THERE'S more to Scotland than stunning scenery and rich history, so find out some amazing facts about our great country here. Take a look about 20 Fascinating Facts You Didn't Know About Scotland.
1. The official animal of Scotland is the Unicorn.
2. The shortest scheduled flight in the world is one-and-a-half miles long from Westray to Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. The journey takes 1 minute 14 seconds to complete.
3. Scotland has approximately 790 islands, 130 of which are inhabited.
4. The Neolithic settlement of Skara Brae, on the island of Orkney, is the oldest building in Britain, dating from 3100 BC.
5. The Hamilton Mausoleum in South Lanarkshire has the longest echo of any man-made structure in the world; a whole 15 seconds.
6. Scotland has more than 600 square miles of freshwater lakes, including the famous Loch Ness.
7. The capital of Scotland, Edinburgh, is only its second largest city, after Glasgow.
8. Edinburgh was the first city in the world which had its own fire brigade.
9. Like Rome, Edinburgh was built on seven hills and the capital has more listed buildings than anywhere in the world.
10. The deepest loch in Scotland, Loch Morar, not Loch Ness, reaches 1,077ft (328m) down and is ranked the seventeenth deepest lake in the world.
11. You've heard of Nessie, now meet Morag, the monster of Loch Morar.
12. Scotland has about the same land area as the Czech Republic, the United Arab Emirates, Panama, the US state of Maine, or the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
13. The most infamous Scottish dish is haggis, normally made with the heart, liver, and lungs of a sheep, traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach.
It is not known where it originated, but a similar dish was mentioned in Greece 2,500 years ago.
14. Imports of haggis to the US have been banned since the 70s.
15. Many of Scotland’s most famous inventions – kilts, tartansand bagpipes - were actually developed elsewhere.
Kilts originated in Ireland, tartans have been found in Bronze Age central Europe and bagpipes are thought to have come from ancient central Asia.
16. Famous names from Scottish literature include: Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
17. Scotland has the highest proportion of redheads in the world. Around 13 per cent of the population has red hair, with 40 per cent carrying the recessive gene.
18. Scots are most likely to have blue eyes than people in the rest of the UK.
19. The first official international football match was played at the West of Scotland Cricket Club in Partick in 1872, between Scotland and England.
20. The Scots invented golf with St Andrews considered as the ‘home of golf’.
Source: Daily Record, Telegraph
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