1.
Shires of Scotland
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The counties or shires of Scotland are geographic subdivisions of Scotland established in the Middle Ages. They ceased to be used for government purposes after 1975 under the Local Government Act 1973. Today, local government in Scotland is based upon council areas, which sometimes incorporate county names, counties continue to be used for the purpose of lieutenancy and land registration purposes, though the lieutenancy areas are not entirely identical. Malcolm III appears to have introduced sheriffs as part of a policy of replacing previous forms of government with Norman feudal structures and this policy was continued by Edgar, Alexander I, and in particular David I. David completed the division of the country into sheriffdoms by the conversion of existing thanedoms, the earliest sheriffdom south of the Forth which we know of for certain is Haddingtonshire, which is named in a charters of 1139 as Hadintunschira and in another of 1141 as Hadintunshire. Stirlingshire appears in a charter of 1150 under the name Striuelinschire, the shires of the Highlands were completed only in the reign of King Charles I. In 1305 Edward I of England, who had deposed John Balliol issued an Ordinance for the Government of Scotland, the document listed the twenty-three shires then existing and either appointed new sheriffs or continued heritable sheriffs in office. ^Note a, Gospatric was mentioned as sheriff in a number of charters of Earl David, the shire was one of those surrendered to Edward III of England in 1334. The remaining shires were formed either by the expansion of the Kingdom of Scotland. Many of the new shires had highly irregular boundaries or detached parts as they united the various possessions of the heritable sheriffs, C.1326, Argyll, lordship subdued by Alexander II in 1222. Norwegian claims over the area ended in 1266. First record of appointment of sheriff dates from 1326,1369, Kirkcudbright formed when area between Rivers Nith and Cree granted to Archibald the Grim. Archibald appointed a steward to administer the area, hence it became a stewartry, the islands formed part of Kintyre district of Argyll. A heritable sheriff was appointed to the shire in 1388,1402, Renfrew, separated from the Shire of Lanark by Robert III. 1503, Ross formed from part of Argyll by act of 1503, the Barony of Tarbert was annexed to Cromarty in 1685, but later returned. 1503, Caithness, Separated from the Shire of Inverness by act of 1503 during the reign of James IV. Under the legislation the sheriff of Caithness was to sit at Dornoch and Wick,1581, Orkney was erected into a lordship with the right of sheriffship. It was annexed to the Crown in 1612, although the term continued to be applied to the area
2.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
3.
Wick, Caithness
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Wick is a town and royal burgh in Caithness, in the far north of Scotland. The town straddles the River Wick and extends along both sides of Wick Bay, Wick Locality had a population of 6,954 at the time of the 2011 census, a decrease of 3. 8% from 2001. Pulteneytown, which was developed on the side of the river by the British Fisheries Society during the 19th century, was officially merged into the burgh in 1902. The town is on the highway linking John o Groats with southern Britain. The Far North railway line links Wick railway station with southern Scotland and with Thurso, Wick Airport is on Wicks northern outskirts. The airport has two usable runways, the main offices of The John OGroat Journal and The Caithness Courier are located in Wick, as are Caithness General Hospital, the Wick Carnegie Library and local offices of the Highland Council. Wick Sheriff Court is one of 16 sheriff courts serving the sheriffdom of Grampian, Highland, iron Age activity in the parish of Wick is evident in the hill fort at Garrywhin. Evidence of activity around Wick from the Norse pagan period was discovered in 1837 when brooches, the name Wick appears to be from a Norse word, vík, meaning bay, cf. also the word viking. In the eighth century, St Fergus, an Irish missionary and he is the patron saint of Wick. One of the fairs in Wick, the Fergusmas, is named for this saint and it is believed that the Chapel of St. Tear in Wick Parish near Ackergill was founded in the eighth century by St Drostan, whose ministry was in Aberdeenshire. Wick belonged to Norway, as did all of Caithness, until the reign of William the Lion, the Castle of Old Wick, commonly known as “The Old Man of Wick” is thought to have been built in about 1160 by Harald Maddadson, Earl of Caithness and Orkney. Earl Harald, who was half Norse, is thought to have resided there and it was long used by fishermen as an aid to navigation in the North Sea. This occasioned a dispute between Hroald and Margad, and the latter soon went to Wik with nineteen men. Between the years 1153 and 1156, Harald Maddadson, then joint earl Katanes and Orkney with Earl Rognvald, passed into Katanes, in about 1330, the parish of Wick was included among the Caithness lands owned by the family of Cheyne. The last male heir, Sir Reginald de Cheyne, died c.1345 and was succeeded by his two daughters, who, by marriage, carried the lands into the clans Sinclair, Sutherland, and Keith. Between 1390 and 1406, King Robert III granted the town of Wick in heritage to Neill Sutherland with a burgh of barony, in 1438, the clans Gunn and Keith joined battle near Wick on the moor of Tannach with both sides suffering heavy losses. However, hostilities between the two clans were not ended at that time. In 1503, the Parliament of Scotland established a sheriff for Caithness and they were charged with treason but were granted remission by Queen Mary
4.
Scottish Gaelic
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Scottish Gaelic or Scots Gaelic, sometimes also referred to as Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish. The 2011 census of Scotland showed that a total of 57,375 people in Scotland could speak Gaelic at that time, the census results indicate a decline of 1,275 Gaelic speakers from 2001. A total of 87,056 people in 2011 reported having some facility with Gaelic compared to 93,282 people in 2001, only about half of speakers were fully literate in the language. Nevertheless, revival efforts exist and the number of speakers of the language under age 20 has increased, Scottish Gaelic is neither an official language of the European Union nor the United Kingdom. Outside Scotland, a group of dialects collectively known as Canadian Gaelic are spoken in parts of Atlantic Canada, mainly Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. In the 2011 census, there were 7,195 total speakers of Gaelic languages in Canada, with 1,365 in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island where the responses mainly refer to Scottish Gaelic. About 2,320 Canadians in 2011 also claimed Gaelic languages as their mother tongue, with over 300 in Nova Scotia, aside from Scottish Gaelic, the language may also be referred to simply as Gaelic. In Scotland, the word Gaelic in reference to Scottish Gaelic specifically is pronounced, outside Ireland and Great Britain, Gaelic may refer to the Irish language. Scottish Gaelic should not be confused with Scots, the Middle English-derived language varieties which had come to be spoken in most of the Lowlands of Scotland by the modern era. Prior to the 15th century, these dialects were known as Inglis by its own speakers, from the late 15th century, however, it became increasingly common for such speakers to refer to Scottish Gaelic as Erse and the Lowland vernacular as Scottis. Today, Scottish Gaelic is recognised as a language from Irish. Gaelic in Scotland was mostly confined to Dál Riata until the 8th century, when it began expanding into Pictish areas north of the Firth of Forth, by 900, Pictish appears to have become extinct, completely replaced by Gaelic. An exception might be made for the Northern Isles, however, however, though the Pictish language did not disappear suddenly, a process of Gaelicisation was clearly underway during the reigns of Caustantín and his successors. By a certain point, probably during the 11th century, all the inhabitants of Alba had become fully Gaelicised Scots, by the 10th century, Gaelic had become the dominant language throughout northern and western Scotland, the Gaelo-Pictic Kingdom of Alba. Its spread to southern Scotland, was even and totalizing. Place name analysis suggests dense usage of Gaelic in Galloway and adjoining areas to the north and west as well as in West Lothian, less dense usage is suggested for north Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, the Clyde Valley and eastern Dumfriesshire. In south-eastern Scotland, there is no evidence that Gaelic was ever widely spoken, the area shifted from Cumbric to Old English during its long incorporation into the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria
5.
Scots language
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Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster. It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language which was restricted to most of the Highlands. The language developed during the Middle English period as a distinct entity, although a number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects do exist, these often render contradictory results. Broad Scots is at one end of a linguistic continuum. Scots is often regarded as one of the ancient varieties of English, alternatively, Scots is sometimes treated as a distinct Germanic language, in the way Norwegian is closely linked to, yet distinct from, Danish. In the 2011 Scottish census, a question on Scots language ability was featured, native speakers sometimes refer to their vernacular as braid Scots or use a dialect name such as the Doric, or the Buchan Claik. The old-fashioned Scotch, an English loan, occurs occasionally, especially in Northern Ireland, the term Lallans, a variant of the Modern Scots word lawlands, is also used, though this is more often taken to mean the Lallans literary form. Scots in Ireland is known in circles as Ulster-Scots or Ullans. Scots is a contraction of Scottis, the Older Scots and northern version of late Old English Scottisc, before the end of the 15th century, English speech in Scotland was known as English, whereas Scottish referred to Gaelic. From 1495 the term Scottis was increasingly used to refer to the Lowland vernacular and Erse, meaning Irish, the Gaelic of Scotland is now usually called Scottish Gaelic. Northumbrian Old English had been established in what is now southeastern Scotland as far as the River Forth by the seventh century and it remained largely confined to this area until the thirteenth century, continuing in common use while Gaelic was the language of the Scottish court. Scots also includes loan words resulting from contact with Gaelic, Early medieval legal documents include a body of Gaelic legal and administrative loans. Contemporary Gaelic loans are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as ceilidh, loch, from the thirteenth century Early Scots spread further into Scotland via the burghs, proto-urban institutions which were first established by King David I. The growth in prestige of Early Scots in the century. By the sixteenth century Middle Scots had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England, from 1610 to the 1690s during the Plantation of Ulster large numbers of Scots-speaking Lowlanders, some 200,000, settled there. In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one, Modern Scots is used to describe the language after 1700 when southern Modern English was generally adopted as the literary language though Scots remained the vernacular. In Scotland, Scots is spoken in the Scottish Lowlands, the Northern Isles, Caithness, Arran, in Ulster it is spoken in the Counties of Down, Antrim, Londonderry and Donegal. Dialects include Insular Scots, Northern Scots, Central Scots, Southern Scots, many speakers are either diglossic and/or able to code-switch along the continuum depending on the situation in which they find themselves
6.
Old Norse
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Old Norse was a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during about the 9th to 13th centuries. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century, Old Norse was divided into three dialects, Old West Norse, Old East Norse and Old Gutnish. Old West and East Norse formed a continuum, with no clear geographical boundary between them. For example, Old East Norse traits were found in eastern Norway, although Old Norwegian is classified as Old West Norse, most speakers spoke Old East Norse in what is present day Denmark and Sweden. Old Gutnish, the more obscure dialectal branch, is included in the Old East Norse dialect due to geographical associations. It developed its own features and shared in changes to both other branches. The 12th century Icelandic Gray Goose Laws state that Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders and Danes spoke the same language, another term used, used especially commonly with reference to West Norse, was norrœnt mál. In some instances the term Old Norse refers specifically to Old West Norse, the Old East Norse dialect was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, settlements in Kievan Rus, eastern England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in settlements in the East. In the 11th century, Old Norse was the most widely spoken European language, in Kievan Rus, it survived the longest in Veliky Novgorod, probably lasting into the 13th century there. Norwegian is descended from Old West Norse, but over the centuries it has heavily influenced by East Norse. Old Norse also had an influence on English dialects and Lowland Scots and it also influenced the development of the Norman language, and through it and to a smaller extent, that of modern French. Various other languages, which are not closely related, have heavily influenced by Norse, particularly the Norman dialects, Scottish Gaelic. The current Finnish and Estonian words for Sweden are Ruotsi and Rootsi, of the modern languages, Icelandic is the closest to Old Norse. Written modern Icelandic derives from the Old Norse phonemic writing system, contemporary Icelandic-speakers can read Old Norse, which varies slightly in spelling as well as semantics and word order. However, pronunciation, particularly of the phonemes, has changed at least as much as in the other North Germanic languages. Faroese retains many similarities but is influenced by Danish, Norwegian, although Swedish, Danish and the Norwegian languages have diverged the most, they still retain asymmetric mutual intelligibility. Speakers of modern Swedish, Norwegian and Danish can mostly understand each other without studying their neighboring languages, the languages are also sufficiently similar in writing that they can mostly be understood across borders
7.
Lieutenancy areas of Scotland
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The lieutenancy areas of Scotland are the areas used for the ceremonial lord-lieutenants, the monarchs representatives, in Scotland. The lord-lieutenants titles chosen by the monarch and her advisers are mainly based on placenames of the traditional counties of Scotland. In 1794 permanent lieutenancies were established by Royal Warrant, by the Militia Act 1797, the lieutenants appointed for the Counties, Stewartries, Cities, and Places were given powers to raise and command County Militia Units. Lieutenancy areas are different from the current local government council areas and they also differ from other subdivisions of Scotland including sheriffdoms and former regions and districts. The Lord Provosts of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow also act ex officio as lord-lieutenants and this is a unique right in the United Kingdom, all other lord-lieutenants are appointed by the monarch, rather than being elected politicians. The regions and districts were themselves superseded in 1995, but the lieutenancy areas remain the same, the Lord-Lieutenants Order 1975, Statutory Instrument 1975 No.428. The Lord-Lieutenants Order 1996, Statutory Instrument 1996 No.731, subdivisions of Scotland List of burghs in Scotland List of places in Scotland Media related to Maps of traditional counties of Scotland at Wikimedia Commons
8.
Sutherland
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Sutherland is a county in the Highlands of Scotland. Sutherland borders Caithness to the east, Ross-shire to the south, in Gaelic the area is referred to according to its traditional areas, Dùthaich MhicAoidh in the northeast, Asainte in the west, and Cataibh in the east. Cataibh is also used to refer to the area as a whole. The name Sutherland dates from the era of Norwegian Viking rule and settlement over much of the Highlands and Islands, although it contains some of the northernmost land in the island of Great Britain, it was called Suðrland from the standpoint of Orkney and Caithness. The northwest corner of Sutherland, traditionally known as the Province of Strathnaver, was not incorporated into Sutherland until 1601 and this was the home of the powerful and warlike Clan Mackay, and as such was named in Gaelic, Dùthaich Ic Aoidh, the Homeland of Mackay. Like its southern neighbour Ross-shire, Sutherland has some of the most dramatic scenery in the whole of Europe and these include high sea cliffs, and very old mountains composed of Precambrian and Cambrian rocks. Much of the population is based in towns, such as Helmsdale and Lochinver. Much of Sutherland is poor relative to the rest of Scotland, with few job opportunities beyond government funded employment, agriculture, further education is provided by North Highland College, part of the University of the Highland and Islands. The Ross House Campus in Dornoch was the first establishment in the UK to provide a degree in Golf Management, the Burghfield House Campus, also in Dornoch, is a hotel school. The inland landscape is rugged and very sparsely populated, despite being Scotlands fifth-largest county in terms of area, it has a smaller population than a medium-size Lowland Scottish town. It stretches from the Atlantic in the west, up to the Pentland Firth, the sea-coasts boast very high cliffs and deep fjords in the east and north, ragged inlets on the west and sandy beaches in the north. The remote far northwest point of Sutherland, Cape Wrath, is the most northwesterly point in Scotland, Sutherland has many rugged mountains such as Ben Hope, the most northerly Munro. The western part comprises Torridonian sandstone underlain by Lewisian gneiss, the spectacular scenery has been created by denudation to form isolated sandstone peaks such as Foinaven, Arkle, Cùl Mór and Suilven. Such mountains are attractive for hill walking and scrambling, despite their remote location, together with similar peaks to the south in Wester Ross, such as Stac Pollaidh, they have a unique structure with great scope for exploration. On the other hand, care is needed when bad weather occurs owing to their isolation, Sutherland has many fine beaches, a remote example being Sandwood Bay, which can only be reached by foot along a rough track. The number of visiting tourists is, naturally, minimal, there are pockets of the native Scots Pine, remnants of the original Caledonian Forest. Owing to its isolation from the rest of the country, Sutherland was reputedly the last haunt of the native wolf, the last survivor being shot in the 18th century. However, other wildlife has survived, including the eagle, sea eagle
9.
Drainage divide
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A drainage divide, water divide, divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting, is the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins. In hilly country, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a range of hills or mountains. In flat country—especially where the ground is marshy—the divide may be harder to discern, a valley floor divide is a low drainage divide that runs across a valley, sometimes created by deposition or stream capture. Settlements are often built on valley-floor divides in the Alps, examples are Eben im Pongau, Kirchberg in Tirol and Waidring. Extremely low divides with heights of less than two metres are found on the North German Plain within the Urstromtäler, for example, between Havel and Finow in the Eberswalde Urstromtal. In marsh deltas such as the Okavango, the largest drainage area on earth, or in large areas, such as the Finnish Lakeland. Another case is bifurcation, where the watershed is effectively in the river bed, in pre-industrial times, water divides were crossed at portages. Later, canals connected adjoining drainage basins, a key problem in such canals is ensuring a sufficient water supply, category, Drainage basins List of watershed topics European watershed Scottish watershed River source
10.
A9 road (Scotland)
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The A9 is a major road running from the Falkirk council area in central Scotland to Scrabster Harbour, Thurso in the far north, via Stirling, Bridge of Allan, Perth and Inverness. At 273 miles, it is the longest road in Scotland, historically it was the main road between Edinburgh and John o Groats, and has been called the spine of Scotland. The roads origins lie in the military roads building programme of the 18th century, the A9 route was formally designated in 1923, and originally ran from Edinburgh to Inverness. The route was extended north from Inverness up to John OGroats. By the 1970s the route was hampered by severe congestion. Between Falkirk and Bridge of Allan, the A9 survives as a more or less parallel road to the M9, the link between the M9 and the A9, by Bridge of Allan, is the Keir Roundabout. The A9s origins lie in the military roads building programme carried out by General Wade in the 18th century to allow deployment of forces in key locations within the Highlands. At this time there was already a road between Perth and Dunkeld, and between 1727 and 1730 a roadway was constructed between Dunkeld in Perthshire and Inverness. However, Wade had still to bridge the River Tay at Aberfeldy, construction began in 1733 to a design by William Adam. The bridge was completed within the year, but Wade wrote The Bridge of Tay. was a work of great difficulty, at a cost of over £4000, the bridge became the most expensive item on Wades road building programme. For most of its length between Perth and Inverness, the route was identical to the A9 prior to the commencement of the upgrading works in the 1970s. In 1802, Thomas Telford was requested by the Lords of the Treasury to carry out a survey of the interior of the Scottish Highlands, in his report, he highlighted the inadequacy of the old military roads to meet the requirements of the general population. In particular, he noted the difficulties caused by the absence of bridges over some of the principal rivers, as part of the improvements to the road system that were carried out in the following years, a bridge was built at Dunkeld, designed by Telford. The original cost estimate was £15,000 with costs to be split between the Government and the landowner, the 4th Duke of Atholl, however, costs spiralled up to around £40,000. The Government refused to increase their contribution, so the Duke of Atholl had to finance the extra cost. As a result, tolls were placed on the bridge to recoup costs. The realigned road north out of Dunkeld would evolve eventually into the A9, the formal scheme of classification of roads in Great Britain was first published on 1 April 1923. The original route of the designated A9 began in Edinburgh at the Corstorphine junction in the west of the city, the route went through Kirkliston and onwards to Polmont and Falkirk
11.
A836 road
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The A836 is a major road entirely within the Highland area of Scotland. It is 122 miles long and runs from Ross and Cromarty to Caithness, at 58. 648°N where it passes through East Mey, it is the northernmost A-class road in mainland Great Britain. Originally, in 1922, the route was designated from Bonar Bridge to Tongue, by 1935 this had been extended south to Alness and east to John oGroats. The opening of the bridge removed a 26-mile detour around the firth and it branches from the A9 near Tain and runs generally north through Bonar Bridge and Lairg, until Tongue. At Tongue the road turns east, following the north coast, passing through Thurso, and eventually ending at John o Groats, where it meets the A99. The A836 passes through some of the loneliest and most sparsely populated parts of Britain and it is a hazardous route in winter owing to the narrow road width, sharp gradients and turns, and is particularly not a recommended route for goods and livestock vehicles, unless strictly necessary. The North Coast 500 scenic route runs part of the A836
12.
Far North Line
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The Far North Line is a rural railway line entirely within the Highland area of Scotland, extending from Inverness to Thurso and Wick. It is the northernmost railway in the United Kingdom, the line has many sections of single track, mostly north of Dingwall. In common with railway lines in the Highlands and northern Lowlands, it is not electrified. Like the A9 road north of Inverness, the Far North Line generally follows the line of the east-facing Moray Firth coast, the railway links many of the same places as the road. Many more places were served by both the railway and the road before three new bridges were built, across the Moray Firth, the Cromarty Firth and the Dornoch Firth. The railway is now, in places, a long way inland from the route of the A9. The railway loops inland from Tain to Lairg, which has never been on the A9, the route then returns to the coast at Golspie. Beyond Golspie, the railway continues along the coast as far as Helmsdale, then inland up the Strath of Kildonan and then across the Flow Country to Halkirk, at Georgemas Junction near Halkirk, there is a branch to Thurso. In 1963, the line was listed for closure on the Beeching Report, however, following the elimination of steam traction by the early 1960s, trains on the line were normally hauled by Class 26 diesel locomotives. In the 1980s these were replaced by more powerful Class 37 locomotives and these were replaced by Class 156 units in the 1990s by British Rail, then by Class 158 units. Three trains each way per day was the service pattern at this time. The service provided by ScotRail replicated that provided in the years of BR Scottish Region. ScotRail was owned by National Express until 17 October 2004 when FirstGroup took over the franchise, since 2004 this service has been operated exclusively using Class 158 DMUs as two coach trains. Prior to this some Class 156 units were used and trains were split at Georgemas Junction - one half going to Thurso and the other to Wick. Along the full length of the line there were four each way Monday to Saturday, including a service allowing a connection from the Orkney ferry. In the Winter 2008/9 timetable the number of trains to and from Wick was increased to four each way on Mondays to Saturdays, abellio ScotRail began operating the line from April 2015. An additional service runs to Tain during late Friday and Saturday nights, a reduced service is run on Sundays, but all stations are still served at least once. In 1923 the Highland Railway was grouped into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, the line became strategically important during World War I and World War II as part of a supply route for Scapa Flow, Orkney
13.
Pentland Firth
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The Pentland Firth is a strait which separates the Orkney Islands from Caithness in the north of Scotland. Despite the name, it is not a firth, the name is presumed to be a corruption of the Old Norse Petlandsfjörð, meaning the fjord of Pictland, and is completely unrelated to the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh. Prior to the Norse occupation of Orkney the strait was known as the Sea of Orcs – a reference to the Pictish tribe who inhabited Orkney. Such was their marine prowess that there are instances of this name referring to the sea lanes of the entire west coast of Scotland down to Kintyre. One version of the 9th century Historia Brittonum states that the Britons originally filled the island with their peoples from the English Channel to the Sea of Orcs. In the middle of the Firth are two significant islands, Stroma and Swona, the small Pentland Skerries group are in the east. The islands of Hoy and South Ronaldsay border the firth to the north and are part of the Orkney Islands, the most northerly point of the headland of Dunnet Head, Easter Head, is also that of mainland Britain. The famous John o Groats, Mey, and many villages are also to be found on the Caithness side as is the town of Thurso and Scrabster Harbour in Thurso Bay. The Far North Line opened 28 July 1874 Historically the Gills Bay area has been the setting off point from the mainland to the islands of Stroma and Swona. At present Pentland Ferries operate on route from Gills Bay to St Margarets Hope on South Ronaldsay. At the eastern end John o Groats Ferries sail to Burwick and this is a small passenger ferry and is run in the summer months only. Consideration was also given to construction of a tunnel linking the islands to the mainland, the 10-mile tunnel was initially projected to have cost £100 million based on preliminary studies carried out in 2005 but as of 2012 no further progress has been made. The Firth is well known for the strength of its tides, which are among the fastest in the world, the force of the tides gives rise to overfalls and tidal races which can occur at different stages of the tide. Some of the tidal races are, ‘The Merry Men of Mey’. Forms off St John’s point in the stream and extends as the tide increases NNW across the firth to Tor Ness. The worst part is over a sand wave field about 5.5 kilometres west of Stroma, the waves formed by this race form a natural breakwater with relatively calm water to the east of it, particularly noticeable when a westerly swell is running. Tides in this area can exceed 19 kilometres per hour, the race at the north end of Stroma, off Swelkie Point is known as ‘The Swelkie’. It extends from the point in an easterly or westerly direction depending on the tide, the whirlpool of the same name was, according to a Viking legend, caused by a sea-witch turning the mill wheels which ground the salt to keep the seas salty
14.
Orkney
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Orkney /ˈɔːrkni/, also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of Great Britain. Orkney is 16 kilometres north of the coast of Caithness and comprises approximately 70 islands, the largest island Mainland is often referred to as the Mainland. It has an area of 523 square kilometres, making it the sixth-largest Scottish island, the largest settlement and administrative centre is Kirkwall. A form of the dates to the pre-Roman era and the islands have been inhabited for at least 8500 years, originally occupied by Mesolithic and Neolithic tribes. Orkney was invaded and forcibly annexed by Norway in 875 and settled by the Norse, the Scottish Parliament then re-annexed the earldom to the Scottish Crown in 1472, following the failed payment of a dowry for James IIIs bride Margaret of Denmark. Orkney contains some of the oldest and best-preserved Neolithic sites in Europe, Orkney is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, a constituency of the Scottish Parliament, a lieutenancy area, and a historic county. The local council is Orkney Islands Council, one of only three Councils in Scotland with a majority of elected members who are independents. In addition to the Mainland, most of the islands are in two groups, the North and South Isles, all of which have a geological base of Old Red Sandstone. The climate is mild and the soils are fertile, most of the land being farmed. Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy, the significant wind and marine energy resources are of growing importance, and the island generates more than its total yearly electricity demand using renewables. The local people are known as Orcadians and have a distinctive Orcadian dialect of Scots, there is an abundance of marine and avian wildlife. Pytheas of Massilia visited Britain – probably sometime between 322 and 285 BC – and described it as triangular in shape, with a northern tip called Orcas and this may have referred to Dunnet Head, from which Orkney is visible. Speakers of Old Irish referred to the islands as Insi Orc island of the pigs, the archipelago is known as Ynysoedd Erch in modern Welsh and Arcaibh in modern Scottish Gaelic, the -aibh representing a fossilized prepositional case ending. The Anglo-Saxon monk Bede refers to the islands as Orcades insulae in his seminal work Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Norwegian settlers arriving from the ninth century reinterpreted orc as the Old Norse orkn seal. The plural suffix -jar was later removed in English leaving the modern name Orkney, according to the Historia Norwegiæ, Orkney was named after an earl called Orkan. The Norse knew Mainland Orkney as Megenland Mainland or as Hrossey Horse Island, the island is sometimes referred to as Pomona, a name that stems from a sixteenth-century mistranslation by George Buchanan, which has rarely been used locally. A charred hazelnut shell, recovered in 2007 during excavations in Tankerness on the Mainland has been dated to 6820–6660 BC indicating the presence of Mesolithic nomadic tribes
15.
Stroma, Scotland
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Stroma is an island off the northern coast of the mainland of Scotland. It is the most southerly of the islands in the Pentland Firth between the Orkney islands and Caithness, the northeasternmost part of the mainland, the name is from the Old Norse Straumr-øy meaning island in the stream. The islands population fell from 375 people in 1901 to just 12 by 1961, the last native islanders left at the end of the following year, while Stromas final abandonment came in 1997 when the lighthouse keepers and their families departed. Ancient stone structures testify to the presence of Stromas earliest residents and it has been politically united with Caithness since at least the 15th century. Most of the islanders were fishermen and crofters, some worked as maritime pilots to guide vessels through the treacherous waters of the Pentland Firth. The tides and currents meant that shipwrecks were frequent—the most recent occurring in 1993—and salvage provided an additional though often illegal supplement to the islanders incomes, a lighthouse was built on Stroma in 1890 and still operates under automation. Stroma is now abandoned, with the houses of its former inhabitants unoccupied, from an all-time peak of 375 people in 1901, the population fell to just 12 by 1961 and the last islanders left at the end of the following year. The island is now owned by one of its former inhabitants, Stroma is located in the Pentland Firth about 2 miles northwest of John o Groats on the mainland. The island divides the firth into two channels, the Inner Sound to the south and the Outer Sound to the north and it is mostly low-lying and flat, covering an area of around 375 hectares and rising to a height of 53 m at Cairn Hill in the southeast. It is oriented in a direction, measuring about 2 miles long by 1 mile wide. The island is ringed by cliffs that vary in height from around 33 m on the west coast to low cliffs with a rocky foreshore elsewhere. The bedrock of the consists of flat layers of weathered Middle Old Red Sandstone. A six-foot band of the stone used to be quarried on a small scale for use on the mainland as roofing material. Only fragmentary fossil remains have been found, these specimens of the extinct Devonian fish Dipterus and Coccosteus. Stroma is bisected by a fault runs in a north-south direction through its centre. The heavily indented coastline has a circumference of about 7 miles, a partially collapsed sea cave called The Gloup is located in the northwest of the island. This feature is a deep pit, filled with sea water. It is located at the junction of the two lines and is connected to the sea by a subterranean passage 165 yd long
16.
Earl of Caithness
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The Earl of Caithness is a title that has been created several times in the Peerage of Scotland, and has a very complex history. The next year, however, all of his titles were declared forfeit for treason, the next grant after Maol Íosa was to David Stewart, a younger son of Robert II of Scotland. His heiress, Euphemia, resigned the title in 1390 in favour of her uncle Walter, Walter himself resigned the title in 1428, in favour of his son Allan, but he retained the earldom of Atholl for himself. Upon Allans death, Walter again came to hold both earldoms, however, both were lost when he was executed for high treason in 1437, his titles being forfeit. The third creation of the title was for Sir George Crichton in 1452, the final creation of the earldom was made in 1455 for William Sinclair, 3rd Earl of Orkney. He surrendered the Orkney title and all associated lands to James III in 1470, in return for the Castle of Ravenscraig, James III had in 1469 received the rights of the king of Norway to Orkney territories as pledge of dowry of his wife Margaret of Denmark. In this way, the Scottish crown tightened its grip to Orkney and Shetland, six years later, Earl William wished to disinherit his eldest son, who was known as The Waster. Therefore, so that his earldom would not pass to him, he resigned the title in favour of his younger son, general Arthur St. Clair was reportedly descended from the 4th Earl of Caithness. George, sixth earl of the Sinclair line, was the last earl to cause a disturbance in the succession of the title. In 1672, he agreed that, at his death, all of his lands and titles would pass to Sir John Campbell, in 1677, the sixth earl died, and King Charles II granted him a patent creating him Earl of Caithness. Later, however, the earls heir, also named George, was confirmed in his titles by the law. Therefore, in order to compensate for the loss of the earldom, Charles II created Campbell Earl of Breadalbane, thereafter, the earldom of Caithness has passed solely within the Sinclair family, without any further resignations or other irregularities. The Earl of Caithness also holds the title of Lord Berriedale and that title is used as a courtesy title for the earls eldest son and heir
17.
Caithness (UK Parliament constituency)
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Caithness was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1801 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918. From 1708 to 1832 Caithness and Buteshire were paired as alternating constituencies, one of the constituencies elected a Member of Parliament to one parliament, the other to the next. The areas which were covered by the two constituencies are quite remote from other, Caithness in the northeast of Scotland and Buteshire in the southwest. From 1832 to 1918 Caithness was represented continuously by its own MP, from 1708 to 1832, the Caithness constituency covered the county of Caithness minus the parliamentary burgh of Wick, which was a component of the Tain Burghs constituency. In 1832, Wick retained its status as a parliamentary burgh,26 years were to elapse before constituency boundaries were redrawn, by the Representation of the People Act 1918, to take account of new local government boundaries. In 1918, the Caithness and Sutherland county constituency was created, the Caithness and Sutherland constituency was created to cover the county of Caithness and the county of Sutherland. The Wick Burghs constituency was abolished and two of its components, Wick and Dornoch, were merged into the new Caithness
18.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
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It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories. Its head is the Sovereign of the United Kingdom and its seat is the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster, one of the boroughs of the British capital, the parliament is bicameral, consisting of an upper house and a lower house. The Sovereign forms the third component of the legislature, prior to the opening of the Supreme Court in October 2009, the House of Lords also performed a judicial role through the Law Lords. The House of Commons is an elected chamber with elections held at least every five years. The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster in London, most cabinet ministers are from the Commons, whilst junior ministers can be from either House. The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Treaty of Union by Acts of Union passed by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The UK parliament and its institutions have set the pattern for many throughout the world. However, John Bright – who coined the epithet – used it with reference to a rather than a parliament. In theory, the UKs supreme legislative power is vested in the Crown-in-Parliament. However, the Crown normally acts on the advice of the Prime Minister, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created in 1801, by the merger of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland under the Acts of Union. The principle of responsibility to the lower House did not develop until the 19th century—the House of Lords was superior to the House of Commons both in theory and in practice. Members of the House of Commons were elected in an electoral system. Thus, the borough of Old Sarum, with seven voters, many small constituencies, known as pocket or rotten boroughs, were controlled by members of the House of Lords, who could ensure the election of their relatives or supporters. During the reforms of the 19th century, beginning with the Reform Act 1832, No longer dependent on the Lords for their seats, MPs grew more assertive. The supremacy of the British House of Commons was established in the early 20th century, in 1909, the Commons passed the so-called Peoples Budget, which made numerous changes to the taxation system which were detrimental to wealthy landowners. The House of Lords, which consisted mostly of powerful landowners, on the basis of the Budgets popularity and the Lords consequent unpopularity, the Liberal Party narrowly won two general elections in 1910. Using the result as a mandate, the Liberal Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, introduced the Parliament Bill, in the face of such a threat, the House of Lords narrowly passed the bill. However, regardless of the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 created the parliaments of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland and reduced the representation of both parts at Westminster
19.
Highland (council area)
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Highland is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in the United Kingdom. It shares borders with the areas of Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute, Moray and Perth. Their councils, and those of Angus and Stirling, also have areas of the Scottish Highlands within their administrative boundaries, according to the 2011 UK census, there are nearly 12,000 Scottish Gaelic speakers in the Highland area. The act also abolished county and burgh councils, in 1996, under the Local Government etc. Act 1994, the Highland Regional Council and the councils were wound up. The Highland Council adopted the districts as management areas and created committees to represent them. However, the boundaries of committee areas ceased to be aligned exactly with those of management areas as a result of changes to ward boundaries in 1999, the names of these areas are also names of constituencies, but boundaries are different. To many people within the area, using the name Highland as a noun sounds wrong, dingwall in Highland, for example, sounds strange and is not idiomatic usage. To refer specifically to the covered by the council, people tend to say the Highland Council area or the Highland area or the Highland region. Otherwise, they tend to use the county names, such as Ross-shire. Highlands sometimes refers to the Highland council area, more usually it refers to a somewhat larger or overlapping area. The Highland Council headquarters is located in Inverness with most previous district council offices retained as outstations, Highland Council covers an area of 25,657 square kilometres — which is 11. 4% of the total size of Great Britain and is 20% larger than Wales. Highland Councils highest point is Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in both Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole and its northernmost point is Stroma, a small island in the Pentland Firth. Its southernmost point is on the Morvern peninsula, Highland contains the westernmost point of the island of Great Britain, at Corrachadh Mòr. Despite the name, not all of Highland is mountainous, the areas east of Inverness, as well as the Black Isle, eastern Sutherland, and all of Caithness are, in fact, low-lying. The Coalition had 45 councillors and the other 35 councillors were Independents, the current ruling administration was formed by the Independent group in June 2015. Three of the constituencies, each electing one MSP, are within the Highland area, Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Inverness and Nairn and Skye, Lochaber. Each constituency elects one MP by the first past the post system of election
20.
Vice-county
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A vice-county is a geographical division of the British Isles used for the purposes of biological recording and other scientific data-gathering. In 1901 Robert Lloyd Praeger introduced a system for Ireland. Vice-counties are the geographical area for county based recording. This allows data collected over long periods of time to be compared easily, the vice-counties remain unchanged by subsequent local government reorganisations, allowing historical and modern data to be more accurately compared. The resulting datafiles were much more detailed than anything available to recorders up to that point. Intended for use with modern GIS and biological recording software, a standard version was released in 2008. Up until that point, county recorders only had access to a set of two fold-out vice-county maps covering the entirety of Great Britain, published in 1969. The vice-county system was first introduced by Hewett Cottrell Watson in the volume of his Cybele Britannica published in 1852. He refined the system in later volumes, the geographical area that Watson called Britain consisted of the island of Great Britain with all of its offshore islands, plus the Isle of Man, but excluding the Channel Islands. This area was divided into 112 vice-counties with larger counties divided, for example, Devon into the vice-counties of North Devon and South Devon, each of these 112 vice-counties has a name and a number. Thus Vice-county 38, often abbreviated to VC38, is called Warwickshire, in 1901, Robert Lloyd Praeger extended the system of vice-counties to Ireland and its off-shore islands, based on an earlier suggestion by C. C. The Irish vice-counties were based on the historic 32 counties of Ireland, with the six largest being sub-divided, for example and this produced a total of 40 vice-counties for Ireland, which were numbered from H1 to H40. As with the 112 vice-counties of Britain, each vice-county has a name as well as a number, thus Vice-county H3 is West Cork. Combining these two systems produces a 152 vice-county system, the exclusion of the Channel Islands from Watsons system for Britain has led to variations between different recording schemes. The geographical area covered by the 152 vice-counties may be described as the British Isles, other recording schemes regard the British Isles as including the Channel Islands. As they are not part of the 152 vice-county system, the Channel Islands may be added as an extra vice-county, making 153 in total, less usually, each of the five separate islands may be treated as a vice-county, giving 157 vice-counties in total. Alternative counts of vice-counties used in different recording schemes are shown in the table below, in all cases, the Channel Islands may be excluded, or included, so that the count of vice-counties varies, as noted in the table above
21.
Great Britain
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Great Britain, also known as Britain, is a large island in the north Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km2, Great Britain is the largest European island, in 2011 the island had a population of about 61 million people, making it the worlds third-most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The island of Ireland is situated to the west of it, the island is dominated by a maritime climate with quite narrow temperature differences between seasons. Politically, the island is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island. The term Great Britain often extends to surrounding islands that form part of England, Scotland, and Wales. A single Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the union of the Kingdom of England, the archipelago has been referred to by a single name for over 2000 years, the term British Isles derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe this island group. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a name for the British Isles. However, with the Roman conquest of Britain the Latin term Britannia was used for the island of Great Britain, the oldest mention of terms related to Great Britain was by Aristotle, or possibly by Pseudo-Aristotle, in his text On the Universe, Vol. III. To quote his works, There are two large islands in it, called the British Isles, Albion and Ierne. The name Britain descends from the Latin name for Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The French form replaced the Old English Breoton, Breoten, Bryten, Breten, Britannia was used by the Romans from the 1st century BC for the British Isles taken together. It is derived from the writings of the Pytheas around 320 BC. Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, described the group as αἱ Πρεττανικαὶ νῆσοι. The peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Πρεττανοί, Priteni is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, Britain, which has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic-speaking inhabitants of Ireland. The latter were later called Picts or Caledonians by the Romans, the Greco-Egyptian scientist Ptolemy referred to the larger island as great Britain and to Ireland as little Britain in his work Almagest. The name Albion appears to have out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Britain. After the Anglo-Saxon period, Britain was used as a term only. It was used again in 1604, when King James VI and I styled himself King of Great Brittaine, France, Great Britain refers geographically to the island of Great Britain, politically to England, Scotland and Wales in combination
22.
Ireland
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Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
23.
Hewett Watson
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Hewett Cottrell Watson was a phrenologist, botanist and evolutionary theorist. He was born in Firbeck, near Rotherham, Yorkshire, and died at Thames Ditton, Watson was the eldest son of Holland Watson, a Justice of the Peace and Mayor of Congleton in Cheshire, and his wife, Harriet Powell. His mother died when he was fifteen, as a teenager, Watson suffered a serious injury to his knee in a cricket match, and never recovered full movement in the joint again. Watsons mother had attempted to distract him from family tensions by sending him to work with the familys gardener, while training for the legal profession in Liverpool, Watson became interested in phrenology and decided to study medicine and natural history at Edinburgh University. He was elected a Senior President of the Royal Medical Society as an undergraduate, soon afterwards, Watson inherited an estate in Derbyshire. In 1833, he moved to Thames Ditton, Watson edited the Phrenological Journal from 1837 to 1840 and the London Catalogue of British Plants from 1844 to 1874. Watson was noted for his brilliance and for his often difficult. He led an isolated and restricted life, never married and travelled only once outside Britain and this was eight years before Arthur Ladbroke Wigan published his influential The Duality of Mind. Watson was unusual among the phrenologists in explicitly disavowing phrenology in later life, in subsequent years, Watson was heavily influenced by the ideas of the evolutionary phrenologist Robert Chambers, and collected evidence for – and defended – the concept of species transmutation. He corresponded with Charles Darwin who lived at Downe, some 30 miles from Thames Ditton, in 1856, Watson actually declined a personal invitation to discuss evolutionary theory with Darwin and Joseph Hooker, because he was too busy and did not wish to travel. The system of Watsonian vice-counties used by botanists to this day is one of his contributions to botanical science. Eleocharis watsonii Bab was named after him, the journal Watsonia was named after him. His manuscripts are housed at the Natural History Museum and also at Kew and his many published contributions include several county floras and the following,1832, Outlines of Distribution of British Plants 1835–1837, New Botany Guide 1847–1859, Cybele Britannica 4 vols. 1860,1872, Supplements to the Cybele Britannica,2 parts 1870, A Compendium of the Cybele Britannica 1870, the botany section in Frederick DuCane Godmans Natural History of the Azores 1873–1874 Topographical Botany 2 vols. The 2nd ed.1883 includes John G. Hewett Cottrell Watson, Victorian Plant Ecologist and Evolutionist
24.
Picts
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The Picts were a tribal confederation of peoples who lived in what is today eastern and northern Scotland during the Late Iron Age and Early Medieval periods. They are thought to have been ethnolinguistically Celtic, where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from the geographical distribution of brochs, Brittonic place name elements, and Pictish stones. Picts are attested to in records from before the Roman conquest of Britain to the 10th century. Picts are assumed to have been the descendants of the Caledonii, Pictland, also called Pictavia by some sources, gradually merged with the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata to form the Kingdom of Alba. Alba then expanded, absorbing the Brittonic kingdom of Strathclyde and Northumbrian Lothian, Pictish society was typical of many Iron Age societies in northern Europe, having wide connections and parallels with neighbouring groups. Archaeology gives some impression of the society of the Picts, what the Picts called themselves is unknown. The Latin word Picti first occurs in a written by Eumenius in AD297 and is taken to mean painted or tattooed people. Their Old English name gave the modern Scots form Pechts and the Welsh word Fichti and it is generally accepted that this is derived from *Qritani, which is the Goidelic/Q-Celtic version of the Britonnic/P-Celtic *Pritani. From this came Britanni, the Roman name for those now called the Britons and it has been suggested that Cruthin referred to all Britons not conquered by the Romans—those who lived outside Roman Britannia, north of Hadrians Wall. A Pictish confederation was formed in Late Antiquity from a number of tribes—how, some scholars have speculated that it was partly in response to the growth of the Roman Empire. Pictland had previously described by Roman writers and geographers as the home of the Caledonii. These Romans also used names to refer to tribes living in that area, including Verturiones, Taexali. But they may have heard these other names only second- or third-hand, from speakers of Brittonic or Gaulish languages, Pictish recorded history begins in the Dark Ages. It appears that Picts were not the dominant power in Northern Britain for that entire period, the Gaels of Dál Riata controlled what is present day Argyll for a time, although they suffered a series of defeats in the first third of the 7th century. The Angles of Bernicia overwhelmed the adjacent British kingdoms, one of which, the Picts were probably tributary to Northumbria until the reign of Bridei mac Beli, when, in 685, the Anglians suffered a defeat at the Battle of Dun Nechtain that halted their northward expansion. The Northumbrians continued to dominate southern Scotland for the remainder of the Pictish period, a later Pictish king, Caustantín mac Fergusa, placed his son Domnall on the throne of Dál Riata. Pictish attempts to achieve a dominance over the Britons of Alt Clut were not successful. The Viking Age brought great changes in Britain and Ireland, no less in Scotland than elsewhere, in a major battle in 839, the Vikings killed the king of Fortriu, Eógan mac Óengusa, the king of Dál Riata Áed mac Boanta, and many others
25.
Kingdom of Cat
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Cait or Cat was a Pictish kingdom during the Early Middle Ages. It was centred in what is now Caithness in northern Scotland and it was, according to Pictish legend, founded by Caitt, one of the seven sons of the ancestor figure Cruithne. For a period of time Cait was the largest of the northern Pictish kingdoms, after the death of its last king, Taran mac Entifidich, in 697, it was absorbed into the broader Pictish kingdom. The name is preserved in the modern placename Caithness, which occupies approximately the location as the ancient kingdom. The name is preserved in the Gaelic name for Sutherland, in several specific names within that county. Watson compares this usage with the early Irish Innse Orc for Orkney, legends of Clan Chattan suggest that Madoc the father of St Chattan, had retreated to Dál Riata after losing Cat to the Norse. Thus Clan Chattan or Caitt-an is recognised by the Lord of the Isles as being of Pictish descent when he ratifies the Clan Chattan document, fortriu Kingdom of Ce Scotland in the Early Middle Ages Watson, William J
26.
Shetland
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Shetland /ˈʃɛtlənd/, also called the Shetland Islands, is a subarctic archipelago that lies northeast of the island of Great Britain and forms part of Scotland, United Kingdom. The islands lie some 80 km to the northeast of Orkney and 280 km southeast of the Faroe Islands, the total area is 1,466 km2 and the population totalled 23,210 in 2012. The largest island, known simply as Mainland, has an area of 967 km2, making it the third-largest Scottish island, there are an additional 15 inhabited islands. The archipelago has a climate, a complex geology, a rugged coastline and many low. Humans have lived in Shetland since the Mesolithic period, and the earliest written references to the date back to Roman times. The early historic period was dominated by Scandinavian influences, especially Norway, when Scotland became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, trade with northern Europe decreased. Fishing has continued to be an important aspect of the economy up to the present day, the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s significantly boosted Shetland economy, employment and public sector revenues. The local way of life reflects the Scots and Norse heritage of the isles including the Up Helly Aa fire festival, the islands have produced a variety of writers of prose and poetry, often in Shetland dialect. There are numerous areas set aside to protect the fauna and flora. The Shetland pony and Shetland Sheepdog are two well known Shetland animal breeds, other distinguished local breeds include the Shetland sheep, cow, goose, and duck. The Shetland pig, or grice, has been extinct since approximately 1930, the islands motto, which appears on the Councils coat of arms, is Með lögum skal land byggja. This Icelandic phrase is taken from the Danish 1241 Basic Law, Codex Holmiensis, and is mentioned in Njáls saga. The name of Shetland is derived from the Old Norse words, hjalt, in AD43 and 77 the Roman authors Pomponius Mela and Pliny the Elder referred to the seven islands they call Haemodae and Acmodae respectively, both of which are assumed to be Shetland. Another possible early reference to the islands is Tacitus report in AD98, after describing the discovery and conquest of Orkney. In early Irish literature, Shetland is referred to as Inse Catt—the Isles of Cats, the Cat tribe also occupied parts of the northern Scottish mainland and their name can be found in Caithness, and in the Gaelic name for Sutherland. It is possible that the Pictish cat sound forms part of this Norse name and it then became Hjaltland in the 16th century. As Norn was gradually replaced by English in the form of the Shetland dialect which shares similarities with Scots English. The initial letter is the Middle Scots letter, yogh, the pronunciation of which is almost identical to the original Norn sound, /hj/
27.
Halkirk
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Halkirk is a village on the River Thurso in Caithness, in the Highland council area of Scotland. From Halkirk the B874 road runs towards Thurso in the north, the village is within the parish of Halkirk, and is said by local people to be Scotlands first planned village. It was at one time the site of the cathedral of the Diocese of Caithness, there are no remains of the early church and bishops seat. Halkirk has had two whisky distilleries, Gerston from 1796 to 1885, and Ben Morven from 1886 to circa 1911, both were established on the banks of the River Thurso, near Gerston Farm, and both drew water from Calder Burn. The Ben Morven distillery was named for the mountain, the highest point in Caithness, the original Gerston distillery was first registered by a Francis Swanson, and was expanded by two sons, John and James, in 1825. Sir Robert Peel is said to have acquired a taste for the whisky, the distillery closed not long after it was sold to new owners in 1872, and a London company, calling themselves the Gerston Distillery Company, decided to build a new distillery. In 1897 the new distillery was sold to Northern Distilleries Limited and it was never very successful, and it closed circa 1911. Fairview House is a former poorhouse dating from 1856, which is now a residential complex, Halkirk is the birthplace of Alexander Keith, who settled in Halifax, Nova Scotia and became established as a respected politician and brewer. He is known across Canada for his most famous beer, Alexander Keiths India Pale Ale, Ordnance Survey grid reference for Halkirk Bridge, ND130594 Ordnance Survey grid reference for Gerston Farm, ND129595 Halkirk community website Halkirk Parish Church
28.
Old Red Sandstone
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The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Britain, Ireland and Norway and it also extends northwards into Greenland and Svalbard. In Britain it is a unit to which stratigraphers accord supergroup status. For convenience the short version of the term, ORS is often used in literature on the subject, the term was coined to distinguish the sequence from the younger New Red Sandstone which also occurs widely throughout Britain. The body of rock, or facies, is dominated by sediments and conglomerates at its base. Many fossils are found within the rocks, including fishes, arthropods. The rocks may appear paleontologically barren to amateur geologists but careful study, particularly with a fossil hunter. Rocks of this age were also laid down in southwest England though these are of marine origin and are not included within the Old Red Sandstone. Accordingly, local names were devised and these remain in use to some extent today though there is an increasing use of international stage names. Thus in the Anglo-Welsh Basin, there are frequent references to the Downtonian, Dittonian, Breconian and Farlovian stages in the literature, the existence of a number of distinct sedimentary basins throughout Britain has been established. The Orcadian Basin extends over an area of North East Scotland. It encompasses the Moray Firth and adjoining areas, Caithness, Orkney. South of the Moray Firth, two distinct sub-basins are recognised at Turriff and at Rhynie, the sequence is more than 4 km thick in parts of Shetland. There is an outcrop along the Highland Boundary Fault from Stonehaven on the North Sea coast to Helensburgh. A more disconnected series of outcrops occur along the line of the Southern Uplands Fault from Edinburgh to Girvan, Old Red Sandstone often occurs in conjunction with conglomerate formations, one such noteworthy cliffside exposure being the Fowlsheugh Nature Reserve, Kincardineshire. A series of outcrops occur from East Lothian southwards through Berwickshire, huttons famous unconformity at Siccar Point occurs within this basin - see History of study below. Outliers in Somerset and north Devon complete the extent of this basin, in the east of the basin, the top of the Raglan Mudstone is marked by a well-developed calcrete, the Bishops Frome Limestone. The lowermost Devonian formation is the St Maughans Formation, itself overlain by the Brownstones Formation though with an intervening Senni Formation over much of the area, the Upper Devonian sequence is rather thinner and comprises a series of formations which are more laterally restricted
29.
Orcadian Basin
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The Orcadian Basin is a sedimentary basin of Devonian age that formed mainly as a result of extensional tectonics in northeastern Scotland after the end of the Caledonian orogeny. During part of its history, the basin was filled by a lake now known as Lake Orcadie and these flagstones split easily along the bedding and have been used as building material for thousands of years. The deposits of the Orcadian Basin form part of the Old Red Sandstone, continental sediments of the same age are also known from the Clair oilfield west of the Shetland Islands and have been tentatively identified in the West Orkney Basin. The connection of the Orcadian Basin to the Devonian basins of western Norway, to the south the basin may continue almost as far south as the Highland Boundary Fault, including the half-grabens at Turriff and Rhynie. In common with the Devonian basins of Norway and East Greenland, other tectonic models have suggested that transtensional sinistral strike-slip movement on the Great Glen Fault, which passes through the centre of the basin, was the main cause of basin formation. Sedimentation during the middle Devonian covered the full extent of the Orcadian Basin with only local exposed basement highs, such as near Stromness on Orkney. The early part of period, approximately equivalent to the whole of the Eifelian and early Givetian, saw the development of a large lake. Regular variations in its depth and extent, which have linked to Milankovitch cycles. At the deep permanent lake stage in a typical cycle there is normally a laminite, consisting of alternations of clastic, carbonate and organic laminae. As the lake shallows and becomes ephemeral the sequence consists of alternations of silts and fine sandstones often with mudcracks, the lake development culminated in a single very deep and particularly thick and extensive lake interval, the Achanarras Fish Bed Member. The lake at this time covered an area of at least 50,000 km2 with an estimated depth of at least 100 metres. From the fossil fish fauna preserved at one level in unit, it is known to have been particularly diverse. This interval is known as the Sandwick Fish Bed Member on Orkney. A thick lake interval of similar age is found in East Greenland. This deep lake interval is dated as late Eifelian and is correlated to the global Kačák Event of marine anoxia, the increase in lake size is explained as the result of an intensification of the monsoon system. This unit splits the flagstone sequence into two parts known regionally as the Lower and Upper Orcadian Flagstone formations, in mid-Givetian times, the dominant lake environment gave way to mainly fluvial conditions, with the main sediment type changing from flagstones to sandstones. In parts of the basin, the sequence consists almost entirely of sandstones, mainly fluvial in origin, such as the Dunnet Head and Hoy Sandstones. Elsewhere, such as on Orkney in the Eday Group, the shows more variety with major intercalations of marls and flagstones
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Devonian
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The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic, spanning 60 million years from the end of the Silurian,419.2 million years ago, to the beginning of the Carboniferous,358.9 Mya. It is named after Devon, England, where rocks from this period were first studied, the first significant adaptive radiation of life on dry land occurred during the Devonian. Free-sporing vascular plants began to spread across dry land, forming extensive forests which covered the continents, by the middle of the Devonian, several groups of plants had evolved leaves and true roots, and by the end of the period the first seed-bearing plants appeared. Various terrestrial arthropods also became well-established, Fish reached substantial diversity during this time, leading the Devonian to often be dubbed the Age of Fish. The first ray-finned and lobe-finned bony fish appeared, while the placodermi began dominating almost every aquatic environment. The ancestors of all four-limbed vertebrates began adapting to walking on land, as their strong pectoral, in the oceans, primitive sharks became more numerous than in the Silurian and Late Ordovician. The first ammonites, species of molluscs, appeared, trilobites, the mollusk-like brachiopods and the great coral reefs, were still common. The Late Devonian extinction which started about 375 million years ago severely affected marine life, killing off all placodermi, and all trilobites, save for a few species of the order Proetida. The palaeogeography was dominated by the supercontinent of Gondwana to the south, the continent of Siberia to the north, while the rock beds that define the start and end of the Devonian period are well identified, the exact dates are uncertain. According to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the Devonian extends from the end of the Silurian 419.2 Mya, another common term is Age of the Fishes, referring to the evolution of several major groups of fish that took place during the period. Older literature on the Anglo-Welsh basin divides it into the Downtonian, Dittonian, Breconian and Farlovian stages, in the Late Devonian, by contrast, arid conditions were less prevalent across the world and temperate climates were more common. The Devonian Period is formally broken into Early, Middle and Late subdivisions, the rocks corresponding to those epochs are referred to as belonging to the Lower, Middle and Upper parts of the Devonian System. Early Devonian The Early Devonian lasted from 419.2 ±2.8 to 393.3 ±2.5 and began with the Lochkovian stage, which lasted until the Pragian. It spanned from 410.8 ±2.8 to 407.6 ±2.5, and was followed by the Emsian, which lasted until the Middle Devonian began,393. 3±2.7 million years ago. Middle Devonian The Middle Devonian comprised two subdivisions, first the Eifelian, which gave way to the Givetian 387. 7±2.7 million years ago. Late Devonian Finally, the Late Devonian started with the Frasnian,382.7 ±2.8 to 372.2 ±2.5, during which the first forests took shape on land. The first tetrapods appeared in the record in the ensuing Famennian subdivision. This lasted until the end of the Devonian,358. 9±2.5 million years ago, the Devonian was a relatively warm period, and probably lacked any glaciers
31.
Granite
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Granite is a common type of felsic intrusive igneous rock that is granular and phaneritic in texture. Granites can be white, pink, or gray in color. The word granite comes from the Latin granum, a grain, in reference to the structure of such a holocrystalline rock. By definition, granite is a rock with at least 20% quartz. The term granitic means granite-like and is applied to granite and a group of igneous rocks with similar textures and slight variations in composition. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a texture is known as a granite porphyry. Granitoid is a general, descriptive field term for lighter-colored, coarse-grained igneous rocks, petrographic examination is required for identification of specific types of granitoids. The extrusive igneous rock equivalent of granite is rhyolite, Granite is nearly always massive, hard and tough, and therefore it has gained widespread use throughout human history, and more recently as a construction stone. The average density of granite is between 2.65 and 2.75 g/cm3, its compressive strength usually lies above 200 MPa, and its viscosity near STP is 3–6 •1019 Pa·s. The melting temperature of dry granite at ambient pressure is 1215–1260 °C, it is reduced in the presence of water. Granite has poor primary permeability, but strong secondary permeability, true granite according to modern petrologic convention contains both plagioclase and alkali feldspars. When a granitoid is devoid or nearly devoid of plagioclase, the rock is referred to as alkali feldspar granite, when a granitoid contains less than 10% orthoclase, it is called tonalite, pyroxene and amphibole are common in tonalite. A granite containing both muscovite and biotite micas is called a binary or two-mica granite, two-mica granites are typically high in potassium and low in plagioclase, and are usually S-type granites or A-type granites. A worldwide average of the composition of granite, by weight percent, based on 2485 analyses. Much of it was intruded during the Precambrian age, it is the most abundant basement rock that underlies the relatively thin veneer of the continents. Outcrops of granite tend to form tors and rounded massifs, granites sometimes occur in circular depressions surrounded by a range of hills, formed by the metamorphic aureole or hornfels. Granite often occurs as small, less than 100 km² stock masses
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Morven, Caithness
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Morven is a mountain in Caithness, in the Highland Region of Scotland. The hill is classed as a Graham and, at 706 metres, Caithness is generally quite low lying. Morvens relative height and conical appearance makes it a prominent feature of the landscape as seen many different places in the county. It is among the most prominent of the mountains that can be seen across the Moray Firth from the area surrounding Buckie on clear days, indeed, a street in the seaside village of Findochty is named Morven Crescent due to its view of the mountain Morven. Buckpool Golf Clubs 5th hole is named Morven and Morven View is a not uncommon name for properties in the Buckie area with a view over the Moray Firth. There is also a Morven in Aberdeenshire, prince George, Duke of Kent, brother of King George, died in an air crash on a hillside near Morven on 25 August 1942 while serving in the Royal Air Force
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Flagstone
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Flagstone is a generic flat stone, usually used for paving slabs or walkways, patios, fences and roofing. It may be used for memorials, headstones, facades and other constructions, the name derives from Middle English flagge meaning turf, perhaps from Old Norse flaga meaning slab or chip. Flagstone is a rock that is split into layers along bedding planes. Flagstone is usually a form of a composed of feldspar. The material that binds flagstone is usually composed of silica, calcite, the rock color usually comes from these cementing materials. Typical flagstone colors are red, blue, and buff, though exotic colors exist, flagstone is quarried in places with bedded sedimentary rocks with fissile bedding planes. Examples include Arizona flagstone and Pennsylvania Bluestone, around the thirteenth century, the ceilings, walls and floors in European architecture became more ornate. Anglo-Saxons in particular used flagstones as flooring materials in the rooms of castles. Lindisfarne Castle in England and Muchalls Castle in Scotland are among many examples of buildings with surviving flagstone floors, stone wall Step-stone bridge Patio Pavement Sett Stonemason
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Neolithic
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It ended when metal tools became widespread. The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops, the beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant about 10, 200–8800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which then evolved into true farming. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called proto-Neolithic is now included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic between 10,200 and 8800 BC. By 10, 200–8800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep. By about 6900–6400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order, the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture, unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species reached the Neolithic. The term Neolithic derives from the Greek νέος néos, new and λίθος líthos, stone, the term was invented by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. In the Middle East, cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing in the 10th millennium BC, early development occurred in the Levant and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are attested in southeastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia by around 8000 BC. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards, the Neolithic 1 period began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Levant. A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated around 9500 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic tribes, evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity. At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres, contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000 BC have been found in Jericho, Israel, Gilgal in the Jordan Valley, the start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree. The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming, in the proto-Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour, emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated
35.
Moorland
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Moorland nowadays generally means uncultivated hill land, but includes low-lying wetlands. It is closely related to heath although experts disagree on precisely what distinguishes the types of vegetation, generally, moor refers to highland, high rainfall zones, whereas heath refers to lowland zones which are more likely to be the result of human activity. Most of the worlds moorlands are very diverse ecosystems, in the extensive moorlands of the tropics biodiversity can be extremely high. Moorland also bears a relationship to tundra, appearing as the tundra retreats, the boundary between tundra and moorland constantly shifts with climate change. Heathland and moorland are the most extensive areas of vegetation in the British Isles. The eastern British moorlands are similar to heaths but are differentiated by having a covering of peat, on western moors the peat layer may be several metres thick. There is uncertainty about how many moors were created by human activity, how much the deforestation was caused by climatic changes and how much by human activity is uncertain. A variety of habitat types are found in different world regions of moorland. The wildlife and vegetation forms often lead to high endemism because of the severe soil, for example, in Englands Exmoor is found the rare horse breed the Exmoor Pony, which has adapted to the harsh conditions of that environment. In Europe, the fauna consists of bird species such as red grouse, hen harrier, merlin, golden plover, curlew, skylark, meadow pipit, whinchat, ring ouzel. Other species dominate in moorlands elsewhere, reptiles are few due to the cooler conditions. In Europe, only the common viper is frequent, though in other regions moorlands are commonly home to dozens of reptile species, amphibians such as frogs are well represented in moorlands. When moorland is overgrazed, woody vegetation is often lost, being replaced by coarse, unpalatable grasses and bracken, some hill sheep breeds, such as Scottish Blackface and the Lonk, thrive on the austere conditions of heather moors. Burning of moorland has been practised for a number of reasons and this is recorded in Britain in the fourteenth century. Uncontrolled burning frequently caused problems, and was forbidden by statute in 1607, with the rise of sheep and grouse management in the nineteenth century it again became common practice. Heather is burnt at about 10 or 12 years old when it will regenerate easily, left longer, the woodier stems will burn more aggressively and will hinder regrowth. Burning of moorland vegetation needs to be carefully controlled as the peat itself can catch fire. In addition, uncontrolled burning of heather can promote alternative bracken, as a result, burning is now a controversial practice, Rackham calls it second-best land management
36.
North Sea
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The North Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean located between Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the ocean through the English Channel in the south and it is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres wide, with an area of around 570,000 square kilometres. The North Sea has long been the site of important European shipping lanes as well as a major fishery, the North Sea was the centre of the Vikings rise. Subsequently, the Hanseatic League, the Netherlands, and the British each sought to dominate the North Sea and thus the access to the markets, as Germanys only outlet to the ocean, the North Sea continued to be strategically important through both World Wars. The coast of the North Sea presents a diversity of geological and geographical features, in the north, deep fjords and sheer cliffs mark the Norwegian and Scottish coastlines, whereas in the south it consists primarily of sandy beaches and wide mudflats. Due to the population, heavy industrialization, and intense use of the sea and area surrounding it. In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean, in the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively. In the north it is bordered by the Shetland Islands, and connects with the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres wide, with an area of 570,000 square kilometres and a volume of 54,000 cubic kilometres. Around the edges of the North Sea are sizeable islands and archipelagos, including Shetland, Orkney, the North Sea receives freshwater from a number of European continental watersheds, as well as the British Isles. A large part of the European drainage basin empties into the North Sea including water from the Baltic Sea, the largest and most important rivers flowing into the North Sea are the Elbe and the Rhine – Meuse watershed. Around 185 million people live in the catchment area of the rivers discharging into the North Sea encompassing some highly industrialized areas, for the most part, the sea lies on the European continental shelf with a mean depth of 90 metres. The only exception is the Norwegian trench, which extends parallel to the Norwegian shoreline from Oslo to a north of Bergen. It is between 20 and 30 kilometres wide and has a depth of 725 metres. The Dogger Bank, a vast moraine, or accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris and this feature has produced the finest fishing location of the North Sea. The Long Forties and the Broad Fourteens are large areas with uniform depth in fathoms. These great banks and others make the North Sea particularly hazardous to navigate, the Devils Hole lies 200 miles east of Dundee, Scotland. The feature is a series of trenches between 20 and 30 kilometres long,1 and 2 kilometres wide and up to 230 metres deep. Other areas which are less deep are Cleaver Bank, Fisher Bank, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the North Sea as follows, On the Southwest
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Bog
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A bog is a wetland that accumulates peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses, and in a majority of cases, sphagnum moss. It is one of the four types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, quagmire, and muskeg and they are frequently covered in ericaceous shrubs rooted in the sphagnum moss and peat. The gradual accumulation of decayed plant material in a bog functions as a carbon sink, Bogs occur where the water at the ground surface is acidic and low in nutrients. In some cases, the water is derived entirely from precipitation, water flowing out of bogs has a characteristic brown colour, which comes from dissolved peat tannins. In general, the low fertility and cool climate results in relatively slow plant growth, large areas of landscape can be covered many metres deep in peat. Bogs have distinctive assemblages of animal, fungal and plant species, Bogs are widely distributed in cold, temperate climes, mostly in boreal ecosystems in the Northern Hemisphere. The worlds largest wetland is the bogs of the Western Siberian Lowlands in Russia. Large peat bogs also occur in North America, particularly the Hudson Bay Lowland and they are less common in the Southern Hemisphere, with the largest being the Magellanic moorland, comprising some 44,000 square kilometres. Sphagnum bogs were widespread in northern Europe but have often been cleared and drained for agriculture, a 2014 expedition leaving from Itanga village, Republic of the Congo discovered a peat bog as big as England which stretches into neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. There are many highly specialised animals, fungi and plants associated with bog habitat, most are capable of tolerating the combination of low nutrient levels and waterlogging. Sphagnum moss is generally abundant, along with ericaceous shrubs, the shrubs are often evergreen, which is understood to assist in conservation of nutrients. In drier locations, evergreen trees can occur, in case the bog blends into the surrounding expanses of boreal evergreen forest. Sedges are one of the more common herbaceous species, carnivorous plants such as sundews and pitcher plants have adapted to the low-nutrient conditions by using invertebrates as a nutrient source. Orchids have adapted to these conditions through the use of fungi to extract nutrients. Some shrubs such as Myrica gale have root nodules in which nitrogen fixation occurs, Bogs are recognized as a significant/specific habitat type by a number of governmental and conservation agencies. They can provide habitat for mammals, such as caribou, moose, the United Kingdom in its Biodiversity Action Plan establishes bog habitats as a priority for conservation. Russia has a reserve system in the West Siberian Lowland
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Flow Country
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The Flow Country is a large, rolling expanse of peatland and wetland area of Caithness and Sutherland in Scotland. It is the largest expanse of bog in Europe. The area is home to a variety of wildlife, and is used as a breeding ground for many different species of birds, including greenshank, dunlin, merlin. The Flow Country was badly damaged between 1979 and 1987 through the planting of conifer forests and the cutting of thousands of miles of drains. The trees dried out the peat, changing the habitat and destroying its value for birds, the Conservative Party which was in government at the time decided to disband the NCC and create a separate Scottish agency now called Scottish Natural Heritage. This immediately halted further planting and encouraged the Forestry Commission to adopt a broader approach that respects existing landscapes. In an effort to restore the damage, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds have bought an area in the centre of the Flow Country and have created the Forsinard nature reserve. The Flow Country is on the 2006 UK tentative list as a possible UNESCO World Heritage Site, a global badge would certainly help us to get this special place in better heart. This area was threatened in the 1980s and early 1990s by inappropriate afforestation. Action is now underway to restore the area, the Far North Line connects into Forsinard station serving the area. RSPB Flow Country Appeal Peat bogs on SNH
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Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
40.
River
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A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water, small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the term river as applied to geographic features. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location, examples are run in parts of the United States, burn in Scotland and northeast England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always, Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Potamology is the study of rivers while limnology is the study of inland waters in general. Extraterrestrial rivers of liquid hydrocarbons have recently found on Titan. Channels may indicate past rivers on other planets, specifically outflow channels on Mars and rivers are theorised to exist on planets, a river begins at a source, follows a path called a course, and ends at a mouth or mouths. The water in a river is confined to a channel. In larger rivers there is also a wider floodplain shaped by flood-waters over-topping the channel. Floodplains may be wide in relation to the size of the river channel. This distinction between river channel and floodplain can be blurred, especially in areas where the floodplain of a river channel can become greatly developed by housing. Rivers can flow down mountains, through valleys or along plains, the term upriver refers to the direction towards the source of the river, i. e. against the direction of flow. Likewise, the term describes the direction towards the mouth of the river. The term left bank refers to the bank in the direction of flow. The river channel typically contains a stream of water, but some rivers flow as several interconnecting streams of water. Extensive braided rivers are now found in only a few regions worldwide and they also occur on peneplains and some of the larger river deltas. Anastamosing rivers are similar to braided rivers and are quite rare
41.
Valley
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A valley is a low area between hills, often with a river running through it. In geology, a valley or dale is a depression that is longer than it is wide, the terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys. Most valleys belong to one of two main types or a mixture of them, with respect to the cross section of the slopes or hillsides. A valley in its broadest geographic sense is known as a dale. A valley through which a river runs may also be referred to as a vale, a small, secluded, and often wooded valley is known as a dell or in Scotland as a glen. A wide, flat valley through which a river runs is known in Scotland as a strath, a mountain cove is a small valley, closed at one or both ends, in the central or southern Appalachian Mountains which sometimes results from the erosion of a geologic window. A small valley surrounded by mountains or ridges is sometimes known as a hollow, a deep, narrow valley is known as a cwm. Similar geological structures, such as canyons, ravines, gorges, gullies, chines, a valley formed by erosion is called an erosional valley, a valley formed by geologic events such as drop faults or the rise of highlands is called a structural valley. A valley formed by flowing water, or river valley, is usually V-shaped, the exact shape will depend on the characteristics of the stream flowing through it. Rivers with steep gradients, as in mountain ranges, produce steep walls, shallower slopes may produce broader and gentler valleys. However, in the lowest stretch of a river, where it approaches its base level, it begins to deposit sediment, in prehistory, the rivers were used as a source of fresh water and food, as well as a place to wash and a sewer. The proximity of water moderated temperature extremes and provided a source for irrigation, most of the first civilizations developed from these river valley communities. In geography, a vale is a river valley, usually with a particularly wide flood plain or flat valley bottom. In Southern England, vales commonly occur between the escarpment slopes of pairs of chalk formations, where the dome has been eroded, exposing less resistant underlying rock. Rift valleys, such as the Albertine Rift, are formed by the expansion of the Earths crust due to tectonic activity beneath the Earths surface, there are various forms of valley associated with glaciation that may be referred to as glacial valleys. A valley carved by glaciers is normally U-shaped, the valley becomes visible upon the recession of the glacier that forms it. When the ice recedes or thaws, the remains, often littered with small boulders that were transported within the ice. Floor gradient does not affect the shape, it is the glaciers size that does
42.
Croft (land)
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A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable with a crofters dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer, the word croft is West Germanic in etymology, and is now most familiar in Scotland, most crofts being in the Highlands and Islands area. Elsewhere the expression is generally archaic, in Scottish Gaelic, it is rendered croit Essentially similar positions have been the medieval villein and the Swedish torpare and Norwegian husmenn. The Scottish croft is a small agricultural landholding of a type which has been subject to legislation in the United Kingdom since 1886. The legislation was largely a response to the complaints and demands of tenant families who were victims of the Highland Clearances, the modern crofters or tenants appear very little in evidence before the beginning of the 18th century. They were tenants at will underneath the tacksman and wadsetters, the first evidence that can be found of small tenants holding directly of the proprietor is in a rental of the estates of Sir D. MacDonald in Skye and North Uist in 1715. This work was carried out in 1805 by James Chapman for the Earl of Seaforth, kirkibost was cleared of its tenants in 1823 and the 1850 mapping clearly shows roofless ruins on each parcel of land. The township was however re-settled in 1878 following the Bernera Riot four years earlier using exactly the same division boundaries set out in 1805, the Parliament of the United Kingdom created the Crofters Act 1886, after the Highland Land League had gained seats in that parliament. The government was then Liberal, with William Ewart Gladstone as Prime Minister, another Crofters Act was created in 1993. The earlier Act established the first Crofting Commission, but its responsibilities were quite different from those of the newer Crofters Commission created in 1955, the Commission is based in Inverness. Under the 1886 legislation protected crofters are members of a crofters township, since 1976 it has been legally possible for a crofter to acquire title to his croft, thus becoming an owner-occupier. Torp This article incorporates text from Dwellys Gaelic Dictionary
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Grey Cairns of Camster
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The Grey Cairns of Camster are two large Neolithic chambered cairns located about 8.5 miles south of Watten and 5 miles north of Lybster in Caithness, in the Highland region of Scotland. They are among the oldest structures in Scotland, dating to about 5,000 years ago, the cairns demonstrate the complexity of Neolithic architecture, with central burial chambers accessed through narrow passages from the outside. They were excavated and restored by Historic Scotland in the late 20th century and are open to the public and they consist of two structures standing 180 m apart, known as Camster Round and Camster Long. A third cairn, located about 120 metres away from Camster Round, is not considered to be part of the grouping, the cairns are located just to the west of a minor road built in the 19th century to link Watten and Lybster. Camster Burn runs in a direction about 100 metres to the west of the cairns. Although the surrounding countryside is now inhospitable and sparsely inhabited, during the Stone Age it was farming land. Camster Long is a 60 m long cairn with horns at each end and it is twice as wide at one end than the other, the width of the horns differs from 20 m at the north-east end to 10 m at the south-west end. It reaches a height of 4.6 m at over its two burial chambers about 15 m apart, which are respectively situated about two-thirds of the way along the cairn. The two chambers appear to have originally been constructed within separate round cairns, which were later incorporated into a single long cairn for unknown reasons. The chambers are both entered via passages leading from the south-east side of the cairn, the west chamber consists of two compartments, each delineated by upright portal stones standing 2 m high. The first compartment has a width of 1 m, while the second is 2 metres by 1.5 m. When the tomb was excavated, both compartments were found to contain human bones mingled with broken and unburnt animal bones from horses, oxen, pigs and deer. The entrance to the east chamber is located 9 m from the north-east end of the cairn, the first 5 m is straight and mostly intact, though the inner end is roofless and broken down. At the point where it reaches the chamber, the passageway turns through 45° through a portal made from two upright slabs. The chamber is in the shape of an irregular pentagon 2 m in diameter, there may be a third as yet undiscovered chamber at the south-west end, suggested by the presence of exposed upright stones which may indicate the presence of a portal. Camster Round is, as the name suggests, a circular cairn and its form may be similar to that of the original separate round cairns that were later amalgamated into Camster Long. It is virtually intact with a vaulted chamber at its centre. The passage appears to have been put out of use by blocking it up with stones piled up to the height of its roof
