Scottish People Trivia

1. Probably the best known writer Scotland has produced is poet Robert Burns. Arguably his most famous work, "Auld Lang Syne" is sung around the world on 31 December each year. By what name is this date more commonly known in Scotland?

From Quiz Literary Scotland

Answer: Hogmanay

Robert Burns (1759-1796) was born in Alloway, Ayrshire. Some of his other notable works include: "To a Mouse", "Tam O'Shanter", "A Red, Red Rose", and "Ae Fond Kiss". Burns' birthday, 25 January, is still celebrated around the world with a Burns supper with Haggis as the main dish.

From Quiz A Right Mix of Modern Day Scotswomen

Answer: Britain's Got Talent

Susan Boyle was born in Blackburn, West Lothian. She first came to fame when she appeared on the show 'Britain's Got Talent' in 2009 and sang 'I Dreamed a Dream' from the musical 'Les Misérables'. She came 2nd in the final of the show losing out to dance group Diversity. Her début album, 'I Dreamed a Dream' became the best selling début album in the UK.

From Quiz Famous Scots - Old and New

Answer: Sean Connery

Convinced he did had not got the part of James Bond, he left Cubby Broccoli's office, but he was watched walking away, and that famous line was uttered - 'he walks like a panther'.

From Quiz Scottish Quotations

Answer: Robert Louis Stevenson

This comes from the novel 'Kidnapped', one of Stevenson's best loved novels. It is set shortly after the 1745 rebellion and tells the story of young David Balfour who, after the death of his father, visits his uncle Ebenezer to claim his inheritance. Ebenezer attempts to murder David, and when this fails, arranges for him to be kidnapped and shipped on board a brig to the plantations in Carolina as a slave worker. On board the vessel David meets the Jacobite outlaw Alan Breck Stewart and they have a fight with the crew of the brig, after which Alan asks this rhetorical question. After many adventures in the Scottish Highlands, the story ends happily with David gaining his legacy and Alan Breck escaping to France. Robert Louis Stevenson was born in 1850, the grandson of the civil engineer Robert Stevenson who is famous for the construction of the Bell Rock lighthouse. His father Thomas was also a lighthouse engineer, and Louis was expected to follow the family profession, but he showed little aptitude and, to his father's disappointment, abandoned it to pursue a writing career. Apart from 'Kidnapped' his best-known works include 'Treasure Island', 'The Master of Ballantrae' and 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'. He suffered from ill-health throughout his life and eventually went into voluntary exile on the Pacific island of Upolu in Samoa, where he died at the early age of 44.

From Quiz Think You Know the Scots?

Answer: Flora MacDonald

She saved the Prince in 1746 and in 1774, she emigrated to North Carolina with her husband Allan MacDonald, her 5 sons and 2 daughters. Captain MacDonald was at the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge during the American Revolution, was captured and held for two years and then released. After many traumas in America, they returned home to Scotland.

From Quiz Famous Fifers

Answer: Steel

Carnegie was born in Dunfermline in 1835. His family settled in the Pittsburgh area of Pennsylvania in the late 1840s. His steel plant, Carnegie Steel, was the largest in the USA in the late 19th century. He gave away most of his fortune in later life, paying for the building of some 3000 public libraries throughout the English-speaking world.

From Quiz Scots or Maybe Not

Answer: Canada

James Montgomery Doohan was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1920. Doohan's on-screen heroics were surpassed by his exploits during the Second World War. He served in the Royal Canadian Artillery Regiment and was wounded when he lost one of his fingers on the first day of the Normandy D-Day landings.

From Quiz Famous, Infamous, Unfamous and Scottish

Answer: He was a commando and safe breaker

Ramensky was a cat burglar, acrobat, lock picker and safe blower. He was known as "Gentle Johnny" because when he got caught (which was on more than one occasion) he never resisted arrest. While in Peterhead Prison in 1942 he was offered release if he would undergo training and join the army. Johnny accepted the offer and, in 1944, after training, he was part of a crack commando unit who were dropped by parachute and were amongst the first to enter Rome. Johnny was said to have blown fourteen safes in one day, capturing many important documents. For his heroics Ramensky was awarded the Military Medal and given a free pardon. But Johnny returned to a life of crime and soon refrequented Peterhead prison. He escaped and was recaptured on no fewer than five occasions. Johnny suffered a stroke in 1972 while in Perth Prison. He was taken to hospital and died there.Johnny had made his "Great Escape".

From Quiz Scottish Inventors

Answer: Steam engine

Born in Greenock, Scotland, this man helped shape industrial revolution through the use of steam engines. The first practical steam-powered engine was a water pump, developed in 1698 by Thomas Savery. This was followed by the first commercially successful engine in 1712. The atmospheric engine, invented by Thomas Newcomen, was relatively inefficient, generally only used for pumping water. They all of course came before Watt, whose contribution was to develop the steam engine for use by industry. The electrical unit is named after him.

From Quiz A Question Of Scotland

Answer: Engineering, bridge, road and canal building

Telford built the Menai suspension bridge, the Ellesmere and Caledonian Canals, a bridge across the Severn river and vast stretches of road which now comprise the A5 among many other achievements. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, both eminent Scotsmen.

From Quiz Some Notable Scots

Answer: Sam Torrance

Sam Torrance was born in the North Ayrshire town of Largs in 1953. As well as captaining the Europeans to triumph in the 2002 Ryder Cup, Sam also holed the winning putt in the 1985 Ryder Cup. Sam married Susanne Danielle in 1988.

From Quiz World Changing Scottish Folk!

Answer: John Logie Baird

Born 1888 in Helensburgh on the west coast of Scotland, this engineer who was the first person to demonstrate a working television, in the form of a mechanical system, in 1926 to some scientists in the U.K. He then, in 1928, transmitted the first transatlantic television broadcast. Guglielmo Marconi, an inventor born in Italy, best known for his development of a practical radiotelegraph system, the nearest he got to being "Celtic" was having an Irish mother. Walter Bruch, a German, famous in the early 1960s, for inventing the PAL color television system. As far as is known he had no Scots family connections! Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton, a consulting electrical engineer born in Edinburgh. He was one of the first to explore radiography. He also was involved in some ideas of television by cathode rays.

From Quiz Those Lovable, Not-So-Dour Scots

Answer: Andrew Carnegie

It is quite ironic that a people legendary for their supposed miserliness gave the world a man whose name became nearly synonymous with philanthropy. Carnegie gave away approximately $350 million in his lifetime, amounting to some 90% of his estimated fortune. No one better embodied the American success story than did this tiny, twinkly-eyed steel baron, arguably the most beloved millionaire in history.

From Quiz Literary Scotland

Answer: Edinburgh

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) was born in Edinburgh. Scott was already a celebrated poet by the time his first novel, "Waverley", was published in 1814. The series of novels which followed have become known as the "Waverley Novels", and include "Rob Roy", "Ivanhoe", "The Heart of Midlothian", "Guy Mannering" and "Quentin Durward". As well as Waverley Station, Edinburgh also boasts a monument to Scott in Princes Street. Scott's grave can be visited at Dryburgh Abbey in the Scottish Borders.

From Quiz A Right Mix of Modern Day Scotswomen

Answer: Poet Laureate

Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow in 1955. In 2009 she became the first woman and the first Scottish person to hold the post of Poet Laureate, a ceremonial position bestowed by the UK monarch and Prime Minister. Although there are no formal duties of the post the holder is expected to compose verse on national occasions, and this has seen Duffy write poems for occasions such as the marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

From Quiz Famous Scots - Old and New

Answer: Jackie Stewart

Sir Jackie Stewart has made many changes for the better in F1, as he himself has had many accidents, where he could not escape from the car. Eventually, he became the drivers' representative and, as a group, they refused to race until something was done.

From Quiz Scottish Quotations

Answer: John Buchan

When used as an adjective, 'fickle' means 'changeable' or 'easily influenced', but, as a verb, it also means 'puzzle'. The sentence means 'You won't fool Thomas Yownie', and is found in the novel 'Huntingtower'. John Buchan was born in 1875 in Perth to a minister of the Free Presbyterian Church. He attended the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford, at both of which he read Classics. After leaving Oxford he worked as a journalist and also studied law, being called to the Bar in 1901. In the same year he started a career in diplomacy, spending two years in South Africa. On returning to Britain he resumed the law and journalism, and entered politics. During the First World War he worked in France as a newspaper correspondent, in military intelligence and for the Ministry of Information. After the War he became involved in publishing and pursued his career in politics and diplomacy, being Member of Parliament for the Scottish Universities from 1928 to 1935, in which year he was ennobled as 1st Baron Tweedsmuir and appointed Governor General of Canada. He died in Montreal in 1940. In addition to a full professional life Buchan had a very successful career as an author and published over a hundred books, starting when he was still an undergraduate. He wrote many volumes on history, biography, politics, military matters and poetry, but is best remembered for his novels, particularly a series of five which feature the soldier-adventurer Richard Hannay. The first and best-known ('The Thirty-Nine Steps') was published in 1915 and made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1935. He called these stories his 'shockers', although they are tame by modern standards. Other fiction reflects his wide knowledge and experience and range from seventeenth-century Scotland to contemporary Canada. Many of his latter-day novels share recurring characters, and he may be said to have created two main protagonists apart from Richard Hannay: the lawyer and sometime Attorney-General Sir Edward Leithen and the retired Glasgow grocer Dickson McCunn. Of the three, Leithen resembles his creator the most and McCunn the least. Quiet, respectable and unadventurous (he has been compared to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins), in the three books in which he appears Mr McCunn manages to become involved in wild events despite himself. 'Huntingtower' is set in south-west Scotland where McCunn, while on a walking-tour, becomes entangled with a gang of Bolsheviks (the book was published in 1922, not long after the Russian Revolution), and is aided by the 'Gorbals Diehards', a gang of street urchins from the slums of Glasgow who are camping nearby. The leader Dougal has studied military history and is something of a strategist. Thomas Yownie is one of his henchmen and Dougal commends him with the quoted words.

From Quiz Think You Know the Scots?

Answer: Fotheringhay Castle

According to legend, it took two blows from the executioner's axe to behead Mary! The first blow hit the back of her head and, according to one of her ladies-in-waiting, she muttered "Sweet Jesus". Once the deed was done, her pet dog crawled out from under her skirts, covered in blood and refused to move from the queen's side.

From Quiz Famous Fifers

Answer: Crime

Rankin is best known for the character Inspector John Rebus, whilst McDermid's best known recurring characters include Lindsay Gordon and Tony Hill. Whilst Rankin's books are mostly set in Edinburgh, and those of McDermid mainly in Northern England, both have returned to their home county of Fife on a number of occasions for scenes in their novels.

From Quiz Scots or Maybe Not

Answer: Rhodesia

Alexander McCall Smith was born in 1948 in Rhodesia, which is now known as Zimbabwe. Educated in both Bulawayo and Edinburgh, Smith's most famous literary creation is Precious Ramotswe of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

From Quiz Nicknamed, Scottish and Famed

Answer: Aleister Crowley

The "Evilest Man in the World" was a nickname given to Englishman Aleister Crowley though perhaps Adolf Hitler could have given him a run for his money. The rumours, stories, truths and half truths about Crowley (1875 to 1947) continue to this day. He was said to be a black magician and warlock, a racist, a sadist, a bisexual, a hedonist and to have experimented with drugs such as heroin and cocaine before they were fashionable. For around fourteen years Crowley resided in a mansion called Boleskine House, on the shores of Loch Ness, Scotland. He was the subject of much rumour amongst the local population. He was alleged to have conducted black magic, occult and sexual experiments within the house and in the nearby graveyard. He was also nicknamed "The Other Loch Ness monster." Rock musician Jimmy Page of Led Zepplin lived in the house during the seventies, and it is thought that he wrote "Stairway To Heaven" while residing there. Rumours persist that Crowley was the biological father of Barbara Bush, wife of George H. W. Bush and mother of George W. Bush. He is alleged to have had an affair with Barbara's mother Pauline. There could be some truth in it, Crowley sounds very similar to some politicians I know!

From Quiz Scottish Inventors

Answer: Waterproof paint

Probably his best known invention is gas lighting and was he the first person to have it at his home in Cornwall.

From Quiz A Question Of Scotland

Answer: Allan Pinkerton

Allan Pinkerton did all of the above. As far as I'm aware Charles Edward Pinkerton doesn't exist. Rob Roy was a famous Scottish outlaw, and good old Ronald McDonald is the clown of hamburger company fame.

From Quiz Some Notable Scots

Answer: Thomas Telford

Thomas Telford, born in 1757, was one of the most outstanding civil engineers in the early late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was so highly regarded that the town of Telford in Shropshire, England, was named after him.

From Quiz Literary Scotland

Answer: Lighthouses

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was born in Edinburgh. His paternal grandfather was civil engineer Robert Stevenson. Robert Louis' father was Thomas Stevenson, and Thomas' brothers were Alan and David Stevenson. All of them were leading lighthouse engineers of the time. Robert Louis' works include: "Treasure Island", "Kidnapped" and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". Suffering from ill health throughout his life, he died in Samoa at the age of 44.

From Quiz A Right Mix of Modern Day Scotswomen

Answer: Nicola Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon was born in the town of Irvine in Scotland in 1970. She became leader of the Scottish National Party and First Minister of Scotland after her predecessor Alex Salmond resigned after losing the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence. Sturgeon is the first woman to hold either of these positions.

From Quiz Famous Scots - Old and New

Answer: Ewan McGregor

Ewan McGregor is the nephew of Denis Lawson, who played Wedge Antilles in the first three "Star Wars" movies, and he played the young Obi Wan Kenobi.

From Quiz Scottish Quotations

Answer: Robert Burns

Robert Burns (1759-1796) was born in Ayrshire in south-east Scotland, the son of a poor tenant farmer. He had little formal education and gained most of his schooling from his father, a self-taught man. He started writing poetry in 1775 and his first efforts (like much of his later work) were inspired by a woman. He continued to write poetry both in Scots dialect and standard English, and on many themes, ranging from lyrical and historical to satirical. The quotation comes from a poem by Burns which, like much of his work, is often set to music. It was not included in the first collection of his verse (the so-called 'Kilmarnock Edition', published in 1786) but appeared in about 1790 as part of 'The Scots Musical Museum'. This is a collection of 600 songs made by one James Johnson which appeared in six volumes between 1787 and 1803, of which Burns was the virtual editor and principal contributor. Referring to these lines, he wrote in his notes, "The first half-stanza of this song is old; the rest mine." Various versions exist; in some, the lines quoted open the first verse, while in others they form the first couplet of a chorus. The poem has been criticised as being overly sentimental and aimed at an English audience rather than the Scots for whom Burns generally wrote, but the mood of the time was to romanticise Scotland and especially the Highlands. This was a revulsion of feeling against the oppression and barbarity of Government troops following the failure of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, and culminated in the romantic historical novels of Sir Walter Scott which glorified the Highlands and their culture. Because of his working-class origin and Socialist leanings, Burns has been called the "people's poet". He is generally recognised as the national poet of Scotland, where he is known as "The Bard".

From Quiz Think You Know the Scots?

Answer: David Rizzio

Rizzio was murdered by a group led by Mary's then husband, Lord Darnley, who was jealous of their relationship. It is said, however, that Rizzio was gay and was just a close friend and confidante. He was dining with the Queen, when the mob burst in to her private rooms and, despite their pleadings, Rizzio was stabbed to death.

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