ALBA AOSMHOR

1. ALBA AOSMHOR O Scotia! my dear, my native soil!For whom my warmest wish to heaven is sent;Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toilBe blest with health, and peace, and sweet content. Robert Burns

2. DUNFERMLINE 25 kilometres north of Edinburgh, Dunfermline, the ancient capital of Scotland, boasts a famous ancient abbey and a lovely park. It lies on the northern side of the Firth of Forth, at the southern gateway to the Scottish Highlands.

3. EDINBURGH Built on extinct volcanoes and enveloped by rolling hills, lakes and forests, Edinburgh invites exploration. The city's layout is linear, down which the Royal Mile descends to the palace of Holyroodhouse. North of this lies a shallow valley holding the Princes Street Gardens, with Waverley Station, the city's railroad station. Above the gardens is Edinburgh's main street, Princes Street, from which to view the castle and Old Edinburgh.

4. WILLIAM WALLACE For the Scots, William Wallace was an exemplar of unbending commitment to Scotland’s independence who died a martyr to the cause: For so long as one hundred men remain alive, we shall never under any conditions submit to the domination of the English. It is not for glory or riches or honours that we fight, but only for liberty, which no good man will consent to lose but with his life. The Declaration of Arbroath, 1320

5. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS Mary Queen of Scots was one of the most fascinating and controversial monarchs of 16th century Europe. Her physical beauty and kind heart were acknowledged by her enemies. Yet she lacked the political skills to rule in Scotland. She fled to England in 1568, hoping for the help of her cousin, Elizabeth I. Her presence was dangerous for the English queen. She was executed in 1587, only forty-four years old.

6. One of the captains of industry of 19th century America, Andrew Carnegie helped build the formidable American steel industry, a process that turned a poor young man into one of the richest entrepreneurs of his age. Later in his life, Carnegie sold his steel business and systematically gave his collected fortune away to cultural, educational and scientific institutions for "the improvement of mankind."

7. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Bell’s first prototype consisted of a thin sheet of metal held in front of an electromagnet. Electric currents were transmitted to a telephone in another room along a wire. His assistant Watson heard Bell shouting, ''Mr Watson, come here I want you''. The first conversation took place between London and Europe in 1891.

8. BAGPIPES The Highland Bagpipes are blown by mouth. The modern bags are made sometimes from leather, rubber. The pipes are now made of hardwood. The melody is played on one mouthpiece pipe (the chanter) which has finger holes, the other pipes (up to six) are called the Drones. There are two types of music: the march, strathspey and reel variety, which were composed for dancing or for armies; the other the ceol mor or great pibroch (The salute, The Gathering and The Lament) which are the symphony music of the pipes.

9. HAGGIS The haggis is a traditional Scottish dish, memorialised as the national dish by Robert Burns’ poem Address to a Haggis in 1787. It contains sheep's heart, liver and lungs, minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt, mixed with stock, and simmered in the animal's stomach for three hours. Haggis is traditionally served with "neeps and tatties" (Scots: swede, yellow turnip and potatoes, boiled and mashed separately) and a "dram" (i.e. a glass of Scotch whisky), especially as the main course of a Burns supper.

10. THE SCOTS LANGUAGE Scots (Scoats leid/Lallans) is a Germanic language closely related to English and spoken by about 1.5 million people in Scotland. Scots is descended from the language of the Angles who settled in northern Britain, in an area known as Northumbria and southern Scotland, in the 5th century AD.