A TASTE OF SCOTLAND

KILTS

The kilt is the national costume, it is a traditional Scottish skirt for men. Though women can and do wear tartan skirts, they do not wear the kilt. Every kilt has a squared coloured pattern, known as a tartan. Tartans have an interesting history. Since the fifteenth century, each Scottish family or clan (Gaelic for tribe or family) has worn its own tartan as a kind of badge. It means a great deal to a Scot, especially to a Highlander, for every Highland clan has its own special tartan, of which it is jealously proud.

Tartans were a useful way of recognising people, especially in times of war. Many tartans date only from the nineteenth century, but some of the old patterns still exist. The patterns and colours are not all the same, each clan has a different tartan. There are also "Dress" tartans which are worn on special occasions, they have light, bright colours and "Hunting" tartans which are usually green, blue or brown. 

THE HIGHLANDS
The Highlands of Scotland (the mountains of Scotland) are the wildest and, some say, the most beautiful part of Europe. Salmon and trout swim in the clean, pure water of the rivers. Scotch whisky is made with this water. Some say that not only fish swim in the deep water of Loch Ness. Speak to the people living by the Loch. Each person has a story of the Monster, and some have photographs...

HAGGIS AND SHORTBREAD BISCUITS 
Haggis is the national dish of Scotland. You make it with meat, onions, flour, salt and pepper. Then you boil it in the skin from a sheep's stomach - yes, a sheep's stomach. In Scotland, people eat haggis and drink lots of whisky on Burns Night. Robert Burns (Scots people call him "Rabbie" Burns) was a Scottish poet in the eighteenth century. Every year Scots people all over the world remember him and read his poems. Burns wrote about haggis and said that haggis was the best food in the world!

Shortbread is Scotland's most famous biscuit. It is eaten all through the year but especially at Christmas and Hogmanay (Scottish New Year). The shortbread eaten in Hogmanay is called "Petticoat tails" because of its shape. It looks like the skirts which women wore under their dresses in the seventeenth century.