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Introduction

Flag of Scotland

Scotland (Scots: Scotland; Scottish Gaelic: Alba) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjacent islands, principally in the archipelagos of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. To the south-east, Scotland has its only land border, which is 96 miles (154 km) long and shared with England; the country is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, the North Sea to the north-east and east, and the Irish Sea to the south. The population in 2022 was 5,439,842 and accounts for 8% of the population of the UK. Edinburgh is the capital and Glasgow is the largest of the cities of Scotland.

The Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the 9th century. In 1603, James VI inherited the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Ireland, forming a personal union of the three kingdoms. On 1 May 1707 Scotland and England combined to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain, with the Parliament of Scotland subsumed into the Parliament of Great Britain. In 1999 a Scottish Parliament was re-established, and has devolved authority over many areas of domestic policy. The country has a distinct legal system, educational system, and religious history from the rest of the UK, which have all contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and national identity. Scottish English and Scots are the most widely spoken languages in the country, existing on a dialect continuum with each other. Scottish Gaelic speakers can be found all over Scotland, however the language is largely spoken natively by communities within the Hebrides. The number of Gaelic speakers numbers less than 2% of the total population, though state-sponsored revitalisation attempts have led to a growing community of second language speakers.

The mainland of Scotland is broadly divided into three regions: the Highlands, a mountainous region in the north and north-west; the Lowlands, a flatter plain across the centre of the country; and the Southern Uplands, a hilly region along the southern border. The Highlands are the most mountainous region of the British Isles and contain its highest peak, Ben Nevis, at 4,413 feet (1,345 m). The region also contains many lakes, called lochs; the term is also applied to the many saltwater inlets along the country's deeply indented western coastline. The geography of the many islands is varied. Some, such as Mull and Skye, are noted for their mountainous terrain, while the likes of Tiree and Coll are much flatter. (Full article...)

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The Queensferry Crossing (formerly the Forth Replacement Crossing) is a road bridge in Scotland. It was built alongside the existing Forth Road Bridge and the Forth Bridge. It carries the M90 motorway across the Firth of Forth between Edinburgh, at South Queensferry, and Fife, at North Queensferry.

Proposals for a second Forth Road crossing, to meet unexpected demand, were first put forward in the 1990s, but no action was taken until structural issues were discovered in the Forth Road Bridge in 2004. In 2006–07 Transport Scotland carried out a study, and in December 2007 decided to proceed with a replacement bridge. The following year it was announced that the existing bridge would be retained as a public transport link. The Forth Crossing Act received royal assent in January 2011. In April 2011, the Forth Crossing Bridge Constructors consortium was awarded the contract, and construction began in late summer/autumn of 2011.

The Queensferry Crossing is a three-tower cable-stayed bridge, with an overall length of 2.7 kilometres (1.7 miles). Around 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) of new connecting roads were built, including new and upgraded junctions at Ferrytoll in Fife, South Queensferry and Junction 1A on the M9.

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" ... I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his subject ... "

— William Wallace

" ... People in Scotland have a queer idea of the arts. They think you can be an artist in your spare time, though nobody expects you to be a spare-time dustman, engineer, lawyer or brain surgeon ... "

— Alasdair Gray

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In the news

7 May 2024 – Premiership of John Swinney: The Scottish Parliament votes to elect John Swinney as First Minister of Scotland with 64 votes in favour and seven abstentions from the Scottish Greens. (BBC News)
6 May 2024 – 2024 Scottish National Party leadership election: John Swinney is elected leader of the Scottish National Party following the resignation of First Minister Humza Yousaf. (The Guardian)
4 May 2024 – International reactions to the Israel–Hamas war: Palestinian doctor and rector at the University of Glasgow Ghassan Abu-Sittah is denied entry into France after landing at Charles de Gaulle airport on his way to speak at the French Senate. Last month, he was denied entry into Germany. (Al Jazeera)
1 May 2024 – 2024 Scottish government crisis: The Scottish National Party administration survives the vote of no confidence earlier this week, prompting the party to seek a replacement for outgoing First Minister Humza Yousaf. (Al Jazeera)
29 April 2024 – 2024 Scottish government crisis: Ahead of a planned vote of no confidence, Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf announces that he will resign from office. (CNBC) (The New York Times)
25 April 2024 – 2024 Scottish government crisis: Premiership of Humza Yousaf

Selected biography

John Playfair FRSE, FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his book Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802), which summarised the work of James Hutton. It was through this book that Hutton's principle of uniformitarianism, later taken up by Charles Lyell, first reached a wide audience. Playfair's textbook Elements of Geometry made a brief expression of Euclid's parallel postulate known now as Playfair's axiom.

In 1783 he was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He served as General Secretary to the society 1798–1819.

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Jarlshof is the best known prehistoric archaeological site in Shetland. It lies near the southern tip of the Shetland Mainland and has been described as "one of the most remarkable archaeological sites ever excavated in the British Isles".

Photo credit: Nigel Duncan

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Did You Know...

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... that the pulpit of St George's Church, Edinburgh, was 20 ft (6.1 m) tall?
... that Scottish painter Gordon Coutts left Australia without paying maintenance to his estranged wife, but was arrested in New Zealand?
... that the 1830 abandonment of Chipewyan woman Matooskie by her Scottish husband was eventually settled with a dowry payment of £200?
... that despite his defeat at the battle of Pitgaveny, both of Duncan's sons would later rule Scotland?
... that Robert de Ogle captured five Scottish knights near Newcastle in 1341 and received royal licence to crenellate his property?
... that Scottish physician George Gray received the thanks of the Chinese government for his work during the Manchurian plague of 1910–11?
... that the New York Yankees were first named after a Scottish regiment?
... that of the 16 teams to enter the inaugural Scottish Cup, only Dumbarton, Kilmarnock and Queen's Park still regularly compete in the competition?

Get involved

Scotland Related WikiProjects and Task forces
	WikiProject Clans of Scotland	talk
	WikiProject Medieval Scotland	talk
	WikiProject Scottish Castles	talk
	WikiProject Scottish Islands	talk
	WikiProject Scottish Television	talk
	WikiProject Transport in Scotland	talk
	WikiProject Edinburgh	talk
	Fife task force	talk
	Scottish Gaelic task force	talk

For editor resources and to collaborate with other editors on improving Wikipedia's Scotland-related articles, see WikiProject Scotland.

To get involved in helping to improve Wikipedia's Scotland related content, please consider doing some of the following tasks or joining one or more of the associated Wikiprojects:

Visit the Scottish Wikipedians' notice board and help to write new Scotland-related articles, and expand and improve existing ones.
Visit Wikipedia:WikiProject Scotland/Assessment, and help out by assessing unrated Scottish articles.
Add the Project Banner to Scottish articles around Wikipedia.
Participate in WikiProject Scotland's Peer Review, including responding to PR requests and nominating Scottish articles.
Help nominate and select new content for the Scotland portal.

Do you have a question about The Scotland Portal that you can't find the answer to?
Post a question on the Talk Page or consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk.