Scotland

32 miles

Mauchline is a small village in East Ayrshire near Kilmarnock

So glad you asked. Don't be ashamed of not knowing; most British people couldn't give you the answer. OK. Here we go. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle, before 1000 AD, describing the country, begins 'bretene iegland is, eaht hund mila lang'. Britain is an island, eight hundred miles long. This island today includes most of England, Wales and Scotland. There are lots of little islands attached to all three countries - the Isle of Wight, Anglesey and all the Scottish islands, for example - and together these islands and the mainland make up Great Britain. OK so far? Wales has been part of the Kingdom since the twelfth century or so; Scotland joined with England and Wales to form a United Kingdom under the same crown in 1603 but retained its own parliament. Finally, the parliaments - England and Scotland - were combined under the Act of Union in 1707. BUT, there is another large island just next door - Ireland. The English tried to rule Ireland for centuries, mostly by barbaric methods - in 1801 Ireland joined the Union and its government joined the others in London. In the North, in the province of Ulster, they went so far as to root out the original Irish (and Catholic) inhabitants and replace them with Protestant Scottish settlers. This was so successful that when, in the early 20th century, Ireland was granted independence, Ulster, or 6 of the original counties of Ulster, refused to join in, and remained part of - wait for it - the UK. The UK, then, is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Basically, it is under a single government, with devolved local assemblies (like State governments) in Scotland and Wales and, intermittently, Northern Ireland. The Isle of Man and the Channel Isles have their own arrangements, coming under the Crown but not necessarily the UK government. So you can have good fun teasing any British people you meet by asking them of what country they are citizens. Ninety percent of them won't know! Some will say England, or Britain, or Great Britain or 'The UK", but the correct answer is as above. I am a Citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. So there. The UK is Britain! Correction: No, it isn't. See above. Britain is PART of the UK. Answer and since nobody has mentioned it the "Great" was to distinguish it from Lesser Britain or Britannia minor which is the area of France known today as Brittany. Addition to answer It has been known as Great Britain long before it was known as the UK. And, smart arse, most people do know where they are from. Go and ask a Scot where he is from and he will say Scotland. Ask somebody from Northern Ireland and they will say Ulster. And if you tried to tell them your smart-arsed answer you would probably get a smack in the mouth. You were probably not born here, were you? Errata In an effort to by flippant or amusing the original respondent has made some glaring errors that clearly show them not to be fully conversant with the history of these isles. Firstly, the native Catholics were not rooted out of the North of Ireland. Yes, the titled families fled the incoming English AND Scots....an event referred to as "The Flight of the Earls" ever since....but the underlying Catholic population remained although they were severely discriminated againt by the Protestants. Ulster was the name of the province of Ireland, one of the four (the others being Munster, Leinster, and Connaught), that included the present six counties (Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone, and Derry) plus three (Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan) which at the time of Irish Independence remained in the Republic of Ireland. The six form the Province of Northern Ireland which currently has a devolved assembly that includes both Catholic and Protestant politicians. Secondly, Northern Ireland and Wales might have Assemblies but Scotland is governed by the Scottish Parliament. The only country not to have its own separate devolved administration is England. The Westminster parliament has foreign, defence, and certain other specified policy matters reserved to it but the devolved governments decide on health, education, and, in Northern Ireland and Scotland, law and policing. As such they are NOT like States in the US sense. Thirdly, and most curiously, on official documents e.g. on armed forces enlistment papers etc, the citizens of each constituent country are classified as sub-genres of British e.g. the English are shown as Brit/Eng, the Scots as Brit/Scot, etc. It must be confusing to non-Brits. It's a minefield for we Brits ourselves! And rather than teasing, if you want to annoy us then try referring to the Queen of England or otherwise mixing-up our identities. I nearly said 'we may be subjects of the Queen' but, although that's what it says on our passports there are many who resent being classified as subjects of anybody! NO, we may, for now, have to suffer rule by a Westminster parliament, but, trust me, we are only too conscious and highly protective of our individual races, if born here, and of our citizenship of our respective countries in any case e.g. the Scottish National Party has many races and creeds amongst its supporters.

Scotland is not a race.......... it's a country, people from Scotland are called Scottish but there is also a large variety of other culture and races in Scotland.

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Perthshire is in England

An extended family group of Scots is called a "Clan".

Yes, Inverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. Its population is about 72,000. If you ever have a chance to go there, you should! It's a beautiful, friendly, and fun place.

England is 130,395 km squared.

Scotland and Wales are separate countries, they are not part of England and so wouldn't be included in calculating the size of England. They would only be considered when measuring the size of the United Kingdom mainland.

In Scottish Gaelic, the word for 'cheers' is slà inte mhath, meaning 'good health'. It is pronounced as 'slaancha vaa'.

England didn't control Scotland in the Act of Union. When the Parliaments of England and Scotland were merged in 1707, Scotland was fully represented at the combined Parliament in London and new laws applied equally to both countries.

Kool and the Gang played in Glasgow, Scotland on Sunday 05th December 2010:

Venue: Scottish Exhibition and Converence Centre, Finnieston Street, G3 8YW, Glasgow, UK

civils right movement

The population of Scotland is around 5.3 million and the population of the Republic of Ireland is about 4.6 million.

Scotland has a population of around 5.5 million - so it's smallish.

Like ghouls, giants and vampires, the loch ness monster doesn't exist - but it's good for tourism.

They are all countries. The United Kingdom collectively consists of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland is not part of the United Kingdom.

No, he was not.

There are 6 official cities in Scotland (according to the Queen). However, it is common for large towns to be referred to as cities, as most people define cities as large towns.

The 6 official cities are:

* Aberdeen * Dundee * Edinburgh * Glasgow * Inverness * Stirling

The 1936 documentary film, "The Loch Ness Monster: Proof at Last" with Lain McMillan, himself a purported witness of the monster, is worth checking out. Footage of the film was shot on the 22nd of September, 1936, by Malcolm Irvine who claims it is of Nessie. He made the sighting while he was near Inverfarigaig, opposite Urquhart Castle, a place many have reported seeing Nessie from. He recorded the creature and it is his footage which began the Loch Ness monster craze that persists until today. This documentary reel, lost for decades before being recovered, shows grainy black and white images of a dark blob moving slowly across grey water. Irvine first reported seeing Nessie in 1933, and would see it again with 2 other men in 1967. It would be worth looking up his name. Once the documentary was rediscovered the BBC aired it in 2001.

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At the end of which play?

Mainly because of the potato famine around that time. This was a disease called blight which made potatos go mouldy even before they were dug out of the ground. As a result the whole crop failed and because potatos were very important food back then, the Irish were left with not much to eat and lots of people starved. When in Scotland many Irish were treated badly because Scotland was mainly a protestant country whereas the Irish were mainly catholic. Football teams such as Rangers, Hibs and Celtic were made for certain Irish only. Celtic was made as a charity to help the poor Irish immigrants living in Scotland

Scottish

Roman rule brought disparate, isolated peoples into the imperial political and economic sphere. By guiding (and often forcing) these groups to produce particular goods or materials, the Romans launched Europe down a road for which it would become famous: local functional specialization. The workers on Elba, a Mediterranean island, mined iron ore. Those near Cartagena in Spain produced silver and lead. Certain farmers were taught irrigation to produce specialty crops. Others raised livestock for meat or wool. The production of particular goods by particular people in particular places became and remained a hallmark of the realm.

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