Retire2 Scotland

There can be few places in the world that have so many spectacular and attractive features crammed into such a small area as Scotland.

There are brooding mountains and rolling hills, sweeping glens and tiny, hidden valleys, unspoiled and deserted beaches, clean seas and clear streams, great houses and castles. The Western Isles are a host of beautiful islands - each culturally and geographically different - set amongst breathtaking waterscapes. From the cliffs of Dumfries and Galloway you can watch the sun set over England, Ireland and the Isle of Man. Its cities are among the most sophisticated in Europe, its universities among the most sought. It has a national identity that is almost a brand and a stirring history. 
The Scots are a proud people with a love-hate relationship with their English neighbours. The nation was never absorbed but voluntarily joined England in the Act of Union of 1707. That said, it is generally felt that those who voted for the alliance – and were rewarded with money and land – sold Scotland out:

“The English steel we could distain,
Secure in valour’s station,
But English gold has been our bane
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation”
 
wrote Robert Burns.

But real resentment on a personal basis is uncommon – limited to the sort of fringe groups and individuals that exist everywhere. Recent political spats and a promise by the Scottish Nationalist Party to introduce an independence bill if they got a majority in the 2007 elections prompted newspaper polls that suggested both English and Scottish people would, narrowly, like to see Scotland severed from England. Despite beating Labour into second place by one seat, however, the Nationalists failed to get an overall majority. Whether those poll results would have been repeated in the reality of an overall Nationalist victory is debatable.