Scotland

Scots are drinking far more than people in the rest of the UK. Figures from NHS Health Scotland show that adults bought 24 per cent more alcohol than in England, Wales and Northern Ireland — the equivalent of 100 extra pints of beer each a year.

Travelogs 8/2010: Far, far away on Unst

Single malt is pure malted whisky made by a single distiller. The best-selling single malts in the world, the Glenlivet and Glenfiddich, are made beside the River Spey in north-eastern Scotland. The Spirit of Speyside Festival starts on 29 April.

"There is but one night a year in New York to revel in Scottish fashion, and it is called Dressed to Kilt. And oh, what a night it is! The evening allows the stars, who stud the runway, to showcase their personas as much as the couture." — Vanity Fair

Edinburgh may be the capital, but Glasgow has the capital. Well, that's what Glaswegians say. The fierce rivalry between the two cities is based on the contrast between Glasgow's working-class traditions and Edinburgh's ruling establishment.

Natalie Haynes, author of The Ancient Guide to Modern Life, says we are more like "them" now than we ever were. "At pretty much no point in history between then and now did things look so similar," she told The Times, referring to the parallels with Rome.

Game on! The Winter Olympics are under way. Big events like alpine skiing and ice hockey dominate the television schedules, but it's worth taking time to check out the less popular sports — especially the one with its own medieval language.

Robert Crawford, who wrote The Bard: Robert Burns, A Biography, says that Scotland's national poet shares with the best hip-hop artists a genius for rhymes that are completely "liberated from the hegemony of standard English".