Scotland ( Alba in Scottish Gaelic and sometimes known also as Caledonia) is a country of northwest Europe, and one of the four constituent parts of the United Kingdom. Scotland has a land boundary with England on the island of Great Britain and is otherwise bounded by seas and oceans. Three main geographical and geological areas of Scotland make up the mainland: from north to south, the generally mountainous Highlands, the low-lying Central Belt, and the hilly Southern Uplands. The majority of the Scottish population resides in the Central Belt, which contains three of the country's six largest cities, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Stirling. Most of the remaining population lives in the North-East Lowlands where two of the remaining three cities, Aberdeen and Dundee, are situated. Almost all residents of Scotland speak English, although many also speak various dialects of Lowland Scots which differ markedly from Scottish Standard English. Slightly greater than 1% of the population use Scottish Gaelic as their language of everyday use, primarily in the northern and western regions of the country. Almost all Scottish Gaelic speakers also speak fluent English.
Scotland entered into a personal union with England in 1603, when the Scottish King James VI also became James I of England. This union was formalised by the Act of Union in 1707 and merged both kingdoms, creating the Kingdom of Great Britain, with a new single Parliament sitting in Westminster, London, but some aspects of Scotland's institutions, notably the country's legal system, remained separate. In 1999, the people of Scotland voted to create a new parliament, established by the UK Government under the Scotland Act 1998. The new devolved Scottish Parliament governs the country only on domestic matters.
Scotland comprises 32 unitary authority regions.
Popular folk-memory continues to divide Scotland into 33 traditional counties.
Scotland has six designated cities:
• Glasgow
• Edinburgh, the capital
• Aberdeen
• Dundee
• Inverness
• Stirling
Waterways in Scotland:
• Major Rivers:
o The Clyde, The Dee, The Don, The Forth, The Tay, The Tweed, The Spey, ...
• Firths
o Solway, Clyde, Cromarty, Dornoch, Forth, Lorne, Moray, Tay
• Sea Lochs (fjords)
o Loch Linnhe, Loch Fyne, Loch Long, Loch Etive, Loch Sunart, Loch Nevis, Loch Hourn, Loch Broom
• Freshwater Lochs (lakes) include:
o Loch Ness, Loch Lomond, Loch Morar, Loch Tay, Loch Rannoch, Loch Awe, Loch Shiel, Loch Maree, The Lake of Menteith,...
• Artificial & Enhanced waterways include:
o Caledonian Canal, Crinan Canal, Forth & Clyde Canal, Union Canal
• The patron saint of Scotland is Saint Andrew, and Saint Andrew's Day is celebrated in the country on 30 November. red lionThe thistle, the country's national emblem - according to legend a Danish attacker stepped on one at night, so alerting the defenders of a Scottish castle, hence it is called the "guardian thistle"
The Church of Scotland (often referred to as The Kirk) functions as the national church. It differs from the Church of England in that it has a Presbyterian form of church governance, not subject to state control. Roman Catholicism has now become the largest faith after The Kirk. Scotland has a high proportion of irreligious/atheists, the second highest type of (un)belief in the population.