Highlands und Lowlands...

Scotland (Alba in Gaelic) is a nation in northwest Europe and a constituent country of the United Kingdom. The country takes up the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shares a land border to the south with England and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the south-west. The Kingdom of Scotland was an independent state until 1 May 1707, when the Act of Union resulted in an incorporating union with the Kingdom of England to create the Kingdom of Great Britain.
The word Scot- was borrowed from Latin and its use could date from at least the first half of the 10th century, when it first appeared in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as a reference to the Land of the Gaels, analogous to the Latin Scotia. Scottish kings adopted the title Basileus/Rex Scottorum High King/King of the Gaels, basileus meaning sovereign in Greek, and rex meaning king in Latin) and Rex Scotiae (King of Gael-Land) some time in the 11th century, likely influenced by the style Imperator Scottorum known to have been employed by Brian Bóruma in Ireland in 1005. In modern times the word Scot is applied equally to all inhabitants regardless of their ancestral ethnicity, since the nation has had a civic rather than a monoculturally ethnic orientation for most of the last millennium.
Changable climate

The climate of Scotland is temperate, and tends to be very changeable. It is warmed by the Gulf Stream from the Atlantic, and as such is much warmer than areas on similar latitudes, for example Oslo, Norway. However, temperatures are generally lower than in the rest of the UK, with the coldest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C (-16.96°F) recorded at Braemar in the Grampian Mountains, on February 11, 1895 and January 10, 1982 and also at Altnaharra, Highland, on December 30, 1995. Winter maximums average 6°C (42.8°F) in the lowlands, with summer maximums averaging 18°C (64.4°F). The highest temperature recorded was 32.9°C (91.22°F) at Greycrook, Scottish Borders on August 9, 2003. In general, the west of Scotland is usually warmer than the east, due to the influence of the Atlantic currents, and the colder surface temperatures of the North Sea. Tiree, in the Western Isles, had 300 days of sunshine in 1975. Rainfall varies widely across Scotland. The western highlands of Scotland are the wettest place, with annual rainfall exceeding 120 inches (3,000 mm). In comparison, much of Scotland receives less than 31 inches (800 mm) annually, and eastern and southern parts of the country receive no more rainfall than the driest parts of England. Snowfall is not common in the lowlands, but becomes more common with altitude.

The Scottish music scene is a significant aspect of Scottish culture, with both traditional and modern influences. The most famous type of Scottish music is the bagpipes, a wind instrument consisting of one or more musical pipes which are fed continuously by a reservoir of air in a bag. The fiddle and accordion are also traditional Scottish instruments, heavily featured in Scottish country dance bands. Famous traditional musicians from recent times include Andy Stewart, the Corries and the contemporary Dougie MacLean. Modern Scottish pop music has produced many international bands including the Bay City Rollers, Primal Scream, Simple Minds, The Proclaimers, Deacon Blue, Texas, Franz Ferdinand, Belle and Sebastian,and Travis, as well as individual artists such as Gerry Rafferty and Lloyd Cole, and world-famous Gaelic groups such as Runrig and Capercaillie. These have been joined by Gaelic punk bands such as Oi Polloi who give an ancient culture a new voice.