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DESCRIPTION:
SCOTLAND, the name given in modern times to that portion of Great Britain
which lies north of the English boundary; it also comprises the Outer
and Inner Hebrides and other islands off the west coast, and the Orkney
and Shetland islands off the north coast. With England lying to the
south, it is thus bounded on the N. and W. by the Atlantic Ocean, and
on the E. by the North Sea. It is separated from England by the Soiway
Firth, the Sark, Scotsdyke (an old embankment in 553 N., connecting
the Sark with the Esk), the Esk (for one mile), the Liddel, the Kershope,
the Cheviot Hills, the Tweed and a small area known as the liberties
of Berwick. The mainland lies between 58 40 30 (at Dunnet Head in Caithness)
and 54 38 N. (Mull of Galloway in Wigtownshire), and 1 45 32 (Buchan
Ness in Aberdeenshire) and 6 14 W. (Ardnamurchan Point in Argyllshire).
Including the islands, however, the extreme latitude north is 60 51
30 (Out Stack in the Shetlands) and the extreme longitude west 8 35
30 (St Kilda). The greatest length from Cape Wrath in Sutherland to
the Mull of Galloway is 274 m., and the greatest breadth from Buchan
Ness to Applecross in the shire of Ross and Cromarty 154 m.,but from
Bonar Bridge at the head of Dornoch Firth to the head of Loch Broom
it is only 26 m. wide, and 30 m. from Grangemouth on the Forth to Bowling
on the Clyde. The coast-line is estimated at 2300 m., the arms of the
sea being so numerous and in several cases penetrating so far inland
that few places are beyond 40 m. from salt water. The total area is
19,069,500 acres or 29,796 sq. m., exclusive of inland waters (about
608 sq. m.), the foreshore (about 498 sq. m.) and tidal water (about
608 sq. m.).
The name Scotland for this geographical area of northern Britain (the
Caledonia of the ancients name still poetically used for Scotland) originated
in the 11th century, when (from the tribe of Scots) part of it was called
Scotia (a name previously applied to what is now Ireland); and the name
of Scotland became established in the 12th and 13th centuries. The name
of Britain or North Britain is still firmly associated with Scotland;
thus English letters are generally addressed, e.g. Edinburgh, NB., i.e.
North Britain; and Scottish people have long objected to the conventional
use south of the Tweed of the word English, when it really means (as
they correctly, but sometimes rather pedantically, insist) British.
INSET SHOWS THE SHETLAND AND ORKNEY ISLANDS
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