 1/ Next week (26th March ๐๏ธ) is the first ever Geomob Edinburgh, which is reason enough for us to turn this week's #geoweirdness focus to Scotland ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ ๐๐งต๐ Details of @geomob #geomobEDI 14 comments
4/ You may not have recognised the map of Scotland ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ in the toot that started this thread. Traditionally many/most maps of Scotland or the entire UK ๐ฌ๐ง have Shetland - the northernmost islands - in a box to save space. In 2018 a law was introduced to ban "putting Shetland in a box", in an effort to combat "misconceptions about our islands" 5/ The Shetland boxing controversy lead to delightful "revenge maps" like this where the UK ๐ฌ๐ง is boxed. Perhaps fitting in that Shetland only joined Scotland ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ in the 15th century. Before that the Northern Isles (Shetland and Orkney) were part of the Kingdom of Norway ๐ณ๐ด 6/ Scotland ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ fields its own national teams in most sports, but in the Olympics Scottish athletes compete as part of the UK ๐ฌ๐ง team. The national football team will open Euro 2024 versus hosts Germany ๐ฉ๐ช on June 14th. Scotland has its own football leagues, which also include Berwick Rangers FC, a team based in Berwick-upon-Tweed which is just south of the border in England ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ. 7/ Speaking of the border, many people mistakenly believe famous Hadrian's Wall to be the border between Scotland ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ and England ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ. In fact it lies entirely in England, and was built by the Romans, well before Scotland and England existed The actual border has moved many times over the centuries. 8/ Heading north we have another bit of Scottish #geoweirdness - the island Lewis and Harris (Leรฒdhas agus na Hearadh in Scottish Gaelic), which, despite the dual name is a single island. ๐ค The Island is part of the Outer Hebrides, the area with the highest concentration of Scottish Gaelic speakers 9/ Of course no mention of ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ Scottish #geoweirdness would be complete without also mentioning that remote, uninhabited Rockall is - if you accept the British view - technically part of Scotland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall Ireland ๐ฎ๐ช does not recognise the ๐ฌ๐ง UK's territorial claim to Rockall. 11/ In the 1690s, before unification with England ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ, there was a short-lived effort to establish a ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ Scottish colony - with the main settlement being named New Edinburgh - in what is today Panama ๐ต๐ฆ. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darien_scheme The settlement failed and 80% of the settlers died in the first year. The resulting financial weakness of the backers was one of the reasons for unification with England.  @opencage Sorry to report that Berwick's slightly anomalous position did not lead it to at war with Russia from 1854-1914, see https://www.berwickfriends.org.uk/history/berwicks-war-with-russia/ |
Gregory's Server
2/ So first up Scotland ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ is #geoweird in that it's not really clear what exactly it is. Is it a country? A region? A country within a country?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_of_the_United_Kingdom
It's part of the UK ๐ฌ๐ง, but has its own legal system:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_law
Some day we'll do a UK #geoweirdness thread, but be warned it will very, very long. No country (countries?) is/are as odd.