12 Maps That Will Change The Way You Look At Scotland

Let's all move to Peerie Breast.

1. This excellent map showing the main species of animals found in Scotland, and the best places to find them.

finchandrobin.com

It includes 32 species, including humpback whales, sharks, puffins, porpoises, Shetland ponies, and orcas. Not sure Viking longboats count as wildlife, but it's a nice touch. You can buy it here.

2. This map showing how many "Scotlands" could fit inside England.

reddit.com

The 2011 population of England was 53.01 million; the population of Scotland was 5.295 million. But what we lack in size, we more than make up for in vigour.

3. And this rather ghostly map showing population density in Scotland at the time of the 2011 census.

i.imgur.com

You can see the way the population is largely clustered around the north-east coast and the central belt. The largest, darkest area is Glasgow (pop. 598,830), the smaller one to its right is Edinburgh (pop. 495,360), and the small dark patch on the top right is Aberdeen (pop. 196,670).

4. This fabulous map showing all of the weird place names in the Orkney Islands.

i.imgur.com

Orkney got a lot of its unusual place names from Norwegian settlers, who began to arrive in Orkney in the eighth and ninth centuries AD. As a result, almost all of its place names are now Norse in origin (including Peerie Breast).

5. This map showing how Scotland and Scandinavia used to be linked by a landmass called Doggerland in prehistoric times.

imgur.com

Ancient Scots could have walked all the way from Western Isles, up past the Shetland Islands, then sauntered down to Denmark.

6. This very interesting map showing where the majority of non-UK born Scottish residents are originally from.

i.imgur.com

Who knew we had so many Germans in Scotland?

7. And this map, showing the percentage of English-born people living in various parts of Scotland at the time of the 2011 census.

reddit.com

There seem to be relatively high percentages of English people living in the Highlands, although this could be due to the fact the population as a whole is much lower. Unsurprisingly, there are a large number of English people living in the Scottish Borders.

8. This map showing the various Scottish clans in 1899.

reddit.com

Clan Macleod (orange) is strongly associated with the Isle of Lewis. They supported MacDonald Lord of the Isles: semi-independent kings on the west coast. The powerful Clan Mackenzie's (dark pink) lands covered a large proportion of the Highlands.

9. This map, which shows the best places in Scotland to see the Northern Lights.

aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk

It's an interactive map compiled by Aurora Watch UK. You can access it here. Unsurprisingly, the Highlands and Islands have a large proportion of hotspots, but there are quite a few near Glasgow and Edinburgh as well.

10. This 1602 map showing Scotland on its side, with the islands labelled "Ila" (Islay), "Mula" (Mull), "Leuis" (Lewis) and "Eust" (Uist).

i.imgur.com

It looks much better this way round. Can this be our map if we become independent?

11. This fascinating map that shows the "real" border of Scotland.

i.imgur.com

Scotland's maritime boundaries stretch far beyond its land borders, taking in a large swathe of the Atlantic Ocean. The triangular area above Shetland is known as the "Witch's Hat."

12. And this fun map, which shows the auto-complete search terms Scottish people in different areas are googling.

commons.wikimedia.org / Creative Commons / BuzzFeed

Sorry, Dundee.