The predominance of Gaelic began to decline in the 13th century, and by the end of the Middle Ages, Scotland was divided into two linguistic zones, the English/Scots-speaking Lowlands and the Gaelic-speaking Highlands and Galloway. It is unclear if the Gaelic of 12th-century Clydesdale and Selkirkshire came from Galloway or other parts of Scotland. Gaelic (lingua Scottica, Scottis) became the de facto language of the whole Kingdom of Alba. It was originally spoken by the Gaels of Dál Riata and the Rhinns of Galloway, later being adopted by the Pictish people of central and eastern Scotland. In 1993, Ulster Scots was recognised, along with Scots, as a variety of the Scots language by the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages. Lowland Scots is still a popular spoken language with over 1.5 million Scots speakers in Scotland.
The first surviving major text in Early Scots is the 14th-century poet John Barbour’s epic Brus, focusing on the life of Robert I, and was soon followed by a series of vernacular romances and prose works. The earliest extant literature composed in what is now Scotland was in Brythonic speech in the 6th century, but is preserved as part of Welsh literature. Runrig popularised Celtic rock and frequently performed in Scottish Gaelic, with their 1995 single “An Ubhal as Àirde” the first song in the language to reach the UK Top 20. The MeyGen tidal stream energy plant in the north of the country is claimed to be the largest tidal stream energy project in the world. As of October 2023, 10% of the Scottish population were estimated to be living in poverty. Between 2016 and 2020, the Scottish Government estimated that 10% of people in Scotland were in persistent poverty following housing costs, with similar rates of persistent poverty for children (10%), working-age adults (10%) and pensioners (11%).
Scottish music
Large populations of Scottish people settled the ‘New World’ lands of North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland (or Alba) in the 9th century. Performers such as the Battlefield Band, Tannahill Weavers, and Dougie MacLean have brought Scottish folk music to international audiences. Other films, such as Trainspotting (1996), Orphans (1997), Young Adam (2003), and Red Road (2006), enjoyed wide success, and Scottish films now figure in many international festivals. Scottish filmmaking also enjoyed a renaissance after the success of Braveheart (1995), an American production that chronicles Scottish battles with the English in the 13th century and that helped rekindle nationalist aspirations.
- Performers such as the Battlefield Band, Tannahill Weavers, and Dougie MacLean have brought Scottish folk music to international audiences.
- A number of Scottish people settled in South Africa in the 1800s and were known for their road-building expertise, their farming experience, and architectural skills.
- To the Roman historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio, the Scottish Highlands and the area north of the River Forth was called Caledonia.
- Emigration, influenced by factors such as the Highland and Lowland Clearances, Scottish emigration to various locales throughout the British Empire, and latterly industrial decline and unemployment, have resulted in the spread of Scottish languages and culture.
- Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, also ranks as a significant financial centre in the country, ranked 42nd internationally in 2024 and is widely regarded as an established economic player with particular strengths in domestic expertise.
- The modern kilt, with its tartan pattern, became common in the 18th century and served an important role in the formation of a Scottish national identity.
Scotland is going net zero
The island clusters of Orkney and Shetland lie to the north. Scotland is bounded by England to the south, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and north, and the North Sea to the east. Few students of English-language literature are unacquainted with historian Thomas Carlyle, poet Robert Burns, and novelist Muriel Spark. An austere land, subject to extremes of weather, Scotland has proved a difficult home for countless generations of its people, who have nonetheless prized it for its beauty and unique culture. Scotland, most northerly of the four parts of the United Kingdom, occupying about one-third of the island of Great Britain.
Celtic connections
- The areas were established in 1996, and their councils are responsible for the provision of all local government services.
- The Scots Parliament rejected proposals for a political union with England in 1689.
- In 1656, a number of Scottish highlanders seeking opportunities abroad, emigrated to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to enlist in the Swedish Army under Charles X Gustav in his war against it.
Irn-Bru is the most common Scottish carbonated soft drink, often described as “Scotland’s other national drink” (after whisky). St Andrew’s Day, 30 November, is the national day, although Burns’ Night tends to be more widely observed, particularly outside Scotland. Use of a blue background for the Saint Andrew’s Cross is said to date from at least the 15th century. Festivals celebrating Celtic culture, such as Festival Interceltique de Lorient (Brittany), the Pan Celtic Festival (Ireland), and the National Celtic Festival (Portarlington, Australia), feature elements of Scottish culture such as language, music and dance. Important regional dailies include the Evening News in Edinburgh, The Courier in Dundee in the east, and The Press and Journal serving Aberdeen and the north.
About Scotland
Historian Susan Reynolds has put forward how, since the Middle Ages, there have been attempts to obfuscate the ethnic plurality of Scottish people due to the political practicalities of nation building. Today, immigrants have brought other languages, such as Polish, Punjabi and Urdu, but almost every adult throughout Scotland is fluent in the English language.citation needed Lowlanders also settled in Highland regions such as Moray, which was traditionally Gaelic-speaking but replaced with Doric in the 19th century. This is evidenced by people with traditional Gaelic surnames (including anglicised varieties) currently living in these areas. The Northern Isles and some parts of Caithness were Norn-speaking (the west of Caithness was Gaelic-speaking into the 20th century, as were some small communities in parts of the Central Highlands).
Industrial age and the Scottish Enlightenment
In the late 19th century the growing importance of the working classes was marked by Keir Hardie’s success in the Mid Lanarkshire by-election, 1888, leading to the foundation of the Scottish Labour Party, which was absorbed into the Independent Labour Party in 1895, with Hardie as its first leader. Towards the end of the century prime ministers of Scottish descent included William Gladstone, and the Earl of Rosebery. From the mid-century, there were increasing calls for Home Rule for Scotland and the post of Secretary of State for Scotland was revived.
Sports such as tossing the caber (a heavy pole) and the hammer throw are integral to the Highland games, a spectacle that originated in the 19th century; the games are accompanied by pipe bands and (usually solo) performances by Highland dancers. The form of the kilt, Scotland’s national costume, has evolved since the emigration of Scots from Ireland. By the 16th century, various clans had established hereditary pipers, and later the instrument was used in wartime to inflame the passions of soldiers in battle. It has also been enriched by contacts with Europe, owing to the mobility of the Scottish people since the Middle Ages and the hospitality of Scotland’s universities to foreign students and faculty.
In the 2013 American Community Survey 5,310,285 identified as Scottish and 2,976,878 as of Scots-Irish descent.Americans of Scottish descent outnumber the population of Scotland, where 4,459,071 or 88.09% of people identified as ethnic Scottish in the 2001 Census. Scots have travelled internationally for centuries, helping to build Scotland’s international reputation and the promotion of Scottish culture, music, literature and art. Today, Scotland has a population of just over five million people, the majority of whom consider themselves Scottish. The Scottish Travellers use of Scottish Cant among themselves declined sharply in the 20th century, even if some terms found their way into youth and everyday language and the Gaelic-based Beurla Reagaird is all but extinct.
Victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 proved the Scots had regained control of their kingdom. Scandinavian culture in the form of the Norn language survived for a lot longer than in the Hebrides, and would strongly influence the local Scots dialect on Shetland and Orkney. After the conflict, Scotland had to affirm Norwegian sovereignty of the Northern Isles, but they were later integrated into Scotland in the 15th century. Initially, Gaelic culture predominated, but immigrants from France, England and Flanders steadily created a more diverse society, with the Gaelic language starting to be replaced by Scots; and a modern nation-state emerged from this. The oldest Norse settlements were in northwest Scotland, but they eventually conquered many areas along the coast.
Economy
The Scottish Government is the executive arm of the devolved government, headed by the first minister, who chairs the cabinet and is responsible for government policy and international engagement. Scots helped to popularise and spread the sport of association football; the first official international match was played in Glasgow between Scotland and England in 1872. A report in 2005 by the Registrar General for Scotland based on the 2001 UK Census showed about 92,400 people or 1.9% of the population can speak Gaelic, while the number of people able to read and write it rose by 7.5% and 10% respectively. By the middle of the 15th century, the language’s name had changed from Inglis to Scottis. While Scots remained a commonly spoken language, the southern Scottish English dialect was the preferred language for publications from the 18th century to the present day. The remaining three major languages of the Scottish people are English, Scots (various dialects) and Gaelic.
The church and facilities became more important when James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, set up residence in Rome in 1717, but were abandoned during the French occupation of Rome in the late 18th century. In 1656, a number of Scottish highlanders seeking opportunities abroad, emigrated to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to enlist in the Swedish Army under Charles X Gustav in his war against it. By the 17th century, an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 Scots lived in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. From as far back as the mid-16th century there were Scots trading and settling in Poland. The Russian census lists do not distinguish Scots from other British people, so it is hard to establish reliable figures for the number of Scots living and working in modern Russia. The 19th century witnessed the immense literary cross-references between Scotland and Russia.clarification needed
In the Highlands, clan chiefs gradually started to think of themselves more as commercial landlords than leaders of their people. Campaigners for the union between Scotland and England believed that there would be economic advantages to Scotland as a result of the failed Darien scheme which left the Kingdom of Scotland bankrupt. The deposed Jacobite Stuart claimants had remained popular in the Highlands and north-east, particularly among non-Presbyterians, including Roman Catholics and Episcopalian Protestants. Nevertheless, the nobles’ bankruptcy, along with the threat of an English invasion, played a leading role in convincing the Scots elite to back a union with England.
The Curriculum for Excellence, Scotland’s national school curriculum, presently provides the curricular framework for children and young people from age 3 to 18. Scotland also has a significant Roman Catholic population with 13.3% professing that faith, particularly in Greater Glasgow and the north-west. There are many more people with Scottish ancestry living abroad than the total population of Scotland.
As leader of the Scottish Government, the first minister is a member of the Prime Minister and Heads of Devolved Governments Council and the Council of the Nations and Regions, the bodies which facilitate intergovernmental relations within the United Kingdom. The Scottish Government, which has been described as one of the most powerful devolved governments globally, is led by the first minister, who is nominated by MSPs and is typically the leader of the largest party in the Parliament. The Scotland Office represents the British government in Scotland and pin-up casino login represents Scottish interests within the government. The monarchy uses a variety of styles, titles and other symbols specific to Scotland, most of which originated in the pre–union Kingdom of Scotland.
After another proposal from the English House of Lords was rejected in 1695, and a further Lords motion was voted down in the House of Commons in 1700, the Parliament of Scotland again rejected union in 1702. The Scots Parliament rejected proposals for a political union with England in 1689. In 1670 the Parliament of England rejected a proposed political union with Scotland. The Parliament of Scotland sought a commercial union with England in 1664; the proposal was rejected in 1668. The Protectorate Parliament was the first Westminster parliament to include representatives nominally from Scotland. A civil war between the Bruce dynasty and their long-term rivals of the House of Comyn and House of Balliol lasted until the middle of the 14th century.
Culture and society
The country produces 1% of the world’s published research with less than 0.1% of the world’s population, and higher education institutions account for 9% of Scotland’s service sector exports. By the late seventeenth century there was a largely complete network of parish schools in the lowlands, but in the Highlands basic education was still lacking in many areas. In the 15th century, the Humanist emphasis on education cumulated with the passing of the Education Act 1496, which decreed that all sons of barons and freeholders of substance should attend grammar schools to learn “perfyct Latyne”, resulting in an increase in literacy among a male and wealthy elite. After the Reformation, Roman Catholicism in Scotland continued in the Highlands and some western islands like Uist and Barra, and it was strengthened during the 19th century by immigration from Ireland. Its membership dropped just below 300,000 in 2020 (5% of the total population) The Church operates a territorial parish structure, with every community in Scotland having a local congregation. Since 1689 it has had a Presbyterian system of church government independent from the state.
Today most Scottish people speak Scottish English, which has some distinctive vocabulary and may be influenced to varying degrees by Scots. By the end of the 17th century, Scots had practically ceased to exist, at least in literary form. Scottish English, a Scottish variation of southern English English, began to replace the Scots language. Scots is usually regarded as a midway between the two, as it is highly mutually intelligible with English, particularly the dialects spoken in the North of England as well as those spoken in Scotland, but is treated as a language in some laws.citation needed There is still debate whether Scots is a dialect or a language in its own right, as there is no clear line to define the two. The Norn language was spoken in the Northern Isles into the early modern period – the current Shetland and Orcadian dialects are heavily influenced by it to this day.citation needed