1.
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
2.
The Pleasance
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The Pleasance is a theatre, bar, sports and recreation complex in Edinburgh, Scotland, situated on a street of the same name. Every August, it is converted into one of the venues for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Pleasance complex consists of a number of buildings, with the main block situated around a central. The main block houses two bars, The Pleasance Bar and The Cabaret Bar, situated in adjoining rooms with a removable partition in-between, upstairs from these, also in the main block, is the main Pleasance Theatre. Unlike other university buildings, all spaces are open to the general public year round. The Cabaret Bar and Theatre host a programme of events throughout the year, including the Pleasance Sessions music festival and regular live music, comedy, spoken word. It is also home to Edinburgh Folk Club, the rest of the complex contains rooms and meeting spaces which can be booked out for society use. In a building towards the rear of the plot is the Pleasance sports centre, for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the whole complex is converted into a variety of theatre spaces. The main theatre, capacity 320, and renamed Pleasance One for the duration of the Fringe, is one of these, other spaces range in size from the 750-seat Pleasance Grand to the 50-capacity Cellar. For the purposes of the Fringe brochure, these spaces collectively are called Pleasance Courtyard, the programming is of a high standard, featuring international acts, and tends towards comedy and cabaret. The courtyard becomes the biggest beer garden in the city for the month of August, confusingly, the Pleasance Theatre Trust also operate out of Potterrow Student Centre, an entirely separate student building on another site, but branded as Pleasance Dome during the Fringe
3.
Edinburgh
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Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 local government council areas. Located in Lothian on the Firth of Forths southern shore, it is Scotlands second most populous city and the seventh most populous in the United Kingdom. The 2014 official population estimates are 464,990 for the city of Edinburgh,492,680 for the authority area. Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is home to the Scottish Parliament and it is the largest financial centre in the UK after London. Historically part of Midlothian, the city has long been a centre of education, particularly in the fields of medicine, Scots law, literature, the sciences and engineering. The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582 and now one of four in the city, was placed 17th in the QS World University Rankings in 2013 and 2014. The city is famous for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe. The citys historical and cultural attractions have made it the United Kingdoms second most popular tourist destination after London, attracting over one million overseas visitors each year. Historic sites in Edinburgh include Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, the churches of St. Giles, Greyfriars and the Canongate, Edinburghs Old Town and New Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has been managed by Edinburgh World Heritage since 1999. It appears to derive from the place name Eidyn mentioned in the Old Welsh epic poem Y Gododdin, the poem names Din Eidyn as a hill fort in the territory of the Gododdin. The Celtic element din was dropped and replaced by the Old English burh, the first documentary evidence of the medieval burgh is a royal charter, c. 1124–1127, by King David I granting a toft in burgo meo de Edenesburg to the Priory of Dunfermline. In modern Gaelic, the city is called Dùn Èideann, the earliest known human habitation in the Edinburgh area was at Cramond, where evidence was found of a Mesolithic camp site dated to c.8500 BC. Traces of later Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements have found on Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat, Craiglockhart Hill. When the Romans arrived in Lothian at the end of the 1st century AD, at some point before the 7th century AD, the Gododdin, who were presumably descendants of the Votadini, built the hill fort of Din Eidyn or Etin. Although its location has not been identified, it likely they would have chosen a commanding position like the Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat. In 638, the Gododdin stronghold was besieged by forces loyal to King Oswald of Northumbria and it thenceforth remained under their jurisdiction. The royal burgh was founded by King David I in the early 12th century on land belonging to the Crown, in 1638, King Charles Is attempt to introduce Anglican church forms in Scotland encountered stiff Presbyterian opposition culminating in the conflicts of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. In the 17th century, Edinburghs boundaries were defined by the citys defensive town walls
4.
Edinburgh Castle
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Edinburgh Castle is a historic fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position on the Castle Rock. Archaeologists have established human occupation of the rock since at least the Iron Age, there has been a royal castle on the rock since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century, and the site continued to be a royal residence until 1633. From the 15th century the residential role declined, and by the 17th century it was principally used as military barracks with a large garrison. Research undertaken in 2014 identified 26 sieges in its 1100-year-old history, giving it a claim to having been the most besieged place in Great Britain, few of the present buildings pre-date the Lang Siege of the 16th century, when the medieval defences were largely destroyed by artillery bombardment. The castle also houses the Scottish regalia, known as the Honours of Scotland and is the site of the Scottish National War Memorial, the British Army is still responsible for some parts of the castle, although its presence is now largely ceremonial and administrative. Some of the buildings house regimental museums which contribute to its presentation as a tourist attraction. The castle, in the care of Historic Scotland, is Scotlands most-visited paid tourist attraction, the castle stands upon the plug of an extinct volcano, which is estimated to have risen about 350 million years ago during the lower Carboniferous period. The Castle Rock is the remains of a pipe, which cut through the surrounding sedimentary rock before cooling to form very hard dolerite. Subsequent glacial erosion was resisted by the dolerite, which protected the softer rock to the east, leaving a crag and tail formation. The summit of the Castle Rock is 130 metres above sea level, with rocky cliffs to the south, west and north and this means that the only readily accessible route to the castle lies to the east, where the ridge slopes more gently. The defensive advantage of such a site is self-evident, but the geology of the rock also presents difficulties, archaeological investigation has yet to establish when the Castle Rock was first used as a place of human habitation. There is no record of any Roman interest in the location during General Agricolas invasion of northern Britain near the end of the 1st century AD. Ptolemys map of the 2nd century AD shows a settlement in the territory of the Votadini named Alauna, meaning rock place and this could, however, refer to another of the tribes hill forts in the area. The Orygynale Cronykil of Andrew of Wyntoun, a source for Scottish history, names Ebrawce. According to the chronicler, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Ebraucus had fifty children by his twenty wives, and was the founder of Kaerebrauc, Alclud. The 16th-century English writer John Stow, credited Ebraucus with building the Castell of Maidens called Edenbrough in 989 BC, the name Maidens Castle occurs frequently up until the 16th century. It appears in charters of David I and his successors, although the reason for it is not known. According to the 17th-century antiquarian Father Richard Hay, the maidens were a group of nuns, however, this story was considered apocryphal by the 19th-century antiquarian Daniel Wilson and has been ignored by historians since
5.
World Heritage Site
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A World Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some form of significance. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the interests of humanity. The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture, under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage, since then,192 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments. As of July 2016,1052 sites are listed,814 cultural,203 natural, in 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested UNESCO to assist their countries to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites. In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the Member States for an International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the campaign, which ended in 1980, was considered a success. The project cost $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries, the projects success led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, the Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of June 2016, it has been ratified by 192 states, including 188 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, a country must first list its significant cultural and natural sites, the result is called the Tentative List. A country may not nominate sites that have not been first included on the Tentative List, next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File. The Nomination File is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and these bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. There are ten selection criteria – a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list, up to 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so there is now only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of outstanding value and meet at least one of the ten criteria. Thus, the Geneva Convention treaty promulgates, Article 53, PROTECTION OF CULTURAL OBJECTS AND OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. There are 1,052 World Heritage Sites located in 165 States Party, of these,814 are cultural,203 are natural and 35 are mixed properties
6.
Old Town, Edinburgh
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The Old Town is the name popularly given to the oldest part of Scotlands capital city of Edinburgh. The area has preserved much of its street plan and many Reformation-era buildings. Together with the 18th-century New Town, it part of a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site. Narrow closes, often no more than a few feet wide, the area has a number of underground vaults and hidden passages that are relics of previous phases of construction. No part of the street is officially called The Royal Mile in terms of legal addresses, the actual street names are Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High Street, Canongate and Abbey Strand. This crag and tail landform was created during the last ice age when receding glaciers scoured across the land pushing soft soil aside, the hilltop crag was the earliest part of the city to develop, becoming fortified and eventually developing into the current Edinburgh Castle. The rest of the city grew slowly down the tail of land from the Castle Rock and this was an easily defended spot with marshland on the south and a man-made loch, the Nor Loch, on the north. Access up the road to the settlement was therefore restricted by means of various gates. The original strong linear spine of the Royal Mile only had narrow closes and these began to be supplemented from the late 18th century with wide new north–south routes, beginning with the North Bridge/South Bridge route, and then George IV Bridge. The Edinburgh City Improvement Act of 1866 further added to the north south routes and this was devised by the architects David Cousin and John Lessels. It had quite radical effects, St Marys Wynd was demolished and replaced by the much wider St Marys Street with all new buildings, Leith Wynd which descended from the High Street to the Low Calton was demolished. Jeffrey Street started from Leith Wynds junction with the High Street, opposite St Marys Street, east Market Street was built to connect Market Street and New Street. Blackfriars Street was created by the widening of Blackfriars Wynd, removing all the buildings on the east side, Chambers Street was created, replacing N College Street and removing Brown Square and Adam Square. It was named after the then Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Sir William Chambers, guthrie Street was created, linking the new Chambers Street to the Cowgate. Multi-storey dwellings became the norm from the 16th century onwards, the construction of new streets including North Bridge and South Bridge in the 18th century also created underground spaces, such as the Edinburgh Vaults below the latter. Traditionally buildings were less dense in the eastern, Canongate, section and this area underwent major slum clearance and reconstruction in the 1950s, thereafter becoming an area largely of Council housing. Further Council housing was built on the fringe of the Canongate in the 1960s and 1970s in an area generally called Dumbiedykes. From 1990 to 2010 major new housing schemes appeared throughout the Canongate and these were built to a much higher scale than the traditional buildings and have greatly increased the population of the area
7.
South Bridge, Edinburgh
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South Bridge is a bridge in Edinburgh, Scotland, starting at the High Street and finishing at Chambers Street/Infirmary Street. The bridge is constructed of nineteen arches, but is now almost entirely enclosed by buildings on both sides, exposing only the largest arch, where the crosses the Cowgate. Below deck level are many buildings and vaults, the latter now something of a tourist attraction, most of the buildings on the deck level have separate entrances at the level of the streets passing below or parallel to the bridge. North Bridge, Edinburgh George IV Bridge 2002 Cowgate Fire, which destroyed and damaged several South Bridge buildings
8.
George IV Bridge
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George IV Bridge is an elevated street in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is home to a number of the citys important public buildings. Measuring 300 metres in length, the bridge was constructed between 1829 and 1832 as part of the Improvement Act of 1827, named after King George IV, it was designed by architect Thomas Hamilton to connect the South Side district of Edinburgh to the New Town. Two of Edinburgh Old Towns traditional streets, Old Bank Close, at the north end of the street, where it joins the Royal Mile, sits Lothian Chambers on the east side. This building was used by the Scottish Parliament before being cleared to make way for a new development including the Hotel Missoni. Further south on the street lie the National Library of Scotland and the Edinburgh Central Library, the former Martyrs Free Church has been converted to a pub. On Bristo Place is located the former Edinburgh Congregational Church which later become the Forest Café
9.
Grassmarket
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The Grassmarket is a historic market place and an event space in the Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. In relation to the rest of the city it lies in a hollow, the Grassmarket is located directly below Edinburgh Castle and forms part of one of the main east-west vehicle arteries through the city centre. It adjoins the Cowgate and Candlemaker Row at the east end, the West Bow in the north-east corner, Kings Stables Road to the north west and the West Port to the west. Leading off from the south-west corner is the Vennel, on the east side of which can still be some of the best surviving parts of the Flodden. The view to the north, dominated by the castle, has long been a subject of painters and photographers. Daniel Defoe, who visited Edinburgh in the 1720s, reports the place being used for two open air markets, the Grass-market and the Horse-market. In the late 18th century the fly coach to London, via Dumfries and Carlisle, in 1803 William and Dorothy Wordsworth took rooms at the White Hart Inn, where the poet Robert Burns had stayed during his last visit to Edinburgh in 1791. In her account of the visit Dorothy described it as not noisy, in his 1961 film Greyfriars Bobby Walt Disney chose a lodging in the Grassmarket as the place where the Skye terriers owner dies. The market closed in 1911 when a new municipal slaughter house at Tollcross replaced the old shambles in the half of the Grassmarket which joins Kings Stables Road. An inscribed flagstone in the pavement in front of the White Hart Inn indicates the spot where a bomb exploded during a Zeppelin raid on the city on the night of 2–3 April 1916. Eleven people were killed in the raid, though none at this particular spot, the Grassmarket was also a traditional place of public executions. A memorial near the site occupied by the gibbet was created by public subscription in 1937. It commemorates over 100 Covenanters who died on the gallows between 1661 and 1688 during the known as The Killing Time. Their names, where known, are recorded on a nearby plaque, one obdurate prisoners refusal to escape death by swearing loyalty to the Crown prompted the snide remark by the Duke of Rothes that he had chosen to glorify God in the Grassmarket. In 1736 the Grassmarket formed the backdrop to the Porteous Riots which ended in the lynching of a captain of the Town Guard, a plaque near the traditional execution site now marks the spot where an enraged mob brought Captain Porteouss life to a brutal end. A popular story in Edinburgh is that of Margaret Dickson, a fishwife from Musselburgh who was hanged in the Grassmarket in 1724 for murdering her illegitimate baby shortly after birth, after the hanging, her body was taken back to Musselburgh on a cart. However, on the way there she awoke, since, under Scots Law, her punishment had been carried out, she could not be executed for a second time for the same crime. Her resurrection was also to some extent seen as divine intervention, in later life she was referred to as half-hangit Maggie
