 square miles, has a 2300-mile-long coastline and contains over 31,460 lochs. Of its 790 islands, 130 are inhabited. The highest point is the summit of Ben Nevis (4406 ft), while the bottom of Loch Morar is 1017 feet below sea level.
- The capital is Edinburgh (population nearly 450,000), and the largest city is Glasgow (over 600,000). While the number of people world-wide who claim Scottish descent is estimated at over 25 million, the population of the country is just 5 million – 1.3 percent of whom (roughly 66,000 people) speak Gaelic.
- Scotland is a constituent territory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II. It is a parliamentary democracy whose sovereign parliament sits at Westminster in London, with elements of government business devolved to the separately elected Scottish Parliament which sits in Edinburgh.
- Whisky accounts for 13 percent of Scotland’s exports and is worth over £2 billion annually, but Scotland also manufactures over 30 percent of Europe’s personal computers and 65 percent of Europe’s ATMs.
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The Scots like a drink. Somehow, a Scot who doesn’t like (or, worse, can’t handle) a dram of “Scotch” – although whisky is rarely described as such in Scotland – isn’t wholly credible. No Highland village or cobbled Edinburgh street would be complete without its cosy, convivial pub – and no pub complete without its array of amber-tinged bottles, the spirit within nurtured by a beguiling and well-marketed mix of soft Scottish rain, glistening Highland streams, rich peaty soil and tender Scots craftsmanship.
But not only is whisky the national drink, it’s often regarded as the national pastime too, lubricating any social gathering from a Highland ceilidh to a Saturday night session. And the tradition that whisky be drunk neat says far more about Scottish society’s machismo than its epicurean instincts: the truth is that a splash of water releases the whisky’s flavours. It’s no surprise, then, that the canny Scots also turn a healthy profit bottling the country’s abundant spring water and selling it around the world.
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Stuck in the far northwest corner of Europe, Scotland is remote, but it’s not isolated. The inspiring emptiness of the wild northwest coast lies barely a couple of hours from Edinburgh and Glasgow, two of Britain’s most dense and intriguing urban centres. Ancient ties to Ireland, Scandinavia, France and the Netherlands mean that – compared with the English at least – Scots are generally enthusiastic about the European Union, which has poured money into infrastructure and cultural projects, particularly in the Highlands and Islands. By contrast, Scotland’s relationship with the “auld enemy”, England, remains as problematic as ever. Despite the new Scottish parliament established in Edinburgh in 1999, with its new-found power to shape Scottish life, many Scots still tend to view matters south of the border with a mixture of exaggerated disdain and well-hidden envy. Ask for a “full English breakfast” and you’ll quickly find yourself put right. Old prejudices die hard.
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