Favourite Scottish Things

[Pancho]

I've been never been to Scotland for more than 12 hours at a time so can't claim to know the place intimately. But I do like shortbread as sold at the airport there. Although I've never fathomed what gives Scotland any claim over it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortbread

Well, you live and learn, don't you?

But...

Walkers Shortbread Ltd is Scotland's largest food exporter

Really?

[ian]

It's not those fucking bagpipes, that's for sure. That was the diabolical screech that stabbed my hangover every Saturday morning for three entire years until I invested in a .50 calibre sniper rifle. Even after that the sound keeps coming out of them, like I'd shot a flatulent cow. Nor whisky, which everyone knows is made out of the hot sweats of a sobering Glaswegian. A rare commodity for sure.

There was a girl named Melanie. I am naming her as my favourite Scottish thing. Gingernuts were always better than shortbread.

[Bledlow]

Sensational Alex Harvey Band.
Incomprehensible and menacing, combining elements of Supertramp and Ian Dury in  theatrical rock, before both broke through.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=818twdKlWp4

What? There's still something called the SAHB! I saw it in the 1970s, when there actually was a sensational Alex Harvey.

Well, I suppose if there's a Tchaikovsky orchestra . . .

[Biff]

William McGonagall.

[barakta]

Tablet.

I have some sitting on my desk for my mum, I'm increasingly tempted to nibble it myself...

[TheLurker]

Half my family.  The other half's English. I like them too.

ETA. Both sides are endlessly "entertaining" in all sorts of ways that only families can be.

[barakta]

Yes, I meant to copy Basil's answer "My mum" cos my mum is Scottish. Even many of my English family have remained in Scotland. 

[madcow]

Edinburgh Tattoo,
The Proclaimers
6 Nations at Murrayfield
Gregory's Girl
Dr Finlay's Casebook-BBC version late 60's
Absolutely-one of the best comedy programmes ever.
Naked Radio/Video
Rab C Nesbit
Still Game
Ceilidhs


This is arts and entertainment otherwise I could be here all night.

[Rhys W]

The 45%.

[benborp]

Dawn, ospreys and then a fondness for drumlins.

[Karla]

How has nobody yet mentioned Graeme Obree?

[CrinklyLion]

Riding up hills in the sunshine on Arran.  Riding down hills in the sunshine on Arran.

Playing on the tiny low tide-only beach at Little Ferry, near Golspie.  It was 35 years ago.

Calmac, purveyors of fine journeys of expectation and anticipation and decent fry ups.

All the bridges ever photographed north of the border and then posted on the bridges thread.  One day I'll visit a few more of 'em.

[Graeme]

snip

There was a girl named Melanie. I am naming her as my favourite Scottish thing. Gingernuts were always better than shortbread.

[nicknack]

Robin Hall and Jimmie MacGregor

[Steph]

Dick Gaughan

[ian]

snip

There was a girl named Melanie. I am naming her as my favourite Scottish thing. Gingernuts were always better than shortbread.

She was definitely a girl. I always check. Especially in Scotland.

[Wowbagger]

The month of May.



It is no coincidence that we try to get to Scotland in May.

[nicknack]

It is no coincidence that we try to get to Scotland in May.

Escaping from the sunshine in Southend?

[numbnuts]

My Kilt  Anderson Tartan

[Wowbagger]

It is no coincidence that we try to get to Scotland in May.

Escaping from the sunshine in Southend?

Not as sunny as NW Scotland, according to that map!

[Pingu]

I've been never been to Scotland for more than 12 hours at a time so can't claim to know the place intimately. But I do like shortbread as sold at the airport there. Although I've never fathomed what gives Scotland any claim over it.

There is more than one airport in Scotland.

[RJ]

It is no coincidence that we try to get to Scotland in May.

Escaping from the sunshine in Southend?

Not as sunny as NW Scotland, according to that map!

Err, no.  Wow, old chap, I think you're reading the scale the wrong way round.

[Wowbagger]

It is no coincidence that we try to get to Scotland in May.

Escaping from the sunshine in Southend?

Not as sunny as NW Scotland, according to that map!

Err, no.  Wow, old chap, I think you're reading the scale the wrong way round.

Very Much Yes.

Sunshine hours for May for much of Western Scotland, taken as an average for the years 1981-2010, was in excess of 210 hours for the month. Southend falls into the 190-210 bracket.

[Exit Stage Left]

The number of hours of bright sunshine is controlled by the length of day and by cloudiness. In general, December is the dullest month and May or June the sunniest.

Sunshine duration decreases with increasing altitude, increasing latitude and distance from the coast. Local topography also exerts a strong influence and in the winter deep glens and north-facing slopes can be in shade for long periods.

In Northern Scotland the sunniest places are close to the Moray Firth and in the southern Outer Hebrides, where the annual average approaches 1300 hours. Many other coasts average about 1200 hours but sunshine averages are lower inland, and are lowest over the mountains and Shetland (less than 1100 hours). The sunniest places on mainland UK are along the south coast of England, with over 1750 hours each year on average, whilst the Channel Islands enjoy over 1900 hours.

The average monthly sunshine totals for Lerwick and Inverness are shown, together with the highest and lowest totals recorded in the stated periods. The sunniest month of the year is normally May, rather than June, because of the tendency for settled anticyclonic weather in late spring. The Western Isles in particular can experience sunny conditions in May and record high values have been achieved, such as the 300 hours at Prabost (Skye) in May 1975.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/ns/print.html

[T42]

Spring & summer days are much longer up north than down south, so the same number of sunny days automatically means that Inverness etc get more hours of sunshine than Clapham.  But it's sunshine that has to go through so much air that it arrives knackered.

OTOH when it does rain the wind is so strong that most of it travels horizontally and misses the rain-gauges. Rainfall is practically nil.