Email or username:

Password:

Forgot your password?
OpenCage's posts Post Back to profile
Top-level
OpenCage 👉🌍

3/ Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 united in 1707.

The relationship between the "constituent countries" of the UK 🇬🇧 has evolved over time.

Fans of obscure political/geographic crossover references may recall the "West Lothian question" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Lot

in 1999 Scottish Parliament was (re)established. The popular Scottish National Party advocates for independence from the UK, and this culminated in the 2014 independence referendum, with "No" winning 55.3% to 44.7%

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Sco
21 March at 9:22 | Open on en.osm.town
12 comments
OpenCage 👉🌍

4/ You may not have recognised the map of Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 in the toot that started this thread.

Traditionally many/most maps of Scotland or the entire UK 🇬🇧 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"

bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-43574

#geoweirdness
21 March at 9:24 | Open on en.osm.town
OpenCage 👉🌍

5/ The Shetland boxing controversy lead to delightful "revenge maps" like this where the UK 🇬🇧 is boxed.

Perhaps fitting in that Shetland only joined Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 in the 15th century. Before that the Northern Isles (Shetland and Orkney) were part of the Kingdom of Norway 🇳🇴

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern

#geoweirdness
21 March at 9:25 | Open on en.osm.town
DELETED

@opencage such a passive aggressive move. I love it!

21 March at 9:27 | Open on en.osm.town
OpenCage 👉🌍

6/ Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 fields its own national teams in most sports, but in the Olympics Scottish athletes compete as part of the UK 🇬🇧 team.

The national football team will open Euro 2024 versus hosts Germany 🇩🇪 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 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwick_.

#geoweirdness
21 March at 9:29 | Open on en.osm.town
OpenCage 👉🌍

7/ Speaking of the border, many people mistakenly believe famous Hadrian's Wall to be the border between Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿.

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.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debatabl

#geoweirdness
21 March at 9:31 | Open on en.osm.town
OpenCage 👉🌍

8/ Heading north we have another bit of Scottish #geoweirdness - the island Lewis and Harris (Leòdhas agus na Hearadh in Scottish Gaelic), which, despite the dual name is a single island. 🤔
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_an

The Island is part of the Outer Hebrides, the area with the highest concentration of Scottish Gaelic speakers
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish
21 March at 9:33 | Open on en.osm.town
OpenCage 👉🌍

9/ Of course no mention of 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scottish #geoweirdness would be complete without also mentioning that remote, uninhabited Rockall is - if you accept the British view - technically part of Scotland.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall

Ireland 🇮🇪 does not recognise the 🇬🇧 UK's territorial claim to Rockall.
21 March at 9:36 | Open on en.osm.town
OpenCage 👉🌍

10/ Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and the striking Scottish landscapes have inspired many, not least British explorers as they mapped the world. To the annoyance of geocoding systems like ours - Scottish place names are common around the world.

Today Nova Scotia (Latin for "New Scotland") is a province of Canada 🇨🇦
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Sco

New Caledonia 🇳🇨 (Caledonia being the Latin name for the Highlands) is a French 🇫🇷 island territory in the Pacific near Vanuatu 🇻🇺.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Cale

#geoweirdness

10/ Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and the striking Scottish landscapes have inspired many, not least British explorers as they mapped the world. To the annoyance of geocoding systems like ours - Scottish place names are common around the world.

Today Nova Scotia (Latin for "New Scotland") is a province of Canada 🇨🇦
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Sco
21 March at 9:39 | Open on en.osm.town
OpenCage 👉🌍

11/ In the 1690s, before unification with England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, there was a short-lived effort to establish a 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scottish colony - with the main settlement being named New Edinburgh - in what is today Panama 🇵🇦.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darien_s

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.

#geoweirdness
21 March at 9:44 | Open on en.osm.town
OpenCage 👉🌍 replied to OpenCage

12/ Finally we of course need to mention the "Great Polish Map of Scotland", a 50x40 meter concrete terrain relief model of Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿(excluding the Northern Isles) built in the 1970s by 🇵🇱 Polish WWII veterans on the grounds of a hotel.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Po

And yes, of course the Great Polish Map of Scotland is itself well mapped in #OpenStreetMap

openstreetmap.org/?mlat=55.711

#geoweirdness

12/ Finally we of course need to mention the "Great Polish Map of Scotland", a 50x40 meter concrete terrain relief model of Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿(excluding the Northern Isles) built in the 1970s by 🇵🇱 Polish WWII veterans on the grounds of a hotel.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Po
21 March at 9:46 | Open on en.osm.town
OpenCage 👉🌍 replied to OpenCage

11/ That's it for our look at 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland's #geoweirdness

Thanks for reading and boosting. What did we overlook?

We have more threads about specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc linked on our blog.
blog.opencagedata.com/geothrea

If you like Scotland (or dislike 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England) you may enjoy our thread about Ireland 🇮🇪
en.osm.town/@opencage/11142578

We hope you can make it to Geomob Edinburgh next week, hopefully the first of many to come. #geomobEDI
thegeomob.com/post/mar-26th-20

11/ That's it for our look at 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland's #geoweirdness

Thanks for reading and boosting. What did we overlook?

We have more threads about specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc linked on our blog.
blog.opencagedata.com/geothrea

If you like Scotland (or dislike 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England) you may enjoy our thread about Ireland 🇮🇪
en.osm.town/@opencage/11142578
21 March at 9:52 | Open on en.osm.town
SK53

@opencage Sorry to report that Berwick's slightly anomalous position did not lead it to at war with Russia from 1854-1914, see berwickfriends.org.uk/history/

21 March at 9:40 | Open on en.osm.town
Go Up