Q 01/05

Which London store claims to have invented the Scotch egg, a snack with no proven Scottish origin, in 1738?

A) Fortnum & Mason

B) Marks & Spencer

C) Harvey Nichols

D) Selfridges

Answer · why

A) Fortnum & Mason

Fortnum & Mason claims to have invented the Scotch egg at Piccadilly in 1738. A Yorkshire account instead says it began in Whitby, covered in fish pas...

Q 02/05

Haggis hurling, a Highland games event whose record throw was 66 metres in 2011, began in 1977 as what?

A) A whisky advertisement

B) A practical joke

C) A BBC charity telethon

D) A school sports-day event

Answer · why

B) A practical joke

Haggis hurling was a practical joke: publicist Robin Dunseath admitted in 2004 that he invented it for the 1977 Gathering of the Clans in Edinburgh. L...

Q 03/05

Which dish did a 2009 Scottish Daily Express survey find a third of Scots eat every week?

A) Haggis and neeps

B) Fish and chips

C) Mince and tatties

D) Scotch broth

Answer · why

C) Mince and tatties

Mince and tatties topped the poll while haggis, the national dish, came only eighth, with just four per cent saying they ate it at least once a week.

Q 04/05

Buckfast, the caffeinated tonic wine notorious in Scotland, was first made by monks in which English county?

A) Kent

B) Cornwall

C) Somerset

D) Devon

Answer · why

D) Devon

Devon's Buckfast Abbey monks first sold the tonic wine in small quantities as a medicine, under the slogan 'Three small glasses a day, for good health...

Q 05/05

Why did A.G. Barr respell its Iron Brew drink as Irn-Bru after the Second World War?

A) A feared ban on untrue names

B) A clash with Coca-Cola

C) Post-war bottle shortages

D) A new factory's opening

Answer · why

A) A feared ban on untrue names

A feared ban on untrue names drove it: draft rules wanted brand names 'literally true', and Iron Brew was not brewed. The rules were later watered dow...