1.
Scotland
–
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
2.
United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
3.
Ramsar Convention
–
The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands and it is named after the city of Ramsar in Iran, where the Convention was signed in 1971. The most recent COP12 was held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, cOP13 will take place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2018. The List of Wetlands of International Importance included 2,231 Ramsar Sites in March 2016 covering over 2.1 million square kilometres. The country with the highest number of Sites is the United Kingdom with 170, the Ramsar Sites Information Service is a searchable database which provides information on each Ramsar Site. As of 2016 there are 18 Transboundary Ramsar Sites, as of 2016 there are 15 Ramsar Regional Initiatives covering regions of the Mediterranean, Asia, Africa and South America. The Ramsar Convention works closely with six other known as International Organization Partners. The IOPs also participate regularly as observers in all meetings of the Conference of the Parties and as members of the Scientific. Conference of the Parties Conference of the Parties is the Conventions governing body consisting of all governments that have ratified the treaty and this ultimate authority reviews progress under the Convention, identifies new priorities, and sets work plans for members. The COP can also make amendments to the Convention, create expert advisory bodies, review progress reports by member nations, and collaborate with other international organizations and agreements. The Standing Committee The Standing Committee is the executive body which represents the COP between its triennial meetings, within the framework of the decisions made by the COP. The Contracting Parties that are members of the Standing Committee are elected by each meeting of the COP to serve for the three years until the next one, the Secretariat The Secretariat carries out the day-to-day coordination of the Convention’s activities. It is based at the headquarters of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Gland, Switzerland, the 2nd of February each year is World Wetlands Day, marking the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971. Established to raise awareness about the value of wetlands for humanity, in 2015 World Wetlands Day was celebrated in 59 countries
4.
Scottish Gaelic
–
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.
Mull of Kintyre
–
The Mull of Kintyre is the southwesternmost tip of the Kintyre Peninsula in southwest Scotland. From here, the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland is visible on a calm and clear day, and a historic lighthouse, the area has been immortalised in popular culture by the 1977 hit song Mull of Kintyre by Kintyre resident Paul McCartneys band of the time, Wings. Animator Ross Angus spent his childhood at the family owl reservation on the peninsula. The name is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic Maol Chinn Tìre, in English, The rounded headland of Kintyre, the English variant Cantyre derives from the phrase ceann tìre /kʲeṉ, tʲʰiːɾʲə/ head land. The term mull derives from Scottish Gaelic, maol bald, bare, the geographical reference is to a land formation bare of trees, such as a rounded hill, summit, mountain, promontory or headland. The Mull is at the southwestern tip of the Kintyre peninsula, approximately 10 miles from Campbeltown in Argyll and Bute. It is about 8 miles beyond the southernmost village of the peninsula, Southend, Ailsa Craig and the County Antrim coast of Ulster and Rathlin Island are all clearly visible from the Mull. On clearer days it is possible to make out Malin Head in Inishowen in County Donegal in the west of Ulster. Other islands in the Firth of Clyde are also visible when looking east, the Straits of Moyle allow sea passage from the Irish Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Notoriously strong currents plague the tip of the Kintyre Peninsula creating a hazard to unmotorised craft, at its closest point, mainland Ulster is 12 mi from the Mull. Owing to the low elevation of Rathlin Island and the elevation of the Mull of Kintyre it is also possible to see over the top of Rathlin Island to the Antrim coastal town of Ballycastle. Individual houses on the Antrim coast and cars travelling along the coast road can sometimes be seen without the aid of binoculars, the Mull has been an important landbridge throughout history. It is thought that it was used by humans in their travels from continental Europe to Ireland via Britain. In more recent times it was used again by the Scotti when they travelled from Ireland to establish the kingdom of Dál Riata in modern-day Argyll. The steep cliffs and hills rising out of the sea on all sides and it has been the site of numerous air crashes throughout aviation history, and the remains of some of those crashed aircraft still litter the area. A notable recent air disaster on the Mull was the RAF Chinook helicopter crash on 2 June 1994, the Mull of Kintyre Lighthouse was the second lighthouse commissioned in Scotland by the Commissioners of the Northern Lights. It was designed and built by Thomas Smith and completed in 1788, Smith had previously designed the light at Kinnaird Head, but Mull of Kintyre was a far more substantial project, in a far more remote location. The lighthouse was rebuilt in the 1820s, the light was fixed until 1906, when it was converted to flashing, and its power increased from 8,000 to 281,000 candela
6.
Knapdale
–
Knapdale forms a rural district of Argyll and Bute in the Scottish Highlands, adjoining Kintyre to the south, and divided from the rest of Argyll to the north by the Crinan Canal. It includes two parishes, North Knapdale and South Knapdale, Knapdale Forest, planted in the 1930s, covers much of the region. During the 1930s, the Ministry of Labour supplied the men from among the unemployed, many coming from the crisis-hit mining and heavy industry communities of the Central Belt. They were housed in one of a number of Instructional Centres created by the Ministry, most of them on Forestry Commission property, by 1938, the camp was used to hold enemy prisoners during the Second World War. The hutted camp in Knapdale was located at Cairnbaan, just south of the Crinan Canal, local attractions include the Chapel of Keills. A grave-slab in the chapel has a carving of a similar to the Queen Mary Harp currently at the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. West Highland grave slabs from the Argyll area suggest that Knapdale is where this harp originated, the village also has the thirteenth-century Kilmory Chapel and the late twelfth-century Castle Sween. A 173-acre estate in the area belongs to former executive of Network Rail. Named Iainland, the property was purchased by Coucher in 2010 following his departure from the company. Census figures for the 19th and 20th centuries show a continuing and steady decline of population in North Knapdale, Knapdale has a designation as a National Scenic Area. In 2005, the Scottish Government turned down an application for unfenced reintroduction of the Eurasian beaver in Knapdale. However, in late 2007 a successful application was made for a release project, the trial was to be run over five years by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, with Scottish Natural Heritage monitoring the project. The first beavers were released in May 2009 and this initial release into the wild of 11 animals received a setback during the first year with the disappearance of two animals and the unproven allegation of the illegal shooting of a third. However, the population was increased in 2010 by further releases. Field, J. Learning Through Labour, Training, unemployment, - Information on the Knapdale Beaver Trial Introduction. - Visitor information for Inveraray, Tarbert, Knapdale, Crinan and Lochgilphead
7.
Settler
–
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally from a culture, as opposed to nomads who share. Settlements are often built on land already claimed or owned by another group, many times settlers are backed by governments or large countries. One can witness how settlers very often occupied land previously home to long-established peoples, the word settler was not originally usually used in relation to free labour immigrants, such as slaves, indentured labourers, or convicts. In United States history it refers to people who helped to settle new lands. In this usage, pioneers are usually among the first to an area, whereas settlers can arrive after first settlement and this correlates with the work of military pioneers who were tasked with construction of camps before the main body of troops would arrive at the designated campsite. In Imperial Russia, the government invited Russians or foreign nationals to settle in sparsely populated lands, see, e. g. articles Slavo-Serbia, Volga German, Volhynia, Russians in Kazakhstan. In the Middle East, there are a number of references to various squatter, among those, Iraq – the Arabization program of the Baath Party in the late 1970s in North Iraq, which aimed at settling Arab populations instead of Kurds following the Second Iraqi-Kurdish War. Israel – Israelis who moved to areas captured during the Six-Day War in 1967 are termed Israeli settlers, in recent Israeli settlers have been settling in Palestinian territory such as the Gaza Strip and West Bank. However, this has caused political unrest and many settlers are forcibly removed from their settlements by the Israeli government, Syria – In recent times, Arab settlers have also moved in large numbers to ethnic minority areas, such as northeast Syria. Women and children experience violence in these highly dangerous ares because of the conflict, many natives face displacement when new settlements are established. During 1948 Palestine war, in which Israel was created, over 750,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes, oftentimes fences or walls are built preventing the natives from traveling back onto the land. Settlements make it difficult for native people to continue their work. For example, if the settlers take part of the land which the trees grow on then the natives no longer have access to those olive trees. Many are met with violence when they try to get the things they need from the land, settlers in hypothetical societies, such as on other planets, often feature in science fiction or fantasy fiction and/or video games. Mascot for Texas Womans University, more specifically called the Pioneer. The colony concerned is sometimes controlled by the government of a home country
8.
Ulster
–
Ulster is a province in the north of the island of Ireland. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a rí ruirech, the definition of the province was fluid from early to medieval times. It took a shape in the reign of King James I of England when all the counties of Ireland were eventually shired. This process of evolving conquest had been under way since the Norman invasion of Ireland, particularly as advanced by the Cambro-Norman magnates Hugh de Lacy, Ulster was a central topic role in the parliamentary debates that eventually resulted in the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Under the terms of the Act, Ireland was divided into two territories, Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland, with the passing through the province. While these six counties and two boroughs were all in the province of Ulster, three other counties of the province – Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan – were assigned to the Irish Free State. Ulster has no function for local government purposes in either country. However, for the purposes of ISO-3166-2, Ulster is used to refer to the three counties of Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan only, which are given country sub-division code IE-U. It has also suggested to have derived from Uladh plus the Norse suffix ster. The Irish name, Cúige Uladh, means the province of the Ulaid, the Ulaidh were a group of tribes who dwelt in the region. Ulaidh has historically been anglicised as Ulagh or Ullagh and Latinised as Ulidia or Ultonia, the latter two have yielded the terms Ulidian and Ultonian. Words that have used in English are Ullish and Ulsterman/Ulsterwoman. Northern Ireland is often referred to as Ulster, despite including only six of Ulsters nine counties and this usage is most common amongst people in Northern Ireland who are unionist, although it is also used by the media throughout the United Kingdom. Most Irish nationalists object to the use of Ulster in this context, Ulster has a population of just over 2 million people and an area of 21,552 square kilometres. About 62% of the area of Ulster is in the UK while the remaining 38% is in the Republic of Ireland. Ulsters biggest city, Belfast, has an population of over half a million inhabitants, making it the second-largest city on the island of Ireland. Three Ulster counties – Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan – form part of the Republic of Ireland, about half of Ulsters population lives in counties Antrim and Down. 8% to 42. 7%. While the traditional counties continue to demarcate areas of government in the Republic of Ireland
9.
Campbeltown
–
Campbeltown, is a town and former royal burgh in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies by Campbeltown Loch on the Kintyre peninsula, originally known as Kinlochkilkerran, it was renamed in the 17th century as Campbells Town after Archibald Campbell was granted the site in 1667. Campbeltown became an important centre for shipbuilding and Scotch whisky, Campbeltown is one of five areas in Scotland categorised as a distinct malt whisky producing region, and is home to the Campbeltown single malts. At one point it had over 30 distilleries and proclaimed itself the capital of the world. However, a focus on quantity rather than quality, and the combination of prohibition, today only three active distilleries remain in Campbeltown, Glen Scotia, Glengyle, and Springbank. The well known folk song titled Campbeltown Loch, I wish you were whisky is based on the history in this industry. There are several listed buildings in Category A in the town, Campbeltown boasts a museum and a heritage centre. The museum has a collection of items from Campbeltowns past. The 19th century building, by John James Burnet, also houses a library and has plaques or exhibits related to famous Kintyre people, for example, William McTaggart and these buildings are on the waterfront, as is a 14th-century Celtic cross that also served as a mercat cross. St Kieran lived in area before the town existed. A cave named after him can be visited at low tide, as can the cave on nearby Davaar Island where pilgrims and tourists go to see a 19th-century crucifixion painting. A recent addition has been the Kintyre Songwriters Festival, a low key annual gathering aimed at promoting the wealth. The festival is held during the last weekend of May and is open to anyone interested in performing, on Friday 16 June 2006, First Minister Jack McConnell flew to Campbeltown to officially open Campbeltowns new Aqualibrium Centre. The Kintyre Camanachd are a local shinty team that belongs to the Camanachd Association, the vulnerability index ranked 90 Scottish locations according to factors associated with economic and social change. Campbeltown Airport is near the town, and has a scheduled service to/from Glasgow International Airport on weekdays, the town is the westernmost town in the island of Great Britain. It has the population of a village, but lays claim to its town status based on its port. Its position near the end of a long peninsula makes for a road journey. However it is linked to the rest of Scotland by the A83, bus service is provided by West Coast Motors
10.
Whisky
–
Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, Whisky is typically aged in wooden casks, generally made of charred white oak. Whisky is a strictly regulated spirit worldwide with many classes and types, the typical unifying characteristics of the different classes and types are the fermentation of grains, distillation, and aging in wooden barrels. The word whiskey is an anglicisation of the Classical Gaelic word uisce meaning water, distilled alcohol was known in Latin as aqua vitae. This was translated to Classical Gaelic as uisce beatha, which became uisce beatha in Irish, early forms of the word in English included uskebeaghe, usquebaugh, usquebath, and usquebae. Much is made of the two spellings, whiskey and whisky. There are two schools of thought on the issue, there is general agreement that when quoting the proper name printed on a label, the spelling on the label should not be altered. Some writers refer to whisky or whisky/whiskey to acknowledge the variation, the spelling whiskey is common in Ireland and the United States, while whisky is used in all other whisky producing countries. In the US, the usage has not always been consistent, from the late eighteenth century to the mid twentieth century, American writers used both spellings interchangeably until the introduction of newspaper style guides. Since the 1960s, American writers have increasingly used whiskey as the spelling for aged grain spirits made in the US. Scotch is the internationally recognized term for Scotch whisky, the earliest certain chemical distillations were by Greeks in Alexandria in the 1st century AD, but these were not distillations of alcohol. The medieval Arabs adopted the technique of the Alexandrian Greeks, and written records in Arabic begin in the 9th century. Distilling technology passed from the medieval Arabs to the medieval Latins, the earliest records of the distillation of alcohol are in Italy in the 13th century, where alcohol was distilled from wine. An early description of the technique was given by Ramon Llull and its use spread through medieval monasteries, largely for medicinal purposes, such as the treatment of colic and smallpox. The art of distillation spread to Ireland and Scotland no later than the 15th century, the practice of medicinal distillation eventually passed from a monastic setting to the secular via professional medical practitioners of the time, The Guild of Barber Surgeons. The earliest Irish mention of whisky comes from the seventeenth-century Annals of Clonmacnoise, between 1536 and 1541, King Henry VIII of England dissolved the monasteries, sending their monks out into the general public. Whisky production moved out of a setting and into personal homes. The distillation process was still in its infancy, whisky itself was not allowed to age, renaissance-era whisky was also very potent and not diluted
