Scotland, Fact and Fiction

Presentation by Ian Mackay, facilitated by Margo Anderson.

Ian Mackay joined us to tell us about Scotland. There was so much I didn’t know.

Scotland has 150 distilleries that produce Whisky (no E, and the Scottish way of spelling it is Uisge Beatha)) with 40,000 jobs – and the distilleries produce 1.35 BILLION bottles a year – mostly for export – $12Billion in export sales.

Most popular food – Deep Fried Mars bars and Porridge.

I had previously asked Ian what Haggis was, and to please include it. I’m vegetarian, but please go watch the seminar recording if you want to find out. Apparently, it’s very tasty, but you’ll need to watch your cholesterol intake for a while after.

Ian’s Touristy Tips:

  • Avoid Summer – apparently, it’s way too populated then. The best months to travel are May, June and September.
  • If you’re driving in the Highlands (the least populated area – more on that below), BE Aware: manual transmission is the main rental option. Google driving times are VERY unreliable. There are very few dual carriageways in the Highlands and are mainly single lane with passing areas about every kilometre or mile.
  • DON’T Bring Scottish Notes home, unless you’re collecting currency. Scottish notes are NOT legal tender outside of Scotland and England. The Bank of Scotland was the first bank in Europe to successfully print it’s own bank notes.

Then Ian talked about the rivalry about which is better: Edinburgh or Glasgow – Hmmm… watch the video to find out his thoughts on that…!

Clans were developed to protect the people. The Toughest Man in the neighbourhood became the clan leader. An organisational structure was created, but it was NOT family, although many families lived within the area, the organisation protected them.

There are many types of bagpipes, however the most famous one is the Great Highland Bagpipe. Ian had a picture of a gentleman in full regalia with a huge bagpipe. The full regalia included a the full plaid and a kilt. Ian went on to explain that the kilt was really just 12 metres of simple fabric, generally not well coloured, based on the picture he shared with us. King George IV 1822, who wasn’t very popular at the time, hired Sir Walter Scott to do some PR work for him. He regionalised the plaids, and made them brighter. Makes them about 200 years old (and here I thought they had been
around WAY longer that that!)

Then we heard about Sport: Golf… yup, invented in Scotland; Rugby is popular BUT… SOCCER IS HUGE – over 200,000 Scots travelled to Germany to get 20,000 tickets (I hope they had good beer for the ones that didn’t get in).

Scotland’s National Anthem is NOT God save the King, its Flower of
Scotland. I’m listening to it as I write this, with bagpipes, it’s really lovely.

Ian ended with this from Voltaire: We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation. There are so many famous Scottish authors and inventors. Ian listed some.

P.S. (I love knitting, and thought one of my favourite knitting designers, Alice Starmore, who lives in the Shetland Islands, was/is Scottish – is really from a Norse background.)

For those who missed the seminar here is a VIDEO.

Here is a copy of Ian’s SLIDES.

Chris Colavizza, Saturday Seminars

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