100 Fun Facts About Scotland

Which city is the capital of Scotland?

Edinburgh has been recognised as Scotland's capital since at least the 15th century, though it is not the country's largest city.

Which Scottish inventor gave the world's first demonstration of true television, in London in 1926?

John Logie Baird showed his television to about 50 scientists in an attic room in central London, after building his first crude apparatus from odds and ends.

What is the highest mountain in Scotland, and in Great Britain?

Ben Nevis was only confirmed as Britain's highest peak by the Ordnance Survey in 1847; before that, many thought Ben Macdui might be higher.

Which Scottish outpost's last 36 residents asked to be evacuated in 1930?

St Kilda had been inhabited for about two thousand years, but illness and the upheaval of the First World War helped drive its last islanders away.

Which Scottish loch is the largest lake in Great Britain by surface area?

Loch Lomond covers the most area, but far deeper Loch Ness holds more water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined.

What is the largest Scottish island?

Lewis and Harris covers about 841 square miles, and despite its two names it is one island, with Lewis and Harris divided by mountains.

In which Highland glen did government soldiers turn on their MacDonald hosts in a notorious 1692 massacre?

At Glencoe, about 120 soldiers had been quartered with the MacDonalds since late January before killing their hosts on 13 February 1692.

What is Scotland's national animal?

The unicorn was believed to be the natural enemy of the lion, England's royal beast, and Scotland's royal arms show it crowned and chained.

What is the national floral emblem of Scotland?

Legend says a barefoot invader stepped on a thistle during a night attack and cried out in pain, alerting the Scots.

What is the name of Scotland's national flag, a white X-shaped cross on a blue field?

Legend says the Saltire was adopted after the Picts saw a white cross of clouds in the sky before winning a battle in 832.

What is the usual English translation of Scotland's Latin national motto?

No one provokes me with impunity is also the motto on Montresor's family arms in Edgar Allan Poe's story The Cask of Amontillado.

On what date is St Andrew's Day celebrated in Scotland?

30 November is St Andrew's Day, honouring Scotland's patron saint; 25 January is Burns Night, a different party altogether.

Which song is popularly held to be Scotland's national anthem at football and rugby internationals?

Flower of Scotland, written by Roy Williamson of the Corries in the mid-1960s, fills the role because Scotland has no official anthem.

Which ninth-century king of the Picts is traditionally credited with founding the kingdom of Alba?

Kenneth I, better known as Kenneth MacAlpin, is traditionally called Scotland's founder, but historians now say he ruled as King of the Picts, not of Alba.

Which Greek sailor made the first written reference to Scotland, around 320 BC?

Pytheas sailed from Massalia, in what is now southern France, around much of Britain, and he was also the first writer to mention Thule, the far north of ancient maps.

The Neolithic village of Skara Brae, Europe's most complete, is on which island group?

Skara Brae, on Orkney's west coast, was exposed when a severe storm in 1850 stripped the dunes, and each house still has a stone-built dresser.

On 11 September 1297, William Wallace and Andrew Moray defeated the English at which battle?

Stirling Bridge was so narrow that the English crossed only a few men abreast, so the Scots waited until about half were over and then attacked.

The Battle of Bannockburn in June 1314 pitted Robert the Bruce against which English king?

Robert the Bruce beat Edward II's much larger army, and on the first day he reportedly killed the charging knight Henry de Bohun with an axe.

What 1320 document is described as the world's first documented statement of independence?

The Declaration of Arbroath was a letter to Pope John XXII; he urged the English king to make peace but did not then recognise Robert the Bruce as king.

Which Scottish king was the last monarch in Great Britain to die in battle, at Flodden in 1513?

James IV invaded England while Henry VIII was fighting in France, and died at Flodden facing the army of Henry's regent, Queen Catherine of Aragon.

How old was Mary, Queen of Scots when she succeeded to the throne in 1542?

Mary was six days old when her father James V died, and she was later forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son.

Mary, Queen of Scots, spent about 18 years as the prisoner of which English monarch?

Elizabeth I signed Mary's death warrant in 1587, then claimed it was sent against her wishes and made councillor William Davison the scapegoat.

Which Bible translation was commissioned by the monarch who united the crowns in 1603?

James VI and I commissioned the King James Version partly to replace the Geneva Bible, whose notes he disliked as anti-monarchical.

Which failed Scottish colony in Panama drained Scotland's wealth and helped push it into the 1707 union?

The Darien scheme raised about a fifth of Scotland's wealth, and most of the Equivalent paid out under the union went to compensate its investors.

Which Scottish institution did a separate act protect before the 1707 union?

The Church of Scotland was secured by the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Act, while the Scots navy merged into the Royal Navy.

Which battle, Great Britain's last pitched battle, effectively ended the Jacobite cause?

After Culloden, Bonnie Prince Charlie spent months on the run and escaped to Skye disguised as Flora MacDonald's Irish maid, 'Betty Burke'.

Scotland's devolved parliament, reconvened in 1999, is known by which nickname?

Holyrood's building opened in 2004, years behind schedule, costing £414 million against early estimates of £10–40 million, and its architect Enric Miralles died before it was finished.

Which vote did Scotland's government cite to seek a second independence referendum?

The Brexit vote saw 62% of Scottish voters back remaining in the EU, while the UK as a whole voted to leave.

Robert Burns's 'Auld Lang Syne' is traditionally sung on which Scottish occasion?

Auld Lang Syne rings in Hogmanay, but Burns sent it to the Scots Musical Museum as an old song he had taken down from an old man.

Before his poems made him famous, Robert Burns planned to emigrate to which Caribbean island?

Burns had accepted a plantation job in Jamaica, but his first book, the Kilmarnock volume, was such an instant success that he put off leaving.

In New Year 'first-footing', who is traditionally preferred first across the threshold?

A tall, dark-haired man is the luckiest first-foot, bringing gifts such as coal, shortbread and whisky; Christmas only became a Scottish public holiday in 1958.

Which Aberdeenshire town welcomes the New Year by swinging blazing fireballs up and down its High Street?

Stonehaven's swingers whirl balls of burning rags and sticks on chains along the High Street, then hurl the still-burning fireballs into the harbour.

Which organs make up the sheep's 'pluck' used to make haggis?

Heart, liver and lungs are minced with oatmeal, suet and onion, then traditionally cooked inside the sheep's own stomach.

Which chocolate bar did Scottish chip shops make famous by dipping it in batter and deep-frying it?

The deep-fried Mars bar first made the news in 1995 at an Aberdeenshire chip shop, and Mars itself says the snack is 'not authorised or endorsed'.

The word 'whisky' comes from the Gaelic 'uisge beatha', meaning what?

Uisge beatha means water of life, a translation of Latin aqua vitae, and the first written record of Scotch is a 1494 order of malt for Friar John Cor.

What is the legal minimum time Scotch whisky must mature in oak casks?

Three years is the legal minimum, and any age statement on a Scotch label must refer to the youngest whisky in the bottle.

Which soft drink is often described as Scotland's 'other' national drink, after whisky?

Irn-Bru, launched in 1901, has long been Scotland's most popular soft drink, though Coca-Cola had drawn roughly level in sales by 2003.

The famous 1934 'Surgeon's Photograph' of Nessie was later revealed to be what?

The 'monster' was a toy submarine with a putty head and neck, built by big-game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell's team to get revenge on the Daily Mail for mocking him.

Which newspaper published the 2 May 1933 article that launched modern interest in Nessie?

Some accounts credit the Inverness Courier's editor, Evan Barron, with coining the word 'monster' for the creature.

In the caber toss, what score on the imaginary dial is the best possible?

A perfect 12 o'clock toss flips the caber end over end to land straight ahead of the thrower, and cabers can be 16 to 20 feet long.

Which two clubs from Scotland's largest city make up the 'Old Firm'?

Celtic and Rangers first met in a May 1888 friendly that Celtic won 5–2, and nobody is sure where the name 'Old Firm' came from.

Where in Scotland did the world's third-oldest underground metro open in 1896?

Glasgow's Subway was pulled by cables driven by stationary steam engines until 1935, when its trains were converted to electric power.

The Scottish capital's nickname 'Auld Reekie' means what?

Old Smoky came from the cloud of smoke over the Old Town, and a falconer in Walter Scott's novel The Abbot says it could be seen twenty miles away.

Which Scottish festival began in 1947 when eight theatre groups turned up uninvited to perform?

The Fringe took its name because those uninvited groups staged their shows on the fringe of the city's official International Festival.

The Forth Bridge, opened in 1890 and a UNESCO site since 2015, is what type of bridge?

The Forth Bridge's cantilever design replaced Thomas Bouch's plan, which was abandoned after his Tay Bridge collapsed in 1879.

Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, was born at which Scottish centre?

The Roslin Institute cloned Dolly from a mammary cell, so she was named after Dolly Parton, and she is now on display at the National Museum of Scotland.

Which Scottish blacksmith is generally credited with inventing the pedal-driven bicycle?

Kirkpatrick Macmillan's claim lacks direct evidence, but he is linked to an 1842 report of a rider fined five shillings for knocking over a pedestrian.

Which town, Robert the Bruce's burial place, became a city in 2022?

Dunfermline won city status for the Platinum Jubilee in 2022, and its abbey holds Robert the Bruce's body, though his heart went to Melrose Abbey.

What was the score in the world's first official international football match, Scotland v England in 1872?

The first official international ended 0–0 before about 4,000 spectators at Hamilton Crescent, the home of the West of Scotland Cricket Club.

Which replica ship is burned at Shetland's Up Helly Aa festival?

Guizers throw their torches into the Viking galley at the climax of a torch-lit procession, and the festival celebrates Shetland's Norse heritage.

Which coronation relic did four Scottish students take from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1950?

The Stone of Scone, on which Scottish kings were once crowned, broke in two during the raid and turned up the following April on an abbey altar.

Sir Nils Olav, who lives in a Scottish zoo and holds a rank in Norway's King's Guard, is what animal?

A penguin of the king species, Sir Nils Olav was knighted in 2008 with the approval of Norway's King Harald V and was promoted to major general in 2023.

In legend, which creature's persistence inspired a fugitive Robert the Bruce to keep fighting for his crown?

A spider, in the best-known telling, kept trying to string its web across a cave roof while Bruce hid after his 1306 defeat at Methven.

What have pranksters kept placing on the head of the Duke of Wellington statue outside a Scottish art gallery?

A traffic cone has capped the statue since at least the 1980s, and the council once estimated that taking the cones down could cost £10,000 a year.

Which animal did a Swedish herdsman bring back to the Cairngorms in 1952, creating Britain's only free-ranging herd?

Reindeer are believed to have lived wild in Scotland until the 12th century, and the semi-domesticated newcomers roam the high plateau freely.

Disguised as an Irish maid called Betty Burke, Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped by boat to which Scottish island?

Skye was reached with the help of Flora MacDonald, and islanders who noticed the maid's unladylike manners put them down to her being Irish.

Which sport did Scotland's parliament ban in 1457, with football, for keeping men from archery practice?

Golf appears by name for the first time in that act of 6 March 1457, and two later statutes, in 1470 and 1491, had to repeat the ban.

Which real King of Scots, whose 17-year reign was mostly peaceful, became a murderous villain in Shakespeare?

Macbeth ruled from 1040 to 1057 and even left his kingdom for a pilgrimage to Rome, where a chronicler says he scattered money to the poor like seed.

What is Greyfriars Bobby, the terrier with a statue in Scotland's capital, said to have guarded for 14 years?

His owner's grave in Greyfriars Kirkyard is where Bobby reportedly kept watch until 1872, and a philanthropist had his statue set on a drinking fountain a year later.

The Kelpies, a pair of 30-metre steel sculptures near Falkirk, show the heads of which animal?

Horses, modelled on working Clydesdales, honour the heavy animals that pulled Scotland's ploughs and barges, and the name comes from the shape-shifting beasts of folklore.

Which invention did Scottish-born Alexander Graham Bell patent in 1876 yet refuse to keep in his own study?

The telephone patent was granted on 7 March 1876, but Bell came to see his creation as an intrusion on his real work as a scientist.

Which life-saving drug did Ayrshire farmer's son Alexander Fleming discover in 1928 after returning from a holiday?

Penicillin began as mould on a culture plate left on a laboratory bench, and for months Fleming simply called the germ-killing liquid 'mould juice'.

Which unit of power is named after the Greenock-born engineer who made steam engines far more efficient?

The watt honours James Watt, whose separate condenser stopped engines wasting energy, and who also developed the idea of horsepower.

The creator of which fictional detective was born in Scotland's capital and studied medicine there?

Sherlock Holmes was partly modelled on Joseph Bell, who taught Conan Doyle at the city's medical school, and a statue of the detective stands near the author's birthplace.

Which storybook hero did Kirriemuir-born J. M. Barrie create and later gift to a London children's hospital?

Peter Pan first took to the stage in 1904, and Barrie's gift of the rights has earned money for Great Ormond Street Hospital ever since.

Which Robert Louis Stevenson novel began as a secret-map story to amuse his stepson one wet Scottish summer?

Treasure Island came to Stevenson in 1881, when bad weather kept the family indoors, and it gave fictional pirates their X-marked maps and shoulder parrots.

Which 1995 film about William Wallace won five Oscars, including Best Picture, without a single acting nomination?

Braveheart, directed by and starring Mel Gibson, won five of its ten nominations at the 68th Academy Awards and gained a sequel about Robert the Bruce in 2019.

Which Scottish actor, whose first job was as a milkman, was the first to play James Bond in the cinema?

Sean Connery grew up in the Fountainbridge district of Scotland's capital and went on to star in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983.

Which tennis player raised in Dunblane ended Britain's 77-year wait for a Wimbledon men's singles champion?

Andy Murray beat Novak Djokovic in the 2013 final to become the first home winner since Fred Perry in 1936, then took the title again in 2016.

Which archery-loving princess is the heroine of Brave, Pixar's animated adventure set in the Scottish Highlands?

Merida, voiced by Kelly Macdonald, was Pixar's first female lead, and her mother Queen Elinor spends much of the film transformed into a bear.

Which river, Scotland's longest, carries more water to the sea than any other in the United Kingdom?

The Tay also holds the British record for a rod-caught salmon, a 64-pound fish landed by Georgina Ballantine in 1922.

Which Scottish port, said to be built on jute, jam and journalism, is home to the publisher of The Beano?

Dundee earned its 'jam' from Keiller's pioneering marmalade, and its shipyards built the Antarctic exploration vessel RRS Discovery.

Which village near Scotland's north-eastern tip marks the end of the traditional 874-mile journey from Land's End?

John o' Groats takes its name from Jan de Groot, a Dutchman who ran a ferry there, though the mainland's true northernmost point is nearby Dunnet Head.

What is the name of the extinct volcano whose 250-metre summit overlooks the streets of Scotland's capital?

Arthur's Seat is the largest part of an ancient volcano whose remains also include Calton Hill and the rock beneath the city's castle.

Which concrete railway viaduct in the West Highlands carries the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter films?

Glenfinnan, a line of 21 mass-concrete arches, appears in four of the films, and police have had to warn fans against walking along the track.

Which Aberdeenshire castle did Prince Albert buy in 1852 as a Scottish retreat for Queen Victoria?

Balmoral is the monarch's private property, not part of the Crown Estate, and Albert first took on its lease without ever having seen the place.

Which village just over the border from England became famous for runaway weddings at a blacksmith's anvil?

Gretna Green drew eloping couples after a 1754 English law demanded parental consent for anyone under 21, a rule that never applied in Scotland.

Which Scottish town gave its name to the teardrop pattern its weavers copied from Kashmir shawls?

Paisley's mills reproduced the curved motif on Jacquard looms, though the design itself began in Persia, where it is known as boteh.

On which small Hebridean island did the Irish monk Columba found a monastery in AD 563?

Iona became the burial place of many early Scottish kings, and the Book of Kells may have been begun by its monks.

What Latin name did Roman historians give the land north of the River Forth, later a poetic name for Scotland?

Caledonia never came under Roman administration, and the name lives on in the ancient woodland known as the Caledonian Forest.

Which Kirkcaldy-born thinker, often called the father of economics, published The Wealth of Nations in 1776?

Adam Smith, one biographer recorded, was abducted by Romani travellers at the age of three and released when others went to rescue him.

Which novelist has a 200-foot Gothic tower in Scotland's capital, among the largest monuments to any writer?

Sir Walter Scott's tower has 287 steps to its highest platform, and the railway station beside it is named after his Waverley novels.

What name do hillwalkers give the Scottish mountains over 3,000 feet that they set out to 'bag'?

Munros are named after Sir Hugh Munro, whose 1891 tables ended years of uncertainty about how many Scottish peaks topped that height.

Which animal, extinct in Britain since the 16th century, was officially released into Knapdale Forest in 2009?

The beaver families brought over from Norway made the species the first mammal to be officially reintroduced to the United Kingdom.

Which breakfast dish do cooks compete to make at Carrbridge each year for a trophy called the Golden Spurtle?

Porridge in the main contest may contain only oatmeal, salt and water, and a spurtle is the wooden rod Scots use to stir it without lumps.

Under Scotch whisky rules, which grain must be malted to make the mash for a single malt?

Barley is the only grain allowed, and the word 'single' means every drop in the bottle was made in pot stills at one distillery.

Which steel tycoon, born in a one-room weaver's cottage in Fife, gave away almost 90 percent of his fortune?

Andrew Carnegie began as a bobbin boy working 12-hour days in a Pittsburgh cotton factory and went on to pay for 2,509 libraries around the world.

Which Blantyre-born missionary, a cotton-mill worker from the age of 10, named Victoria Falls after his queen?

David Livingstone was the first European to see the waterfall, and after six years out of contact he was tracked down by Henry Morton Stanley.

Scotland's Auld Alliance, first agreed in 1295 against England, was a pact with which other kingdom?

France signed the treaty in Paris under Philip IV, and like every later renewal of the alliance its terms favoured the French side.

Which Scottish act raised partly in Auchtermuchty had a worldwide hit with 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)'?

The Proclaimers, the identical Reid twins, saw the 1988 single reach number three in America five years late, after it featured in the film Benny & Joon.

Granite from which uninhabited island in the Firth of Clyde is prized for making curling stones?

Ailsa Craig's microgranite is unusually hard and resistant to impact, and the rock is nicknamed 'Paddy's Milestone' for sitting halfway along the old sea route from Belfast.

Which basalt-columned sea grotto on the island of Staffa inspired Mendelssohn's overture The Hebrides?

Fingal's Cave, which the composer visited in 1829, is said to have inspired him with its strange echoes, and his music turned it into a tourist destination.

Which Scottish sprinter, the hero of Chariots of Fire, refused to run his Olympic 100 metres heat on a Sunday?

Eric Liddell switched to the 400 metres and won it at the 1924 Games, then spent most of his remaining life as a missionary teacher in China.

What did Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell have photographed for the first demonstration of colour photography?

A tartan ribbon was photographed three times, through red, green and blue filters, to show in 1861 that three colours of light could rebuild all the others.

Which Ayrshire links staged the first Open Championship, where eight professionals played for a red leather belt?

Prestwick hosted the Open 24 times from 1860, and when Young Tom Morris won the belt three times running he kept it, leaving no prize and no contest in 1871.

On which Hebridean island did George Orwell finish writing Nineteen Eighty-Four in a remote farmhouse?

Jura almost cost Orwell his life, when he and his adopted son nearly died in the Corryvreckan whirlpool off the island's northern tip.

Which fish is the main ingredient of Cullen skink, the thick soup named after a Moray fishing town?

Smoked haddock is simmered with potatoes and onions, and an authentic bowl uses the variety known as finnan haddie.

Which stadium, home of Scotland's national football team, drew a European record crowd of 149,415 in 1937?

Hampden Park was the largest stadium in the world from 1903 until 1950, and at least 20,000 more fans got into that match against England without tickets.

Which Highland stick-and-ball sport, a cousin of Irish hurling, is played with a wooden stick called a caman?

Shinty players from Scotland meet Irish hurlers in international matches, played under a hybrid set of rules devised for the purpose.

Rugby's Calcutta Cup, contested by Scotland and England, was made by melting down which kind of coin?

Silver rupees, 270 of them, were the last funds of a disbanding rugby club in India, and the trophy's lid is topped by an elephant.