Story of Scotland | Learn English through Story | Audiobooks full length for graded readers
There is nowhere like Scotland. Scotland is a country in a country. It is part of Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales), and of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland).
Scotland is in the far north-west of Europe, between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. It is often cold and grey, and it rains a lot in some parts of the country.
But the people of Scotland love their country, and many visitors to Scotland love it too. They love the beautiful hills and mountains of the north, the sea and the 800 islands.
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there is nowhere like Scotland Scotland is a country in a country it is part of Great Britain England Scotland and Wales and of the United Kingdom England Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland Scotland is in the far Northwest of Europe between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea it is often cold and gray and it rains a lot in some parts of the country but the people of Scotland love their country and many visitors to Scotland love it too they love the beautiful hills and mountains of the north the Sea and the 800 islands and the six cities Edinburgh Glasgow Aberdine dunde Ines and Sterling the country is special and Scottish people are special too often warm and friendly there are about 5 million people in Scotland most Scots live in the south in or near the big cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow most of the north of the country is very very empty not many people live there a Scottish person is also called a Scott but you cannot talk about a scotch person Scotch means whiskey a drink made in Scotland Scottish people are British because Scotland is part of Great Britain but you must not call Scottish people English the Scots and the English are different these days everyone in Scotland speaks English but at one time people in the north and west of Scotland did not speak English they had a different language a beautiful language called Gaelic about 60,000 people 1% of the people in Scotland speak Gaelic now but many more want gelic in their lives because it is part of the story of Scotland Scotland is not a very hot country in the summer the days are long and it can be warm but in the winter the days can be just 7 hours long and it often rains for many years Scotland was a poor country but now things are better for most people there is oil and gas in the sea between Scotland and Norway Edinburgh is an important place for money and there are big Banks there like the Royal Bank of Scotland people in many countries drink Scotch whiskey and the Whiskey Business makes a lot of money for Scotland tourists visit this beautiful country and that brings money to Scotland too many people love living and working there and more than 20 million visitors go to Scotland each year Scotland is the oldest country in the world why because the hills of the Northwest and the hean islands are more than 2 700 million years old you can walk on some of the oldest rocks in the world there people first lived there 9,000 years ago at Scarab BR on the orne islands in the far north of Scotland you can see the houses of early people from about 5,000 years ago the houses at nap of how also on the orcy are the oldest in Europe the Romans went to Scotland but they did not stay there for long between ad. 122 and 128 they built Hadrian’s Wall it was 117 Colm long and went from sea to Sea across the most northern part of England the Romans stayed in England for nearly 300 years until about a. 400 and then they left and went back to Rome today you can visit Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England and walk along parts of it who were the first Scots the people north of Hadrian’s Wall were called Petes by the Romans we can still see some of their story in their pictures in stone but there were also Scotty from Ireland the name Scotland comes from the Scotti Vikings from Norway and some English people from the South these different peoples came under one king in the 800s the first king of all the Scots many people say was Kenneth mcalpin he was King from 843 to 858 but the most famous Scottish king of this early time is McBeth 1040 to 1057 he is famous because Shakespeare wrote about him for Shakespeare MC Beth was a very bad man but he was not worse than many other kings of those early days there were many battles between England and Scotland one important Scott was William Wallace about 1270 to 1305 you can learn about him in the film braveart then in 134 14 the Scottish King Robert the Bruce took his men to the Battle of banck bur after the battle 10,000 Englishmen were dead and Robert became one of the most important kings in the story of Scotland soon after Scotland was free and stayed free for nearly 300 years in 15 42 a little girl called Mary became Queen of Scotland she was 6 days old and only the second woman to be queen of this country Mary Queen of Scots became a tall and beautiful woman but some Scots did not want her to be Queen Mary went to England and asked Elizabeth the English Queen for help but she did not get it she never returned to Scotland and died in England after 19 years Mary’s son James Stewart became King of Scotland and then King James I of England too in 1707 the two countries became Great Britain in the 1700s Scotland was more like two countries than one there were rich cities in the South but there were poor country people in the highlands the Hill Country in the center and the north of Scotland at that time Edinburgh was one of the most important cities in Europe and many famous things ERS lived there then in the 1800s Glasgow became rich people built Big Ships there and later trains so the south of Scotland had busy cities with beautiful buildings lots of work and money in the highlands things were very different after 1714 Great Britain had German kings from Hanover in North Germany many Scots in the highlands wanted a Scottish King someone from the Stewart family like Mary and James not a German King in London they wanted Charles Stewart Bonnie Prince Charlie the grandson of the last Stuart King James II of England and the seventh of Scotland Charles Stewart left France and came to Scotland he wanted to be King of Scotland and England too but Charles and his men lost the battle of cullan near Ines in 1746 cullan was the last big battle in Great Britain after after the battle the British soldiers looked for Charles but he went into the hills the people of the Highlands and the islands helped him to go back to France but life became difficult for them after that the British soldiers stayed in the highlands and took away houses and land from the friends of Charles Stewart after this many poor families left the highlands and went to the cities in the south of Scotland or to other countries the USA Canada Australia and New Zealand some went because they wanted to begin a new life but others went because the rich owners of the land in Scotland wanted to put animals there between 1840 and 1880 40,000 people left just one Island the island of Sky life became more difficult in the 1900s but oil and gas in the North Sea began to bring money to Scotland again in the 1970s let’s look now at at some of the famous places in the Scotland of today many people begin a visit to Scotland in Edinburgh the capital city Edinburgh is an old city with many important and interesting buildings and about 470,000 people live there after London Edinburgh is the Second City for visitors in Britain come to Edinburgh by train from the south and you arrive at Waverly station when you come out of the station Edinburgh Castle is in front of you high up on a hill from the castle you can see all over the city you can see the famous 1:00 gun and at 1:00 from Monday to Saturday you can hear it too it makes a very big noise Edinburgh is built on Hills but you can walk around the city easily from the castle you can go down the Royal mile to Holy Rood house this building 300 years old is the home of Queen Elizabeth the second when she comes to Edinburgh this part of the city is is called the old town then take a walk along Prince’s Street in the new town the new town 1767 to 1840 is more than 15 years old now but still has this name some shops have the famous Scottish tartans each Clan a big old Scottish family is called a clan has its own Tartan and in the windows you can see the different tartans for famous Scottish Clans people with a Scottish family name can buy and wear the family tartan people without a Scottish name can buy and wear a Tartan too Edinburgh has many wonderful things the buildings in the new New Town in Charlotte Square for example are very beautiful there are very good museums the national museum of Scotland is near the Royal Mile and tells you a lot about the Scotland of yesterday and today the National Gallery of Scotland near the castle has beautiful pictures from Scotland and from many other countries too in August thousands of people come to the Edinburgh Festival singing dancing Cinema books pictures theater you can see and do hundreds of different things at the festival and also in August every evening for 3 weeks you can go to the Edinburgh military tattoo at Edinburgh Castle there you can see soldiers and hear music from Scotland and from lots of other countries on the 31st of December everyone wants to be in the city center for the famous street party for hogman that is the Scottish name for New Year’s Eve but there are only 100 ,000 tickets and they go very quickly the Party begins in one year and finishes in the next that is a good time Glasgow is Scotland’s biggest city and the third biggest in the United Kingdom after London and Birmingham about 630,000 people live in the city and about 1.2 2 million in and near it it is not very far from Edinburgh about 50 minutes by train but it is very different the river Clyde runs through the center of glasgo and it has an important part in the story of Glasgow 200 years ago Glasgow was a small town then British ships began began to go all over the world big ships came up and down the river Clyde They carried things from other countries in the 1800s Britain was the richest country ship building became very important and Glasgow became a city of ship Builders at one time it was the fourth largest city in Europe after London Paris and Berlin you can see some of the beautiful buildings from that time in George Square today there is not much ship building some parts of Glasgow are very poor and many people have no work but things are changing in Glasgow ask a glaswegian a person from glas GLG go to them Glasgow is the friendliest city in Britain and one of the most exciting cities in Britain too there are lots of things to do at night in Glasgow it is perhaps the best city in Britain after London for shopping too like Edinburgh it is a green City it has 70 parts parks and you can often see the hills from the center of the city it is a city of mums you can see many beautiful pictures in the Glasgow City Museum and art gallery and in the Burl collection and poock House South of the Clyde it is the city of Charles renie Macintosh about a hundred years ago MacIntosh and three friends began a new look in building art Novo much of macintosh’s best work is in Glasgow his Glasgow School of Art is on Renfrew Street after you visit it you can have a coffee at the willow tea rooms also by Macintosh on Sai Hall Street and Glasgow is of course a big football City you can watch Glasgow Celtic at Celtic park or Glasgow Rangers at the iock stadium on Saturdays between August and may Aberdine with 192,000 people is the third biggest city in Scotland it is in the east of the country on the North Sea and it is between two rivers the D and the Dawn fishing and ship building were once important here but now it is famous as the oil capital of the UK boats and PLS leave Aberdine every day for the oil and gas fields of the North Sea it has two universities and many wonderful parks and Gardens the mum Ians Annie Lennox and Evelyn Glenny both come from Aberdine visitors to Aberdine often go to its beautiful Long Beach or go climbing south of the city Aberdine is close to the cold and beautiful mountains called the KMS and there are more than 350 castles in this part of the country one of them is Bal moral the queen’s castle Queen Elizabeth comes here every summer dunde on the river Tay is near the North Sea too like Glasgow and Aberdine it was once important for ship building the ship Discovery was built here and left dunde in 1901 for Antarctica now more than a hundred years later the ship is back in dunde again and you can visit it there dundi is also famous for marmalade the Kyler family began making orange marmalade here in 1797 and it became famous all over the world iness is the only city in the Highland the best bag Pipers in the world come here to play every September it is close to the beautiful lake called Loch Ness Loch is the Gaelic word for Lake a very big animal called the Loch Ness monster or Nessie lives in Loch Ness an old story says this and thousands of tourists go there every year to look for it but Nessie does not come perhaps this is just a story for tourists then there is Sterling to the northeast of Glasgow many visitors go through Sterling when they go to the highlands it has a wonderful castle one of the biggest and most important castles in Scotland the Battle of banck bur in 1314 was near here and here Mary became Queen of Scotland when she was only 6 days old Highlands the highlands in the north and west of Scotland are a special part of the world there are not a lot of people here only eight people per square kilometer but there is is a lot of beautiful country with locks rivers and Hills the highlands have two of the most wonderful train Journeys in the world from Ines to Kyle of Lal and from Fort William to Malle or visitors can go by Road past the beautiful L lond to the mountains at Glen Co do you love to be out of the Cities walking climbing looking for birds and animals or taking photos then the highlands are for you the mountains are not very high Ben Nevis the highest in the UK is 1,344 M but they can be difficult sometimes cold cold weather comes from the north so Walkers and climbers need to be careful in the winter and in the summer too what can you see in the highlands there are not many trees on the Hills but there is beautiful Heather the water in the locks is cold and dark red deer run across the hills and perhaps you can see golden eagles high up in the sky when you leave the road you are soon an empty country there is nothing but the hills and the sky the birds and the Animals Island Scotland has hundreds of islands and life is different there the Island towns are small on some islands like sky and the islands of the Hees many of the people speak gaic on the islands of Lewis and Harris some people do not work drive or watch TV on Sundays in the north the islands of orne and Shetland are nearer to Norway than to London from Obin in the west of Scotland you can go to some of the islands in the inner herdes here you can see sea animals like seals from Maul you can go to see the beautiful caves of Stafa or you can visit Iona St Columba came to the small island of Iona from Ireland in 563 and began to teach people about Christianity Today Iona is is an important Christian Center and half a million people go there every year the bodies of Kenneth mcalpin and other Scottish kings are here on Iona you can also go to Sky perhaps the most famous and the most beautiful of the islands of Scotland and see the dark mountains called the quillin near the sea from olol you can go across to Lewis in the outer hdes there are long white empty beaches here and the 50000 year old stone circle at kalish there are 50 Standing Stones at kalish time goes more slowly in this quiet special place many Scottish people love Sport and in Scotland many people play Golf the rich and the not so rich golf began in this country and the golf capital of Scotland is St Andrews a small University City near Edinburgh there are more than 400 golf courses in Scotland and many of them are very beautiful in the summer when the days are long you can play from 7 in the morning to 10: at Night Football is also very important in 2006 Scotland had the 10th highest number of football clubs of any country in the world Celtic and Rangers are the biggest and the most famous Scottish clubs but others like Aberdine also do well in Scotland and in Europe the Scots play rugby football too and it is an important sport in Scotland in 1990 Scotland beat England Wales Ireland and France at rugby and every year the Scots want to do this again but now Italy plays too so they need to beat five countries not four Scotland’s hills and mountains are good for sports too walking climbing cycling and more and there are lots of exciting Sports on in and under the water in the locks rivers and the Sea you can take a kayak down a fast River for example or out to matter when you do these Sports between May and September in more than a 100 different places in Scotland people meet at a Highland Games a festival of Scottish Sports and music you can see big men tossing the cabber listen to Scottish music on the bag pipes and watch Scottish dancing not all Scots men have Kilts but more and more of them wear one sometimes and lots of people wear kilts to the games when a Scotsman wears a kilt he is saying I like being Scottish a kilt needs about 6 M of tartan when one of the big Clans like Clan Donald McKenzie or Stewart has a big meeting people come from many countries many of them wear kilts in the clan Tartan when they come one clan in the USA Clan Donald has 4,000 families their families went from Scotland to the USA perhaps 150 years ago but they still want to be Scottish Scotland is not a big country and does not have many people but there are many famous and important Scots here are five of them Robert Adam 1728 to 1792 made some of the best buildings in Great Britain in the second half of the 1700s he went to school and University in ed and then to Rome for 5 years to learn about the buildings there then he came back to Britain he worked on the new town in Edinburgh and you can see buildings by him in Charlotte Square there are many beautiful buildings by Adam in England and Scotland people come from all over Europe and America to look at them David Hume 17711 to 1776 was a great thinker and writer people still read and talk about his books today because they are so important he also wrote a very long history of England at that time the most important book of this kind went to the University of Edinburgh when he was 12 years old later he went to France and made friends with famous French thinkers like voler and Russo his most important book Is A Treatise of human nature 1739 to 1740 the Next Great Scott is Robert Burns 17 1859 to 1796 the Scots call him Robbie or rabie Burns he was born into a poor country family the oldest of seven children near a in Southwest Scotland he began writing poems when he was still a boy he wrote about important things about life and love rich people and poor people people and Scotland his words still speak to us today and many Scots love his poems Burns was born on the 25th of January and that night is called Burns Night by the Scots on burns night there are special dinners not just in Scotland but for Scottish people in other countries too they eat haggus a special Scottish food drink whiskey and say poems by Burns and at midnight on the 31st of December in many English speaking countries people sing the words of burns when they sing Old Lang sign the name of the song means something like long long ago J James Watt 1736 to 1819 was born in Greeno near glassgo and did not often go to school when he was a child he stayed at home and his mother was his teacher watt was a quick thinker and he liked to build things with his hands he got work building things for the teachers at the University of Glasgow there he became interested in Steam Engines he began a business with his friend Matthew Bolton and from 1794 to 1824 they made 1,164 steam engines these engines changed Great Britain and the world after what the world was a different place Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 1859 to 1930 was born in Edinburgh went to the University of Edinburgh and became a doctor but he did not make much money as a doctor so he began to write stories about a detective called Sherlock Holmes soon Sherlock Holmes was famous and Conan Doyle became rich and famous too he wrote many stories about Holmes and his friend Dr Watson and also wrote stories about a man called Professor Challenger in the earliest days Scottish people took their food from the sea the rivers and the land from the sea and the rivers came fish and from the land they got fruit vegetables and meat and they got oats from the land too they made their bread from oats and they made porridge from oats and water for a hot breakfast people still eat all of these things in Scotland today but they eat new things too from 1900 on many people began to come to Scotland from countries like Italy and India and they brought different food with them there is a lot of good food in Scotland it is famous for its fish like salmon and hadock and for other food from the sea fish farming is very important for Scotland it gives work to about 6,000 people and brings lots of money into the country then there is Scottish beef the best beef in the world the Scot say and haggus made from meat oats and other things Scottish raspberries are also very good the Scots like to make a dish called crishan with raspberries oats and whiskey people with lots of money can go to a hotel like Glen Eagles near Perth perhaps the most famous hotel in Scotland today it has 232 bedrooms three golf courses and some of the best Scottish food but good food is not a part of life for everybody in Scotland and some poorer Scots do not eat very well British men usually live to 77 years old but in some parts of Glasgow they only live to 54 better food is very important for Scottish people today and tomorrow drink the word whiskey comes from the Gaelic uis Bea the Water of Life whiskey also called Scotch is made in a Distillery there are more than 100 distilleries in Scotland some near Edinburgh and Glasgow in the South one on the island of sky and three on the ores in the north there are nine on the small island of isay about half of the distilleries are near the river spay east of iness many visitors like to visit the distilleries there and try the different whiskies visitors to Edinburgh can visit the Scotch whiskey Heritage Center near the castle whiskey is good but another drink in Scotland is better water the whiskey is good because the water from the hills is good on a hot day a drink of Scottish Hill water can be the best drink in the world Scotland is a small country only 5 million people live there but for Millions more across the world Scotland is very important why is this in the 1800s many people left Scotland and went to other countries people in the highlands left their homes and Villages because they were very poor and hungry sometimes the rich people there wanted them to leave many others from the south of Scotland left because they wanted a better life in a new country between the 1820s and 19 14 more than 2 million people went from Scotland across the seas to the United States Canada Australia and New Zealand more went in the 1920s today there are 6 million Scottish Americans in the USA every year many people walk through New York on the 6th of April Tartan day a lot of Scottish Americans go back to Scotland as tourists they want to find their past and to understand it so Scotland is important in the story of other countries too two Great Scots in the USA are Alexander Graham Bell 1847 to 1922 and Andrew Carnegie a 1837 to 1919 Bell made the first telephone he began the Bell Telephone Company in 1877 and by 1885 more than 150,000 people in the USA had telephones in 1915 he made the first telephone call across the United States from New York to San Francisco after he died in Canada at the age of 75 all the telephones in North America were quiet for one minute to remember him Andrew Carnegie’s family left Scotland when he was 11 and went to the USA Carnegie worked hard and by the 1880s he had many businesses and was very rich the richest man in the world when he stopped working he gave his money to other people Carnegie’s money built schools universities and other buildings in the USA the UK Australia New Zealand and Ireland today his money still helps millions of people around the world every year many Scots love to visit other countries and do new things David Livingstone 1813 to 1873 went to Africa to begin schools and to tell Africans about Christianity he was the first European to see the Victoria Falls between zomia and Zimbabwe and the first to go across Africa from the Atlantic in the west to the Indian Ocean in the East Alan Bean 1932 is a Scottish American when he went to the moon in 1969 only the fourth man to walk on the moon he took some Tartan with him Scots like to go to new places who is the most famous Scott in the world today to many people it is the film star sha connory 1930 Shan connory did a lot of different jobs before he began working in television and Cinema then in 1962 he was James Bond in the first first James Bond film Dr No after this he was famous everywhere he made six more James Bond films and made many other films after that to many people his best film is The Untouchables 1987 connory does not make films now and does not live in Scotland but he loves Scotland very much and is not wanted to be part of the United Kingdom the story of Scotland is interesting and sometimes exciting but it is not an easy story some Scots like Shan connory want Scotland to be just Scotland and not part of the United Kingdom Scotland is still a country of rich and poor the past is important but many Scots also want to think about Scotland today and tomorrow the Scots in the USA Australia Canada and New Zealand love the old things the music the dancing the tartans but many of the Scots in Scotland want their country to look to the Future not the past Scotland they said can be like Norway a country with 5 million people and with a lot of money from oil Scotland has money from oil fish farming visits from tourists Banks computers and many other businesses and there is new life here new business new Cinema new music things are changing in Scotland today there is a Scottish parliament in Edinburgh it is in an interesting new building on the Royal mile people from every town and city in Scotland come here to talk about their country some Scots want Scotland to speak for itself in Europe and in the world what is in the future for Scotland nobody knows but it is always going to be a beautiful special place perhaps one day you can walk along the Royal mile climb the hills or travel to the islands and see it for yourself
1 Comment
Very good to know about Scotland thank you