Violinist Nicola Benedetti, who was born in North Ayrshire, is proud of her Italian-Scottish heritage. HE turns to the sport channels and watches curling, a sport devised in Scotland, and takes in some track and field sports including the shot put and hammer throw, both derived from Highland Games. Poetry, the reading of it, the writing of it, the saying it out loud, the learning of it off by heart, matters deeply to ordinary Scottish people everywhere. Anyway, if you’ve ever tried to understand someone from around Aberdeen, Doric is what you were up against. The doctors might use ultrasound, first used in Glasgow by Professor Ian Donald, to help locate the bullet.

Whisky, kilts and Robert Burns aside, the Scots are most renowned for their rousing – and often lengthy – toasts around the dinner table. Here's a health to them that's away, Here's a health to them that's away, Here's a health to them that were here shortsyne, An, canna be here today.

May the best you've ever seen Be the worst you'll ever see; May a moose ne'er leave yer girnal Wi' a teardrop in his e'e.

The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.This they strike with such force and dexterity from one hole to another, that they will fly to an incredible distance.

Of course, you can't blame Burns for the Scottish psychology, but you can accuse him of inconsistency on the national question. Damn few, and they're a' deid - a sentiment that perfectly sums up what the Scots feel about themselves as a race.He could relax by reading a book, perhaps by the world’s pioneering historical novelist Sir Walter Scott, of read about the world’s most famous detective Sherlock Holmes created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Edinburgh, Scotland, or watch a movie about the world’s most famous spy, the Scotsman James Bond. The song is set to the air, ‘The Caledonian Hunt’s Delight’, a tune which first appeared in Niel Gow’s Strathspey Reels ( 1788). This was penned by Robert Burns and is a grace said before eating at many Scottish gatherings, especially the traditional Burns Suppers held throughout the world on January 25.