Scotland is my home country, it’s where I was born and where I did most of my growing up. The name Ross is typically Scottish these days (meaning “from the peninsula”) but it developed from a French name, Rosce. Or so I’m told. Physically, Scotland is a small country of around thirty thousand square miles, yet due to the rugged nature of its shape it has over seven thousand miles of coastline to explore. There are quiet glens and high mountains, while most of the population is concentrated in cities around the central belt between the rivers Forth and Clyde.

Today, Scotland once again has its own Parliament and First Minister, but it is no longer a monarchy, being part of the United Kingdom since the union of the crowns in 1603, and the union of the parliaments in 1707. The main industries are oil, centred around Aberdeen (Europe’s oil capital), electronics, tourism, fishing and production of whisky, Scotland’s most widespread export.