Scotland
Scotland is a country, part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides; 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, thus forming a personal union of the three kingdoms. 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 created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. In 1801, the Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland enacted a political union to create a United Kingdom.
The majority of Ireland subsequently seceded from the UK in 1922. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles and other royal symbols of statehood specific to the pre-union Kingdom of Scotland; the legal system within Scotland has remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland. The continued existence of legal, educational and other institutions distinct from those in the remainder of the UK have all contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and national identity since the 1707 union with England; the Scottish Parliament, a unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, was established in 1999 and has authority over those areas of domestic policy which have been devolved by the United Kingdom Parliament. The head of the Scottish Government, the executive of the devolved legislature, is the First Minister of Scotland. Scotland is represented in the UK House of Commons by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs.
Scotland is a member of the British–Irish Council, sends five members of the Scottish Parliament to the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland is divided into councils. Glasgow City is the largest subdivision in Scotland in terms of population, with Highland being the largest in terms of area. "Scotland" comes from the Latin name for the Gaels. From the ninth century, the meaning of Scotia shifted to designate Gaelic Scotland and by the eleventh century the name was being used to refer to the core territory of the Kingdom of Alba in what is now east-central Scotland; the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass most of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages, as the Kingdom of Alba expanded and came to encompass various peoples of diverse origins. Repeated glaciations, which covered the entire land mass of modern Scotland, destroyed any traces of human habitation that may have existed before the Mesolithic period, it is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, as the ice sheet retreated after the last glaciation.
At the time, Scotland was covered in forests, had more bog-land, the main form of transport was by water. These settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, the first villages around 6,000 years ago; the well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period. Neolithic habitation and ritual sites are common and well preserved in the Northern Isles and Western Isles, where a lack of trees led to most structures being built of local stone. Evidence of sophisticated pre-Christian belief systems is demonstrated by sites such as the Callanish Stones on Lewis and the Maes Howe on Orkney, which were built in the third millennium BCE; the first written reference to Scotland was in 320 BC by Greek sailor Pytheas, who called the northern tip of Britain "Orcas", the source of the name of the Orkney islands. During the first millennium BCE, the society changed to a chiefdom model, as consolidation of settlement led to the concentration of wealth and underground stores of surplus food.
The first Roman incursion into Scotland occurred in 79 AD. After the Roman victory, Roman forts were set along the Gask Ridge close to the Highland line, but by three years after the battle, the Roman armies had withdrawn to the Southern Uplands; the Romans erected Hadrian's Wall in northern England and the Limes Britannicus became the northern border of the Roman Empire. The Roman influence on the southern part of the country was considerable, they introduced Christianity to Scotland. Beginning in the sixth century, the area, now Scotland was divided into three areas: Pictland, a patchwork of small lordships in central Scotland; these societies were based on the family unit and had sharp divisions in wealth, although the vast majority were poor and worked full-time in subsistence agriculture. The Picts kept slaves through the ninth century. Gaelic influence over Pictland and Northumbria was facilitated by the large number of Gaelic-speaking clerics working as missionaries. Operating in the sixth ce
South Gyle railway station
South Gyle railway station is a railway station serving South Gyle in the City of Edinburgh, Scotland. The station was opened on 9 May 1985 by ScotRail and is located on the Fife Circle Line, 4 1⁄2 miles west of Edinburgh Waverley, it has two platforms. There is a shelter on each platform. Edinburgh Park station is on the edge of South Gyle, which serves the North Clyde Line and the Edinburgh-Dunblane Line. Edinburgh Gateway station is to the north-west of South Gyle. Monday to Saturday daytimes, two trains per hour go to Edinburgh Waverley eastbound and two trains per hour head towards Inverkeithing and the Fife Circle Line. A few peak hour services extend beyond Waverley to/from Tweedbank. Evenings and Sundays, two trains per hour go to two along the Fife Circle. Sundays see one train per hour running both anticlockwise around the Circle. Train times and station information for South Gyle railway station from National Rail
Ingliston
Ingliston is an area in the west of Edinburgh, near Maybury, South Gyle and Newbridge, is home to Edinburgh Airport and The Royal Highland Showground. The name Ingliston either means the "settlement of the Inglis Family" or "English town". From 1965 to 1994 motor racing took place at Ingliston Racing Circuit, located within the Royal Highland Showground. From 1973 to 2005, a Sunday market was held at Ingliston, it was of one of the biggest open air markets in Europe. For many years, a feature of the market was a 550 cm -tall statue of King Kong by Nicholas Monro. Ingliston Golf Club first appeared in the 1930s; the 18-hole parkland course closed in the 1960s and is now the site of the Royal Highland Show Ground. In 2006, the Ingliston Park and Ride site was opened and is one of a network of park and ride service around Edinburgh. A new tram stop on the Airport - York Place route operated by Edinburgh Trams opened at the end of May 2014. Bell, Raymond MacKean Literary Corstorphine: A reader's guide to West Edinburgh, Leamington Books, Edinburgh 2017 Ingliston Park & Ride information on Edinburgh Trams
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics. His work is known for its influence on the philosophy of science, he is best known to the general public for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, dubbed "the world's most famous equation". He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect", a pivotal step in the development of quantum theory. Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was no longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field; this led him to develop his special theory of relativity during his time at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. However, he realized that the principle of relativity could be extended to gravitational fields, he published a paper on general relativity in 1916 with his theory of gravitation.
He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He investigated the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In 1917, he applied the general theory of relativity to model the structure of the universe. Except for one year in Prague, Einstein lived in Switzerland between 1895 and 1914, during which time he renounced his German citizenship in 1896 received his academic diploma from the Swiss federal polytechnic school in Zürich in 1900. After being stateless for more than five years, he acquired Swiss citizenship in 1901, which he kept for the rest of his life. In 1905, he was awarded a PhD by the University of Zurich; the same year, he published four groundbreaking papers during his renowned annus mirabilis which brought him to the notice of the academic world at the age of 26. Einstein taught theoretical physics at Zurich between 1912 and 1914 before he left for Berlin, where he was elected to the Prussian Academy of Sciences.
In 1933, while Einstein was visiting the United States, Adolf Hitler came to power. Because of his Jewish background, Einstein did not return to Germany, he settled in the United States and became an American citizen in 1940. On the eve of World War II, he endorsed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting him to the potential development of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type" and recommending that the US begin similar research; this led to the Manhattan Project. Einstein supported the Allies, but he denounced the idea of using nuclear fission as a weapon, he signed the Russell–Einstein Manifesto with British philosopher Bertrand Russell, which highlighted the danger of nuclear weapons. He was affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, until his death in 1955. Einstein published more than 150 non-scientific works, his intellectual achievements and originality have made the word "Einstein" synonymous with "genius". Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire, on 14 March 1879.
His parents were Hermann Einstein, a salesman and engineer, Pauline Koch. In 1880, the family moved to Munich, where Einstein's father and his uncle Jakob founded Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie, a company that manufactured electrical equipment based on direct current; the Einsteins were non-observant Ashkenazi Jews, Albert attended a Catholic elementary school in Munich, from the age of 5, for three years. At the age of 8, he was transferred to the Luitpold Gymnasium, where he received advanced primary and secondary school education until he left the German Empire seven years later. In 1894, Hermann and Jakob's company lost a bid to supply the city of Munich with electrical lighting because they lacked the capital to convert their equipment from the direct current standard to the more efficient alternating current standard; the loss forced the sale of the Munich factory. In search of business, the Einstein family moved to Italy, first to Milan and a few months to Pavia; when the family moved to Pavia, Einstein 15, stayed in Munich to finish his studies at the Luitpold Gymnasium.
His father intended for him to pursue electrical engineering, but Einstein clashed with authorities and resented the school's regimen and teaching method. He wrote that the spirit of learning and creative thought was lost in strict rote learning. At the end of December 1894, he travelled to Italy to join his family in Pavia, convincing the school to let him go by using a doctor's note. During his time in Italy he wrote a short essay with the title "On the Investigation of the State of the Ether in a Magnetic Field". Einstein always excelled at math and physics from a young age, reaching a mathematical level years ahead of his peers; the twelve year old Einstein taught himself algebra and Euclidean geometry over a single summer. Einstein independently discovered his own original proof of the Pythagorean theorem at age 12. A family tutor Max Talmud says that after he had given the 12 year old Einstein a geometry textbook, after a short time " had worked through the whole book, he thereupon devoted himself to higher mathematics...
Soon the flight of his mathematical genius was so high I could not follow." His passion for geometry and algebra led the twelve year old to become convinced that nature could be understood as a "mathematical structure". Einstein started teaching himself calculus at
Bonaly
Bonaly is an area on the south-western outskirts of Edinburgh and the northern slopes of the Pentland Hills, lying within the Parish of Colinton. It is a mix of post-war housing, pasture-land and heather moorland. Bonaly Burn has its sources in the hills above Bonaly and flows towards Oxgangs, where it becomes the Braid Burn; the Edinburgh City Bypass passes through Bonaly. The name Bonaly may be derived from Bàn àth Linne. An alternative suggestion is; the placename has appeared in spellings. Early variations include Banale in 1438, Bonala in 1538 and Bonally in 1531. Other variations include Bonala, Boneyley, Bonnalay and Bonaley. In Timothy Pont's detailed 1654 map of Scotland, it appears as a small settlement close to the Pentland Hills, labelled Bonely, appears on the Map of the Three Lothians in 1773 as Bonilie. Harrison Gardens and Harrison Place, in the Edinburgh district of Merchiston, were named Bonaly Road and Bonaly Place, they were renamed in 1965 to avoid confusion with similar addresses in Colinton.
Although now considered to be part of the Edinburgh suburb of Colinton, Bonaly was a small settlement in its own right. This existed on the banks of the Bonaly Burn, close to the present-day site of Bonaly Tower, until its destruction after 1811. There is no evidence to indicate when Bonaly was first settled, but the area has a long history of human occupation and the remains of an Iron Age hillfort may be seen at Clubbiedean, 2 km to the south-west. In the 12th century, Norman barons began to establish feudal estates; the lands of Bonaly formed part of the Barony of Redhall which included Redhall itself, Comiston, Dreghorn, Pilmuir and Colinton. The earliest mention of Bonaly may be from 1280, when it appears in an account of legal proceedings concerning straying livestock. In 1400, the Barony – and the ownership of Bonaly – was granted to Sir William Cunningham of Kilmaurs, by Robert III; some time after 1538, ownership passed to James Foulis. The Foulis family were supporters of the Royalist cause during the Civil War.
Their fortunes suffered badly after Cromwell's victorious campaign in Scotland and they were forced to sell off much of their lands. In the aftermath of Cromwell's campaign, English troops were billeted at Bonaly; the village of Bonaly is to have been home to a modest population of tenant farmers, living in cot-houses, raising livestock and practising the open field system of rig and furrow agriculture. They may have supplemented their income with weaving, it is difficult to estimate the size of the settlement at this time but the area under cultivation was extensive. Traces of rig and furrow cultivation strips can be seen in the hills high above Bonaly, on land that has now reverted to rough-grazing. By the 17th century, Bonaly appears to have been thriving and is mentioned in the Kirk Session records. In addition to the dwellings of the tenant farmers, there was a substantial farmhouse, several waulk mills, a skinnery, a distillery, a magnesia factory and a flax mill; these industries stood on the banks of the Bonaly Burn, used as a power-source, a supply of water and for carrying away waste.
Prior to the damming of its tributaries, the Lady Burn and the Dean Burn, Bonaly Burn would have provided a more powerful flow of water for milling. The community never had its own kirk, parishioners travelled to the kirk in Colinton to attend services. After several changes of ownership in the 17th century, Bonaly was bought in 1700 by Sir John Foulis of Woodhall. Sir John's Account Book contains frequent mentions of Bonaly, of the business he did there and of the rents he received from his tenants in the village; the 17th and 18th centuries were a time of radical change in the Scottish agricultural landscape, Bonaly included. The process of enclosure resulted in the disappearance of the small strips of land cultivated by tenant farmers as these were re-arranged into larger and more productive fields, surrounded by newly planted hedgerows. Bonaly Road – linking the village of Bonaly with Woodhall Road and Colinton – is to have been formed on its current line during this period and the hedgerows along the road may be the remnants of those planted at this time.
Sir John Foulis was keen to improve his lands and, as well as enclosing existing farmland, brought areas of moorland under cultivation. Whilst the new farming methods were more productive, they required less labour and the village of Bonaly is to have declined as farmers left to seek other employment. In the 18th century, the northern portion of Bonaly was acquired by James Gillespie, a Colinton merchant, mill-owner and philanthropist. In his will, Gillespie left a legacy to fund the establishment of a charitable school, known as Gillespie's Hospital; the Bonaly Farm premises were part of the legacy bequeathed to this school. A southern portion, including the village of Bonaly, was leased by Lord Cockburn, he developed the 17th century farmhouse into a country house and, in doing so, ordered the destruction of the village. In his own words he:...began by an annual lease of a few square yards and a scarcely habitable farm-house but, realizing the profanations of Auburn, I have destroyed a village, erected a tower, reached the dignity of a twenty-acred laird.
The buildings in the village were demolished and the inhabitants evicted. Bricked-up windows and a doorway can be seen close to the entrance of Bonaly Outdoor Centre where t
Alnwickhill
Alnwickhill is a suburb of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is on the southern edge of the city four miles from the city centre, it neighbours the areas of Kaimes. The area is now residential, but was the site of Backside Lee Farm until the 1970s when the land was sold to Crudens for development
Edinburgh West (UK Parliament constituency)
Edinburgh West is a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, first used at the 1885 general election. Before the 2005 general election, the boundaries were the same as the Scottish Parliament constituency with the same name, created in 1999. See Edinburgh West; this commuter belt seat, distinctively in the city, was safely Unionist/Conservative for over 65 years, from the 1931 general election until the 1997 general election, after which the seat was held by the Liberal Democrats until the 2015 general election. The MP between the 2015 and 2017 general elections was Michelle Thomson, elected for the SNP in May 2015. In September 2015, she sat as an Independent. At the 2017 general election, Christine Jardine of the Liberal Democrats gained the seat with a majority of 2,988 votes. Thomson chose to neither seek re-election for the SNP, or as an Independent candidate and stood down; the seat has been relative to others a marginal seat since 2005, as the winner's majority has not exceeded 8.2% of the vote since the 30% majority won in that year.
The seat has changed hands twice electorally since that year and once through resigning the party whip. The seat was created when the Edinburgh constituency was abolished, in 1885, replaced by four seats: Edinburgh East, Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh South and Edinburgh West; the Central constituency was abolished in 2005. The East constituency was abolished in 1997, but a new Edinburgh East was created in 2005; the South and West constituencies have been in continuous use since 1885. The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 provided that the seat was to consist of the Municipal Wards of St. Andrew, St. Stephen, St. Bernard, St. Luke. In 1918 the seat consisted of the Dalry, Haymarket and St. Bernard's Municipal Wards of Edinburgh. Before the 2005 general election, the seat was one of six covering the City of Edinburgh council area. Five were within the city council area. One, Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, straddled the boundary with the East Lothian council area to take in Musselburgh. Constituency boundaries were revised for the 2005 election: Edinburgh West was enlarged, to include an area within Edinburgh Central, became one of five seats covering the city area.
The seat now covers a north western portion of the city area. It is suburban, but takes in rural areas within the city area, to the west of central Edinburgh. In terms of wards used in elections to the City of Edinburgh Council, 1999 to 2007, the seat comprises:- Cramond and Kirkliston, Davidson's Mains, East Craigs, Gyle and Drylaw, North East Corstorphine, South East Corstorphine and Stenhouse; these wards were replaced with new wards in 2007, as a result of the Local Governance Act 2004, none of the new wards were wholly within the constituency. Almond and Constorphine/Murrayfield are entirely within it except for a small corner of each one; the constituency includes a majority of Drum Brae/Gyle, a minority of Pentland Hills and small sections of Forth, City Centre and Sighthill/Gorgie. Caused by Buchanan's resignation to seek re-election as a Liberal candidate. Politics of Edinburgh References Notes
