1/ Next week (26th March ) is the first ever Geomob Edinburgh, which is reason enough for us to turn this week's #geoweirdness focus to Scotland
Details of @geomob #geomobEDI
https://thegeomob.com/post/mar-26th-2024-geomobedi-details
2/ So first up Scotland 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 , 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.
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" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Lothian_question
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%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Scottish_independence_referendum
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"
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
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 .
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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debatable_Lands
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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Harris
The Island is part of the Outer Hebrides, the area with the highest concentration of Scottish Gaelic speakers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic
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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall
Ireland does not recognise the
UK's territorial claim to Rockall.
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
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Scotia
New Caledonia (Caledonia being the Latin name for the Highlands) is a French
island territory in the Pacific near Vanuatu
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Caledonia
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
.
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.
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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Polish_Map_of_Scotland
And yes, of course the Great Polish Map of Scotland is itself well mapped in #OpenStreetMap
https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=55.71199&mlon=-3.21642#map=19/55.71199/-3.21642
13/ 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.
https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads
If you like Scotland (or dislike England) you may enjoy our thread about Ireland
https://en.osm.town/@opencage/111425788791484512
We hope you can make it to Geomob Edinburgh next week, hopefully the first of many to come. #geomobEDI
https://thegeomob.com/post/mar-26th-2024-geomobedi-details
Bonus toot: totally forgot to mention that the Scottish #OpenStreetMap community is also here in the fediverse - give them a follow: @osmalba
@opencage Thanks! We are looking forwared to GeoMob EDI tomorrow!
@opencage I really hope someone has added a Tiny Polish Map of Scotland in the right place on the Great Polish Map of Scotland
@gravitystorm yes, if there is any justice on this earth then there needs to be a Tiny Polish Map of Scotland on the Great Polish Map of Scotland.
@opencage We're one "Great Scottish Map of Poland" away from a discussion on the OpenStreetMap mailinglists on how to map recursion
@opencage You gave me a damn idea for my garden !
@opencage
It looks to me that the Great Polish Map of Scotland is not oriented in congruence with geographical Scotland. Why is this? It’s disappointing that you can’t zoom out and recover the same view.
I suppose if the Great Polish Map of Scotland includes itself, you can zoom in and see Scotland spiraling into the microverse
@opencage The name "Dunedin" in New Zealand is also from Edinburgh, which is "Dùn Èideann" in Gaelic. https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/1037917163#map=7/-46.138/173.018
@opencage There were no explorers there but a genocide against acadians See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_the_Acadians
@opencage Leòdhas and Na Hearadh are two islands because there's a high mountain range between them, so it used to be easier to get from one to the other by boat.
And a bit of naming weirdness: The areas with the highest number of Gaelic speakers these days have more Norse than Gaelic place names, due to Viking history.
@opencage My favorite place name is Eas Fors Waterfall:
So, the Vikings came along and found this waterfall, which they called "Fors", which means "waterfall" in Norse.
Eventually, they merged with the local population and became Gaelic speakers, so we have this waterfall there called "Fors", so that's "Eas Fors" in Gaelic.
Then OS comes along and maps a waterfall called "Eas Fors", so now we have "Eas Fors Waterfall", which means "waterfall waterfall waterfall"
https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/8270732792#map=17/56.50306/-6.15211
@opencage And of ourse Gleann Dail (Glendale), "Valley Valley" https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/3417993745
@gunchleoc @opencage wait, is that why there's loads of waterfalls in the lake district called "force"? Evolved from "fors"?
@gunchleoc @opencage It's like growing up with all these romantic-sounding Gaelic names for Scottish mountains, giving a sense of mystery and pondering what history is behind how they originally got these names.
Then finding out the are just called "Red Hill", "Brown Hill", "Big Hill", "Big Red Hill" and so on...
@gravitystorm @opencage Yep. Also, "bod" (penis) got censored during Victorian times, while "cìoch" (female breast) still seems usually acceptable.
The most famous "bod" landscape feature is the "Old Man" of Storr
@gunchleoc @opencage I'd gotten confused about this two-names-one-island concept when I was working through Duolingo's Gaelic course. It's good to know the historical reason behind it
@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/
there is still time!
@opencage As part of the UK team which, be it said, they call 'Team GB' in spite of it including sportspeople from Northern Ireland.
@opencage nitpick: that maps shows the UK *and Ireland* boxed
@Gaelan and the Isle of Man !
@opencage Netherlands has entered the chat.
@opencage Yes, exactly. I was thinking of the youtube short video that covers all those curiosities of the Netherlands. Thanks!