Scotland

Scotland is a part of the United Kingdom, and the British Isles. The origin of the name Scotland came from the Latin word “Scoti”. The name was given to the Celts that lived in the area. The name Scotland could also be directly translated to “Land of the Scots”.  

The first inhabitants in Scotland came after the ice age for 11 000 years ago. The first houses came for 9 500 years ago, while the first villages came for 6000 years ago. In the middle of the 500- century the Irish missionary monk, Columba, started the Christianization of Scotland. Then in the beginning of the 800- century Norwegian Vikings settled on the Shetland Isles, Orkney Islands and the Hebrides.  In the following 100 years England tried to submit Scotland, but their struggles failed. In 1707 Scotland and England joined together in one kingdom, The United Kingdom. They have a united parliament, armed forces and so on.

The Scottish government is responsible for the day-to-day issues that the people have. They take care of the health, education, justice, rural affairs and transport. The government was established in 1999. The purpose of the government is to create a more successful country, with opportunities or all.

Education is very important in Scotland, and the system is some different from the British system. Children start primary school when they are 4,5 or 5,5 years old. When they have been in primary school for seven years they start secondary school.

When you hear the word Scottish your usually thought goes to a man in a skirt playing a bagpipe and talks a strange language. The skirt is called a kilt and is the traditional Scottish clothing, for both men and women. The pattern you find on this kilt is called a tartan.   Bagpipes are very popular in Scotland, together with the famous dish haggis. A haggis will include the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep, onions, oats and spices.  The oldest language in Scotland is Gaelic, but it´s only spoken by around sixty thousand people.

A recent newsstory from Scotland is that the government has recently bought the airport Prestwick. The airport is now a public ownership.

There are many different dialects in Scotland, Scottish Gaelic, English in Scotland and the Scots dialect. Scottish Gaelic is the oldest dialect, and is not similar to English. The English spoken in Scotland is difficult to define, but is the official written language. Scots dialect and the standard English Scottish is very similar and get often blurred. The Scots dialect descends from Old English. 

Five Fun Facts

Scotland is called “Alba” in Gaelic.

Scotland includes 787 islands (only 130 are inhabited).

The unicorn is the official Scottish animal. 

Scotland is considered the home- land of golf.

Although Scotland is very famous for it´s whisky they did not invent it, China did.