WhatBoysWant.com :: Fascinating facts about Scotland!

Fascinating facts about Scotland!

I can hear all you guys reading this and thinking "huh? Why the hell would i wanna know about Scotland for?"

Consider Scotland has been part of the United Kingdom for more than three hundred years, but it is unlike anywhere else in Britain. Theres a bit of a thing going on with Scotland now wanting to be an independent country, splitting up the Four Nations of Great Britain. They've organised a referendum, and if passed, it could become an autonomous country by as early as 2014.

I found a list of 50 facts you should know about the country. I won't bore you with all 50, I'll just include some relatively interesting ones!

(Also I'm on a lads weekend in Dublin and needed something fast to type up!)

The official animal of Scotland is the mythological Unicorn.

The shortest scheduled flight in the world is one-and-a-half miles long from Westray to Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. The journey takes 1 minute 14 seconds to complete. (and an hour to go thru customs and baggage checks I bet!)

Scotland has approximately 790 islands, 130 of which are inhabited.

The Hamilton Mausoleum in South Lanarckshire has the longest echo of any man-made structure in the world; a whole 15 seconds.

Scotland has more than 600 square miles of freshwater lakes, including the famous Loch Ness.

Edinburgh has more listed buildings than anywhere in the world.

St Andrews Links is considered the "home of golf"; the sport has been played there since the 15th century.

The motto of Scotland is “Nemo me impune lacessit”, or: "No one provokes me with impunity". It is used by the Order of the Thistle and on later versions of the Royal coat of arms.

In the north east of the country, girls are called “quines” and boys “louns”.

The very first recorded appearance of the elusive Loch Ness Monster occurred in 565 AD, when a " water beast " attacked one of St. Columba's followers in the loch. '''

Scotland’s smallest distillery, Edradour in Pitlochry, has 100,000 visitors per year but produces just 90,000 litres of malt whisky.

It is home to the oldest tree in Europe, a twisted yew which has stood in Fortingall for 3,000 years. According to local legend, Pontius Pilate was born in its shade and played there as a child

The raincoat was invented in 1824 in Scotland by Charles Macintosh, a chemist born in Glasgow. In Great Britain, the garment is still called a “Mac”.

The Kingdom of Scotland remained as an independent state until 1 May 1707, when the Acts of Union joined it with England, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

There are as many Scottish people living in North America as in Scotland, with censuses in the United States and Canada each identifying around five million people claiming Scottish ancestry.

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.”

The Bank of Scotland, founded in 1695, is the oldest surviving bank in the UK. It was also the first bank in Europe to print its own bank notes.

Famous Scottish inventions include the television, developed by John Logie Baird in 1925, the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 and penicillin, by Alexander Fleming in 1928. Notable Scottish inventions include the method of logarithms (1614), tarmac (1820) and the pneumatic tyre (1887).

Scotland has about the same land area as the Czech Republic, the United Arab Emirates, Panama, the US state of Maine, or the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

One of Scotland’s most famous products, whisky, was actually invented in China. It was first distilled by monks in Ireland in the early 15th century, before reaching Scotland 100 years later.

The most infamous Scottish dish is haggis, normally made with the heart, liver, and lungs of a sheep, traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach. It is not known where it originated, but a similar dish was mentioned in Greece 2,500 years ago.

Scotland has spawned some of the greatest thinkers of the modern age, including Adam Smith, James Watt, David Hume and John Stuart Mill.

Many of Scotland’s most famous inventions – kilts, tartans and bagpipes - were actually developed elsewhere. Kilts originated in Ireland, tartans have been found in Bronze Age central Europe and bagpipes are thought to have come from ancient central Asia.

The flag of Scotland is known as the saltire or St. Andrews Cross.

Scotland has the highest proportion of redheads in the world. Around 13 per cent of the population has red hair, with 40 per cent carrying the recessive gene.

The first official international football match was played at the West of Scotland Cricket Club in Partick in 1872, between Scotland and England

If you're struggling to sleep, check out the whole list!

Posted by: Paddy! | 15:59 15-01-2012 | Category: Other | Views: 489 | Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/scottish-politics/9007300/Scottish-referendum-50-fascinating-facts-you-should-know-about-Scotland.html