1. On March 25, 1306, Robert the Bruce became the King of Scotland. King Edward of England waged war against him and made him an outlaw. Legend has it that he was close to despair and hiding in a cave during a storm when he saw an animal in the process of building something. It tried six times and failed and he realised he too had fought against the English six times and failed. On the seventh attempt it succeeded. This inspired him to continue fighting the English and he eventually won in 1314. Which was this animal that gave the Scots their greatest king?
2. The route between the Islands of Westray and Papa Westray off the coast of Scotland is a subsidised public service obligation. Since 1967 a certain mode of transport has been operating, which lasts for around a minute. This by itself is a World Record and the record for the fastest trip was a blazing 53 seconds. Many academicians make this trip to study the 60 archaeological sites on Papa Westray. The record for what mode of transport exists between these two islands?
3. The National animal of Scotland is quite unique, and one can even say it is so well protected no one has ever seen it! According to ancient tradition this animal was the natural enemy of the lion, and the lion was a symbol adopted by the English royals. This prompted Robert the Bruce to adopt its enemy as the Scottish National Animal in the late 1300s. What animal is this that you would most probably see in a kids cartoon but not in any zoo?
4. Macadam is a type of road construction, pioneered by Scottish engineer John McAdam in which crushed layers of small stones are placed in shallows and compacted thoroughly. In 1901, Edgar Purnell Hooley noticed a smooth stretch of road close to an ironworks. He learnt that a barrel of tar had fallen onto the road, and someone from the nearby furnaces poured waste slag to cover up the mess. Hooley noticed this unintentional resurfacing had solidified the road, and there was no rutting and no dust. He filed for a patent and a trademark and formed a company in the name. What revolution in road surfaces did he start (a word often associated with airports)?
5. ___ is the Scottish Gaelic word for a lake or a sea inlet. The anglicised spelling is commonly found in place names as well. The most famous of these is a lake called Ness in the Highland council area. It is about 36 km long and 240 metres deep. Ness has the largest volume of fresh water in Great Britain and has a very sharp rise and fall caused by differential heating. Coupled with great depths near the shoreline it has scanty flora and fauna. However, it is supposed to be the home of one solitary survivor of a legendary animal, whose name comes from the name of the lake. What is it called?
6. ___ ____ occurs naturally in 1-2% of the human population. Scotland has the highest proportion of them in the world. Around 13% of the population has it, with 40% carrying the recessive gene. It appears in people with two copies of a recessive allele on chromosome 16 and is due to high levels of pigment pheomelanin and relatively low levels of dark pigment eumelanin. What is this which also carries the name of a common household spice?
7. Scottish bookseller and printer Colin Macfarquhar and his friend Andrew Bell, who was an engraver, conceived of the idea of a compendium of sorts. The first installment was published in 1768 under the name A Society of Gentlemen in Scotland and was priced at sixpence. The final version in 1771 had 2,391 pages. The current global edition contains 30 volumes and has 18,251 pages and is out of print and sold out. What series did Colin start that any self-respecting library should have?
8. The National instrument of Scotland is a woodwind using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. It has a chanter or melody pipe that can be played using your hands and one or more drones, which constantly emits one note. What is this instrument that gets its name from a description of what it is?
9. On July 5, 1996, Keith Campbell and Ian Wilmut of the University of Edinburgh concluded what is arguably the most dramatic biological experiment of the 21st century. A watershed moment in biotechnology, the result was named after famed country singer Dolly Parton. It passed away in 2003 and is currently on display at the National Museum of Scotland. This was the very first time something of this magnitude had been achieved with a mammal. What had they created?
10. This classic novel is a dark and psychological tale and the first to introduce the idea of the split personality in literature. The Scottish author is supposed to have taken his inspiration from the duality of Edinburgh as a city and from the real case of Deacon Brodie, a respectable man who had a secret life as a criminal. Name the book and author.
Answers
1. A spider
2. World’s shortest scheduled flight. £17 on Loganair
3. Unicorn
4. Tarmac (short for TarMacadam)
5. Loch Ness Monster
6. Red hair or Ginger hair
7. Encyclopedia Britannica
8. Bagpipes
9. First Cloned Sheep — Dolly
10. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
A molecular biologist from Madurai, our quizmaster enjoys trivia and music, and is working on a rock ballad called ‘Coffee is a Drink, Kaapi is an Emotion’. @bertyashley
