Scottish Lowlands

We have discussed the Scottish Highlands and now it is time to discuss the Lowlands. No these lands are not the complete opposite of the Highlands but there are several landscape differences that you will notice about this region. 

Found where the line is drawn in the “sand” from the Dumbarton to Stonehaven the Lowlands were known by the use of their dialect “Scots Language” which is different to the Scottish Gaelic that is spoken in the Highlands. The language of Lowland Scots is not Gaelic but is rather a modified form of English which was introduced by Germanic settlers in the region in the early sixth century. The uniqueness of what is now called “Scots” or Northern English, once called “Inglis,” is great enough to merit its treatment as a language. Scots is a language with a long legendary tradition, dating back to the 1300s. 

Then in the early 1700s when English was made the official language, at least with regards to administration, for all of Britain, and Scots suffered a loss of respect for a time. However, the language tradition remained strong. It lived on in ballads, verse, and folk songs and preserved in the mid-seventeenth-century poetry of Robert Burns, perhaps the most famous of writers associated with the tongue.

There are two main topographic regions in the Lowlands of Scotland, The Midland Valley and the Southern Uplands. The term Lowlands is a misconception when people talk about the entire region of the Lowlands, most people know the Lowlands in relations to just Midland Valley. 

The Midland Valley was known historically for having the best agricultural soil and terrain for farming. During the 19th and 20th centuries coal deposits were found and mined which helped urbanize the Midland valley, which funny enough is where more than 80 percent of the Scotland population lives today. 

 Into the mid-20th century coal mining declined when the source of fuel was introduced as the primary fuel source which replaced coal throughout the world. This also means that there was a heavy decline in the regions economics until decades later when electronics, computer manufactures and finance departments took root in the Midland Valley which helped bring the local economics back to a sustainable level. 

The Southern Uplands are the least populated area of Scotland, still to this day. They lie south of the Southern Uplands Fault line which runs from Girvan to Dunbar on the East coast of the country. 

The cities that lie in the Scottish Lowlands are Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling and Dundee, which is why you now know why most of the Scottish population lives in the Lowlands.