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{{quote|''"[A] notion has been entertained that the moral spine in Scotland is more flexible than in England. The truth however is, that an elementary difference exists in the public feelings of the two nations quite as great as in the idioms of their respective dialects. The English are a justice-loving people, according to charter and statute; the Scotch are a wrong-resenting race, according to right and feeling: and the character of liberty among them takes its aspect from that peculiarity."''|'''John Galt<ref>Not [[Atlas Shrugged|that one]]</ref>''', ''Ringan Gilhaize'' (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1823) vol. 3, p. 313}}
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== The Kilt ==
The most famous thing about Scotland (to people overseas) is [[Man in
Often in American (and even English!) television, all Scottish people will be wearing the kilt all the time. It also seems to be believed that Scottish people often go without
In recent years this has changed somewhat, with some sport fans - mostly rugby and football - choosing to wear a casual version of the kilt and their team's jersey on the streets or to matches.
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Private schoolgirls (mostly those in North America and a few other places) wear plaid skirts, which are ''not'' kilts - they just look an awful lot like them.
A number of Scottish military regiments use the kilt in their uniform, but they have not been used in combat since 1940, not least because of a very good and [[Nightmare Fuel|nightmare fueleriffic]] reason involving mustard gas puddles on the battlefield.<ref>That sound you just heard was every male Troper in the world screaming like a little girl while curling into a fetal position.</ref>
The stereotypical "kilts, bagpipes, thistles, Highland cows" view of Scotland is often referred to as "the shortbread-tin version", after the packaging in which shortbread biscuits/cookies are marketed to tourists.
Interestingly the kilt may not have originally been [[No True Scotsman|"true"]] Highland dress but invented by an Englishman, of all things, who found the belted plaid a little to stifling and made cutoffs out of it. The belted plaid is a large garment rather like a wrap or poncho that can be folded different ways according to the users desire. They often had tassels to fit a belt through, hence the name. While the kilt looks more shapely then the plaid, an experienced wearer can make it look good. Also to be noted is that it is generally argued that until recently there was no such thing as different tartans being clan symbols, per se. Rather regional styles would grow because of craft traditions and dyeing material. As different clans had their own districts it is sort of the same thing in a way but there was nothing official about it. It is true however that Highlanders took a delight in bright and contrasting colors and used them as status symbols.
== Clans ==
The familiar feudal system which we know from ''[[
The Clan system along the English border was slightly different from that in the Highlands; it's nature came from the constant warfare between England and Scotland, but lasted even after(roughly)amiable relations were established in the reign of Elizabeth of England and James of Scotland. When James succeeded Elizabeth forming the United Kingdom, the Border clans were ethnicly cleansed. After that they tended to be resettled in areas where highly ferocious people could be out of sight of [[The Government]] but not out of sight of indigenous peoples whom the crown also found inconvenient. In Ireland they formed much of the ancestry of the Ulstermen. In North America they became the "Scots-Irish" which settled in the Appalachians and further West. The Highland Clans took longer to subdue. They tended to take the side of the Stuart dynasty in the various civil wars and were almost eliminated culturally after the Battle of Culloden in 1745. They were saved by two quirks of history. One was that it was realized that Highlanders in fact made useful soldiers and were as apt to serve the crown as rebel against it. The other was the Romantic movement in literature, notably as represented by Sir [[Walter Scot]]. During this time ethnic exoticism became seen as colorful instead of dangerous, and the clans became fashionable in the ruling classes of Great Britain. Many of the customs we associate with the Clans in fact date from this period. For instance, the Tartans or clan heraldry on the kilts were in fact not standardized until this period. In another way, however this was a bad time for the Highlands, as it was the time of the notorious Clearances in which landholders(I.E. Chiefs) were evicting the tenants for the sake of changing the agricultural products. Some of the evicted tenants survived by migration, to North America and other places and others survived from the pay for soldiering. In any case the Clan system as in old times exists today more as a focus of identity then as the political system it once was.
== Scran ==
On a day-to-day basis, Scots follow the same "meat and potatoes" diet as the rest of the UK/Western World. Nevertheless, traditional dishes still coexist happily with the modern internationalised diet, McDonald's, KFC, Starbucks and the rest.
Scotland does have the dubious distinction of eating even ''less'' healthily than America. Scots will deep-fry anything that will stand still long enough,<ref>In fact, it's likely that the American obsession with deep-frying came from Scottish and Ulster Scottish immigrants to the South.</ref>
Some Scottish foodstuffs include:
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** Other famous Scottish soups include Scotch Broth and Cullen Skink. Both of which are nice if made well from good ingredients.
* '''Kippers''': A smoked herring that's being split down the middle. Vibrant orange-yellow in colour, they can be eaten cold as well as hot. Eaten by sufferers of [[Knight Fever]]. Arbroath Smokies are haddock smoked in a similar way.
* '''Haggis''': "Great Chieftain o' the puddin' race", as [[Robert Burns
** Demonstrating how traditional and international food can be deliciously merged: The Spicy Haggis Panini.
* '''Irn Bru''': Pronounced "Iron Brew". Scotland's ''other'' national drink. Radioactive orange in color; alleged to have energy-giving properties, and to be made from girders. Believed to be a good cure for hangovers, which may explain its popularity.
** Scotland's ''other'' other national drink is '''[
*** For anyone confused and wondering, Scotland's ''first'' national drink is of course '''Whisky''' of which there are [
* '''Deep-fried Mars Bars''': Are actually real. They originated as a novelty item somewhere in some corner of darkest Scotland - although its true origins are shrouded in the mists of time<ref>and alcohol</ref> - and have since spread to become a novelty item everywhere else: a kind of national joke and conspiracy, but if a tourist asks for one, he's getting one. (Note that [[Separated
* '''Scotch Pies''': a Scottish institution even more than the 'White Pudding Supper'. If they went away, what would the football fans eat instead? It doesn't bear thinking about.
** The '''Macaroni Pie''' variant comes as a particular shock to tourists, who often find it difficult to wrap their heads around the idea.
* '''The Bridie''' is a meat pastry, resembling the more widely known Cornish pasty. The '''Forfar Bridie''', a variety originating in the eponymous Angus town, uses shortcrust pastry, rather than the usual flaky pastry, which the inhabitants stubbornly maintain is the "true" recipe.
* The '''Scotch Egg''', a hard-boiled egg that has been de-shelled, wrapped in sausage meat, rolled in breadcrumbs, and--[[Running Gag|yes]]
** Contraray to popular belief, the Scotch Egg was actually invented in Victorian London. *nods*
* '''The Swally (beer&alcohol)'''. Scotland also brews the official strongest beer in the world. It is made by the ''Brew Dog'' brewery, is 41% alcohol by volume (that is around 80 proof for those on old money) and called ''[
*** A note on Scottish beers, a weary traveller may find beers labelled as 60, 70, 80, or 90 Shilling. This due to a quirk of past Scottish licensing laws ([[The BBC]] has a good article [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A288317 here]) Basically the lower the shilling, the weaker the beer. Lager is generally Tennents' (who used to put pictures of half naked women on their cans) and they do a lot of sponsorship of major events.
*** As with Whisky (above) there are a [
*** Scotland also has number of Fruit Wine makers, most famous are probably [http://www.cairnomohr.com/ Cairn O'Mohr] (say it [[Incredibly Lame Pun|out-loud]]) and [https://web.archive.org/web/20120114043311/http://www.moniackcastle.co.uk/index.htm Moniack Castle].
** Be warned, alcohol is [[Serious Business]] here so tread lightly.
* '''Square Sausage''': Sasauge. [[Exactly What It Says
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The Scottish legal system has historically been different from [[The Common Law|that of England]], and the separate legal system was guaranteed by the 1707 treaty, and diverged a bit more with devolution (but not much, since the main change is that the same separate Scottish law is now mostly made at Holyrood, rather than Westminster: it's still the same law). An interesting example is that in Scotland, there are three court verdicts: Proven, [[Not Proven]] (otherwise known as "not guilty and don't do it again" or the "bastard verdict"), and Not Guilty. Owing to the prevalence of Anglo-American media, very few people in Scotland know this. Also, Scots receive more tax per capita than they do in England, which has caused a degree of outcry in the past. The justification given is that Scotland has a greater amount of sparsely populated rural areas than England and as a result, fewer schools, hospitals, etc. are needed. Some also argue that, if it were a separate nation, Scotland would rightfully claim enough of Britain's North Sea gas deposits- which are held by the Union as a whole- to offset this apparent imbalance. It has also been observed that certain areas of England receive a similarly above-average revenue, particularly the former industrial heartland [[Oop North]], which has suffered from a similar post-industrial depression in recent decades.
The Act of Union also guaranteed a separate Established (though not state) Church. The Church of Scotland is Presbyterian, the Free Church of Scotland has no established status but a religious monopoly in most of the Western Isles and is even more Presbyterian (they take "T' S-habbath" like Orthodox Jews). Then again there's the Free Church (Continuing), the Associated Presbyterian Church and the Free Presbyterian Church, they all broke off from one and other over the past three centuries, it's all a bit People's Front of Judea. Whilst Britain's other established (and for that matter state) church; the Church of England is Anglican (aka Episcopalian). The Queen, is the official head of the English church, but an ordinary member of the Church of Scotland and somehow converts to a new religion every time she crosses the border.
The West of Scotland is also notorious for the sectarian feud between Catholics and Protestants, typically made manifest in the Old Firm - Celtic and Rangers, Glasgow's most widely recognised football
The Scottish Education system is also different, see [[British Education System]].
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Glasgow has its own subway system, albeit much smaller than the [[London Underground]]. It's nicknamed the Clockwork Orange for its colour. It's one big circle, with two lines running in opposite directions.
Finally, Scotland also has differing traditions for the holiday season. Christmas is traditionally less important (people working on Christmas Day is still quite common, and almost everyone is back at work by the 27th), with an increased emphasis on New Year's Eve (known as Hogmanay). Hogmanay is, more or less, a gigantic booze-up. Ceilidh music and the singing of Auld Lang Syne are also very common. Street parties are held - most famously in Edinburgh - and [[The BBC|BBC Scotland]] has an evening of programmes dedicated to it. Both New Year's Day and January
See also [[Scotireland]], [[Violent Glaswegian]], [[Everything's Louder
{{examples}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Tintin - ''[[Tintin
* Destro, weapons supplier of the evil Cobra organisation in [[G.I. Joe]], is the scottish James Mc Cullen XXIV, and some battles have even happened in his family castle.
* Wolfsbane from ''[[X
* Carl Barks's [[Disney Ducks Comic Universe|Scrooge McDuck]]. The ancestral McDuck lands were a part of the lowlands called "Dismal Downs", but by Scrooge's birth the family had long since decamped to Glasgow.
== [[Fanfic]] ==
* Aideen from [[
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie]]''
* ''[[Casino Royale 1967]]''
* ''[[Star Trek (
* ''[[
* ''[[The Wicker Man]]''- original version.
* ''[[Made Of Honor]]''
* ''[[Local Hero]]''
* ''[[Gregorys Girl|Gregory's Girl]]''
* ''[[Four Weddings and
* ''[[Whisky Galore]]''
* ''[[Trainspotting]]'' (''not'' the shortbread-tin version).
* ''[[Scooby Doo]] and the Loch Ness Monster''. Oh, god... Kilts, bagpipes, haggis, Nessie, horrible horrible accents... it just doesn't end!
* ''[[The Piano]]'' features Scottish characters but is set in [[
* ''[[In the Loop]]'' has the 'Double Scotch' duo of Malcolm Tucker and Jamie MacDonald. Some of the best examples of Scottish swearing in cinema.
* Ironically, ''[[Laurel and Hardy|Bonnie Scotland]]'' only has a short bit in Scotland before taking off for India for the rest of the film.
* [[Canon Foreigner|Gutsy Smurf]] from ''[[The Smurfs (
* Disney/Pixar's ''[[
== [[Literature]] ==
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* The [[Bob Skinner]] detective novels by Quintin Jardine.
* And don't forget ''[[Rob Roy]]'' by Sir [[Walter Scott]], although the accuracy of that may very well be questionable.
** Nowadays, Scott is the person most frequently credited/blamed for inventing the whole notion of
* According to [[Word of God]], ''[[Harry Potter (
** Specifically, somewhere in the vicinity of [http://www.dufftown.co.uk/ Dufftown], according to Hermione.
* Just about every Christopher Brookmyre book.
* In ''[[Lonely Werewolf Girl]]'' a [[Theme Park Version]] of the Scottish Highlands features as the base of the Werewolf royal family. The sequel ''[[Curse of the Wolfgirl]]'' has a more realistic<ref>well as realistic as you can be in a book about werewolves and fire-demons</ref> version along with the city of Edinburgh.
* In the ''[[Necroscope]]'' series all the standard "shortbread tin" stereotypes are invoked, then brutally eviscerated. Much like several main characters.
* ''[[Outlander (
* ''[[The Railway Series]]'': Donald and Douglas are from Scotland, which is reflected in their accent.
* ''The Loch'', by Steve Alten is an obvious case, but readers may not be prepared for how much it goes into detail. Everything from the geological conditions that formed Scotland to its religious traditions to its legal traditions to its spats with England come up.
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Taggart]]'': As almost every English actor's CV will typically contain an appearance in ''[[The Bill]]'', every Scottish actor's will feature a bit-part in ''[[Taggart]]''. Except [[David Tennant]] who has failed the audition several times.
* ''[[
* ''[[Hamish Macbeth (TV series)|Hamish Macbeth]]''
* ''[[River City]]''
* ''[[Doctor Finlays Casebook|Doctor Finlay's Casebook]]''
* ''[[Take The High Road]]'', later shortened to ''[[High Road]]''.
* ''[[Rebus]]''
* ''[[Rab C. Nesbitt]]'' (They did allow Tennant a part. As a pre-op transgender barmaid. With great legs!)
* ''[[Still Game]]''
* ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'' has Flynn McAllistair (the Blue Ranger), who is proud of his heritage, dressed up like William Wallace in a flashback, and wore a kilt to a wedding. The greatest battle of the series is Kiwi Actor vs. Scottish Accent.
* ''[[The Thick of It]]'' - features many references to the Scottishness of its lead character [[Magnificent Bastard|Malcolm Tucker]] and his [[Bastard Understudy]] Jamie. Tucker is called '[[Hamish Macbeth (TV series)|Hamish MacDeath]]' and 'The Gorbals Goebbels' by opposition MP, Peter Mannion.
* ''[[Star Trek:
* ''[[Star Trek:
* ''[[Smallville]]'' would occasionally make a thing of the Luthor family's Scottish roots. That [[Did Not Do the Research|Luther is a German name]] didn't seem to occur to them. Justified because in a later season we find out that {{spoiler|Lionel Luthor actually made that up}}
* In the ''[[
** Upon hearing Amy's order that it's okay to leave everyone else to die, in order to safely come back to her and the baby;
{{quote|
** Second Doctor companion Jamie was a bagpiper from the highlands who almost always wore a kilt.
* ''[[
* ''[[The Muppet Show]]'': Angus McGonagle, the Argyle Gargoyle who [[Trrrilling Rrrs|garrrrrgles Gerrrrrrshwin! GORRRRRRGEOUSLY!]]
* [[Stargate Atlantis]] who's resident Doctor Carson Beckett notably wears a Scottish flag as his mission patch. This is despite English characters such as Peter Grodin who wear the Union Flag. ''Make of that what you will.''
== [[Music]] ==
* [[
* [[
** They visited later the same subject matter in the songs "The Battle of Bannockburn" and "Highland Tears".
** Recently they released another album based on Scotland, ''The Clans Will Rise Again''.
* [[Franz Ferdinand]], being a Scottish band, get inspiration for a fair number of songs from the vibrant (and distinctly non-shortbread-tin) Glasgow nightlife. The most obvious [[Shout
* Scotland has a large body of traditional and folk music, much of it dealing with Scottish life and history. The most prominent exponents of Scottish folk were The Corries, a duo comprised of Ronnie Browne and the late, great Roy Williamson, who helped popularise the folk revival of the '60s, and penned ''Flower of Scotland'', the nation's unofficial anthem. Other artists include Silly Wizard, The Clutha and The Tannahill Weavers, among many others.
** Highly successful celtic rock band Runrig hail from the Hebridean island of Skye. Much of their music deals with Scottish culture and tradition and makes use of the Gaelic language. They have covered several traditional songs, most famously ''Loch Lomond'', which became something of an anthem, and the definitive rock adaptation of the song.
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* A range of '80s Scottish Bands: The [[Cocteau Twins]], [[The Jesus and Mary Chain]], [[Primal Scream]], and The Vaselines.
* And a range of '90s Scottish Bands: Arab Strap, Belle and Sebastian, Mogwai, and Teenage Fanclub.
* ''And'' a range of 2000s Scottish Bands: Snow Patrol, The Fratellis, Travis, the [[Red Hot Chilli Pipers]], and the aforementioned Franz Ferdinand.
* Shirley Manson, lead singer of [[Garbage]] is from Edinburgh, where she formed her first band, Angelfish.
* [[Alestorm]] are from Perth.
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== [[Poetry]] ==
* Scotland has a rich poetic traditional, including a great body of work in the Scots language, most famously the work of [[Robert Burns
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* Much like Scotty from ''[[Star Trek:
* Scotland has a number of independent wrestling groups - including the Scottish Wrestling Alliance (SWA) who famously got a pay-off from [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] when the latter launched NXT, a name which was already used by the SWA for a similar concept.
* Notable Scottish wrestlers who are actually from Scotland include Drew McIntyre and The Highlanders (Robbie and Rory). "Superstar" Bill Dundee - of Memphis wrestling fame - was born in Scotland but raised in Australia.
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* "Nanty Puts Her Hair Up" from ''New Faces of 1952''.
* The Reduced Shakespeare Company's version of ''Macbeth'', which manages to pack virtually every Scottish stereotype known to man into the roughly 1.5 minutes it takes them to do the play, complete with deliberately horrendous accents.
* ''The Steamie'' a well-regarded play set in a public washhouse (or "steamie") in Glasgow in [[The Fifties]].
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The Highland tribe levels in ''[[Lemmings]] 2'' are set in [[The Theme Park Version|a cartoony version of]] the Scottish Highlands, featuring redheaded Lemmings, thistle death traps, and Loch Ness Monsters and Scottish terriers as decorations and/or obstacles.
* The Scotland track in ''[[
* The Rockstar North department of Rockstar Games in based in Edinburgh. Rockstar North is well known for developing all of the Grandtheft Auto games. Before they were bought by Rockstar and became Rockstar North they also made the Lemmings Games and the first Grandtheft Auto games as DMA Design Ltd.
* Lilly Satou, one of the five heroines of the [[Visual Novel]] ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'' and her sister Akira are Half Japanese, Half Scottish.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[
* Much of the mythology in ''[[
* The ''[[Kim Possible]]'' villain Duff Killigan wears a kilt and tam'o'shanter, lives in a castle, is obsessed with golf, loves haggis and has a soundtrack of bagpipes playing whenever he appears onscreen. (So he's American, is he?)
* ''[[The Simpsons (
* The [[Merrie Melodies]] short ''My Bunny Lies over the Sea'' features Angus MacRory, who challenges [[Bugs Bunny]] to a game of golf after Bugs destroyed Angus' bagpipes.
== Other ==
* [[George Macdonald Fraser]], who wrote, among other things, his splendid history of the Border Clans, ''[[
* Newspapers provide us with ''The Sunday Post'', which is Heather and Shortbread in Sunday newspaper form.
[[File:
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Useful Notes/Europe]]
[[Category:Hollywood Atlas]]
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