Scotland History & Information
Scottish Information Pages
The capital, is Edinburgh. Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. Scotland was an independent
state until 1 May 1707, when the Acts of Union resulted in a political union with the Kingdom of England to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. Scotland continues to constitute a separate
jurisdiction in Public International Law.
The Scottish education system and the Church of Scotland have been three cornerstones contributing to the continuation of Scottish culture and Scottish
national identity since the Union and end if independence. Following the Scottish Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, Scotland became one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial
powerhouses of Europe.
Its industrial decline following World War II was particularly acute, but in recent decades the country has enjoyed something of a cultural and economic renaissance, fuelled in
part by the proceeds of North Sea oil and gas, and latterly the devolved Scottish Parliament, established by the UK government under the Scotland Act 1998. Scotland has three officially-recognised
languages: English, Scottish Gaelic and Scots. The Scottish music scene is a significant aspect of Scottish culture, with both traditional and modern influences.
The most famous type of Scottish music
is the bagpipes, a wind instrument consisting of one or more musical pipes which are fed continuously by a reservoir of air in a bag. The fiddle and accordion are also traditional Scottish
instruments, heavily featured in Scottish country bands. Scottish music was taken with Scottish immigrants to North America, and became a major early influence on traditional styles of music there, for
example country music.
There are four main international airports Glasgow, Edinburgh, Prestwick and Aberdeen in Scotland that serve a wide variety of European and intercontinental routes with scheduled and
chartered flights. Highland and Islands Airports operate 10 regional airports serving the more remote locations of Scotland. There is no national airline, however various small airlines have their base in Scotland
including Loganair operates as a franchise of British Airways, Flyglobespan, Air Scotland and ScotAirways.
Scotland has a large and expanding rail network, which is now managed independently from the
rest of the UK. The East Coast and West Coast Mainlines and the Cross Country Line connect the major cities and towns of Scotland with the English network. First ScotRail operate services within
Scotland. The Scottish Executive has pursued a policy of building new railway lines, and reopening closed ones. The Scottish motorways and major trunk roads are managed by the Scottish Executive. The
rest of the road network is managed by the Scottish local authorities in each of their areas. The country's busiest motorway is the M8 which runs from the outskirts of Edinburgh to central Glasgow,
and on to Renfrewshire. Ferry services operate between the mainland and the Scottish island communities. The Super fast Ferries service from Rosyth is the only scheduled ferry service connecting
Scotland to mainland Europe.
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