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Introduction
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Scotland (Scots: Scotland, Scottish Gaelic: Alba [ˈal̪ˠapə] (listen)) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a 96-mile (154-kilometre) border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, the North Sea to the northeast and the Irish Sea to the south. It also contains more than 790 islands, principally in the archipelagos of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. Most of the population, including the capital Edinburgh, is concentrated in the Central Belt—the plain between the Scottish Highlands and the Southern Uplands—in the Scottish Lowlands.
Scotland is divided into 32 administrative subdivisions or local authorities, known as council areas. Glasgow City is the largest council area in terms of population, with Highland being the largest in terms of area. Limited self-governing power, covering matters such as education, social services and roads and transportation, is devolved from the Scottish Government to each subdivision. Scotland is the second-largest country in the United Kingdom, and accounted for 8.3% of the population in 2012.
The Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the 9th century and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI of Scotland became king of England and Ireland, thus forming a personal union of the three kingdoms. Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created the Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. In 1801, the Kingdom of Great Britain entered into a political union with the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (in 1922, the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being officially renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1927).
Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles and other royal symbols of statehood specific to the pre-union Kingdom of Scotland. The legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. The continued existence of legal, educational, religious and other institutions distinct from those in the remainder of the UK have all contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and national identity since the 1707 incorporating union with England.
In 1999, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. The head of the Scottish Government is the first minister of Scotland, who is supported by the deputy first minister of Scotland. Scotland is represented in the United Kingdom Parliament by 59 MPs. It is also a member of the British–Irish Council, sending five members of the Scottish Parliament to the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly, as well as being part of the Joint Ministerial Committee, represented by the first minister. (Full article...)
Selected article
The Scottish Enlightenment (Scots: Scots Enlichtenment, Scottish Gaelic: Soillseachadh na h-Alba) was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By the eighteenth century, Scotland had a network of parish schools in the Scottish Lowlands and five universities. The Enlightenment culture was based on close readings of new books, and intense discussions took place daily at such intellectual gathering places in Edinburgh as The Select Society and, later, The Poker Club, as well as within Scotland's ancient universities (St Andrews, Glasgow, Edinburgh, King's College, and Marischal College).
Sharing the humanist and rational outlook of the Western Enlightenment of the same time period, the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment asserted the importance of human reason combined with a rejection of any authority that could not be justified by reason. In Scotland, the Enlightenment was characterised by a thoroughgoing empiricism and practicality where the chief values were improvement, virtue, and practical benefit for the individual and society as a whole.
Among the fields that rapidly advanced were philosophy, political economy, engineering, architecture, medicine, geology, archaeology, botany and zoology, law, agriculture, chemistry and sociology. Among the Scottish thinkers and scientists of the period were Joseph Black, Robert Burns, William Cullen, Adam Ferguson, David Hume, Francis Hutcheson, James Hutton, John Playfair, Thomas Reid, Adam Smith, and Dugald Stewart. (Full article...) Read more ...
Selected quotes
" ... In my end is my beginning ... "
" ... The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there ... "
In the news
- 23 May 2022 – 2022 monkeypox outbreak
- Scotland confirms its first case of monkeypox. The patient has been hospitalized. In response, smallpox vaccines are being stockpiled in the country. (Reuters) (BBC News) (Glasgow Times)
- 20 May 2022 – Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II
- The Cabinet Office announces that eight British towns will become cities as part of Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee. The new cities are Milton Keynes, Colchester, and Doncaster in England, Dunfermline in Scotland, Wrexham in Wales, and Bangor in Northern Ireland, as well as Stanley, Falkland Islands, and Douglas, Isle of Man, which become the first towns in the British Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies, respectively, to receive city status. (BBC News)
- 20 May 2022 – COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland
- Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tests positive for COVID-19. (BBC News)
- 18 May 2022 – 2021–22 UEFA Europa League
- In association football, Eintracht Frankfurt defeat the Glasgow Rangers 5–4 on penalties to win the UEFA Europa League following a 1–1 draw after extra time in the final at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium in Seville, Spain. (CNN)
- 18 April 2022 – COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland
Selected biography
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle KStJ DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.
Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the Mary Celeste. (Full article...) Read more ...
Selected picture
Did You Know...
- ... that the Duke of Edinburgh has been Admiral of the House of Lords Yacht Club since 1952?
- ... that before his accession to the Scottish Parliament in 2016, Bill Bowman lived and worked for more than a decade in Bucharest?
- ... that the ships MV Coelleira, MFV Elinor Viking, SS Ben Doran, and SV Illeri were all wrecked on the Ve Skerries in Shetland, Scotland?
- ... that U.S. general Arthur MacArthur gave an address at the unveiling of a monument to Scottish poet Robert Burns in Milwaukee?
- ... that the 1929 Scottish Prayer Book is the Scottish Episcopal Church's current version of the Book of Common Prayer?
- ... that a deep-sea fish known as a black ruff was caught in a salmon net in the Firth of Forth and donated to the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art in 1901?
- ... that as a condition of a bequest from James Cowan Smith, the Scottish National Gallery must permanently display a portrait of his dog Callum?
- ... that the Jubilate by Benjamin Britten was written in 1961 for St George's Chapel at the request of the Duke of Edinburgh, and performed there for some of his birthdays and his funeral?
Get involved
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.
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