Facts on Scotland
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Everyone knows about the Scottish stereotypes of kilts, haggis and beautiful lochs with their mythical inhabitants, but here are a few facts that you may have never heard about before now...
• Palm trees grow in the Highlands and Dumfries and Galloway because of Gulf Stream.
• There are 787 islands around Scotland's coast - but not all are populated.
• The Hamilton Mausoleum in South Lanarkshire has the longest echo of any man-made structure in the world – 15 seconds.
• At Fortginall in Highland Perthshire is the oldest tree in Europe – a yew tree which is thought to be 3,000 years old. Legend has it that Pontius Pilate was born here.
• Scotland has the highest proportion of redheads in the World. About 13% of the population have red hair.
• In Stirling Castle, the world’s oldest football, made from leather and an inflated pig’s bladder, was found behind wooden panelling dating from the 1500s
• In Craigmillar Castle in Edinburgh, the plot to murder Lord Darnley, husband of Mary Queen of Scots, was hatched in this castle in 1561. You can visit the room where Mary is said to have spent three weeks, “bathing her snowy limbs in sparkling wine”.
• The last battle to be fought on British soil was the Battle of Culloden in 1746 near Nairn when the Government forces defeated the army of Bonnie Prince Charlie. As a result of the rebellion, Fort George east of Inverness, was built in the following years; reputedly the most formidable fortress in Britain but – it has never been attacked. It is also one of the best places in Scotland from which to see dolphins
• The Scots actually took over the English throne, not the other way about. James VI of Scotland became James I of England in 1605, on the death of Queen Elizabeth I.
• Scotland has more than 600 square miles of freshwater lakes, including the famous Loch Ness.
• The first recorded appearance of the elusive Loch Ness Monster occurred in 565AD, when a "water beast" attacked one of St. Columba's followers in the loch. '''
• The first official international football match was played at the West of Scotland Cricket Club in Partick near Glasgow in 1872, between Scotland and England.
• The country still has its own legal system, separate from England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Juries can return verdict of “guilty”, “not guilty” and “not proven.” It is said that "not proven" means "we know you did it, but we can't prove it".
• The National Trust for Scotland doesn’t just look after castles and gardens – it also has in its care 76,000 hectares of spectacular landscape.
• There are about 1200km of way-marked trails in the land owned by Forestry Commission Scotland and 1300km of way-marked cycling/mountain biking trails!
• East Lothian is one of the driest and sunniest parts of the UK. It gets 1451 hours of sunshine per year (Windermere gets 1194).
• Whisky: Some facts about whisky (from 2011)
- Exports generated £4.23 billion for the UK. That's £134 every second.
- 140 million cases were exported worldwide. That's 40 bottles every second
- Laid end to end they would stretch more than 30,000kms, or about six times the distance between Edinburgh and New York.
- Some 20 million casks lie maturing in warehouses in Scotland (to be Scotch Whisky, the spirit must mature in oak casks in Scotland for at least three years).
• Other Scottish inventions also include: postage stamps, bicycle pedals, the breech-loading rifle, Bovril, chloroform, colour photography, a cure for malaria, the decimal point, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the fountain pen, fingerprinting, the hypodermic syringe, the lawnmower, lime cordial, marmalade, motor insurance, the MRI scanner, postmarks, the pneumatic tyre, radar, savings banks, the speedometer, Tarmac, the vacuum flask.
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