About Scotland

Heritage

Scotland's Society

Although we love images of mist shrouded glens, and enjoy the beauties of our countryside, the vast majority of Scots live in towns and cities - from Glasgow once the "Second city of Empire" with its sophisticated shopping, arguably the best in Britain outside London to smaller but no less important regional centres like Galashiels in the Borders or Peterhead in the North East. Scotland was one of the pioneer nations in the industrial revolution, and contributed much to the development of the modern world.

At work, our people engage in modern industries ranging from I.T., to electronics, and in traditional industries like whisky and fishing. At play, we have an irrational unrequited love of football, though rugby is king in the Borders area, and Shinty is big in the Highlands. We claim it was the Scots and not the English who took football to the far flung corners of the globe. They dispute this, but they keep extremely quiet when we make the same claim for golf and curling.

We are not as intensely religious as we were in previous centuries, but hope the morality that underpinned the religious adherence has not been eroded. Culturally special areas like the Western Isles maintain strong religious observance on Sundays, and retain pride in their ancient Gaelic language traditions. English is the principal language, but in most Lowland areas this exists alongside strong dialects of Scots.

Drink has played an important role in Scottish society - too important said the influential Temperance movement . We've drunk claret from our Auld Allies the French, ale from the Lowlands and whisky from the Highlands….all have their adherents and their attractions today, but you don't need drink to enjoy a night out country dancing at a ceilidh or boogying at a club - we're good company, and decent dancers at any time.