Meandering Through the Borders Quiz

Answer: Northumberland

Northumberland has the lowest population density but the largest number of castles of counties in England. It is also home to several traditions unique to the county, such as a rapper sword dance and a Clog dance, where the footwear of dancers is used to create or enhance music.

The county also has its own tartan and is generally more similar to the Scottish Lowland with regard to culture than to southern England.

Answer: Eyre

Most lakes of the Lake District are identified as meres, tarns, or waters in their name. The only one called by the word "lake" is Bassenthwaite Lake.

The Lake District National Park is the largest English national park and second largest within the United Kingdom. England's highest peaks and largest lakes are found there, including the highest mountain, Scafell Pike, and the largest lake, Windermere.

Lake Eyre is in Australia and is the country's lowest point at 15 m (49 ft) below sea level.

Answer: West Lothian

West Lothian lends its name to the "West Lothian question", a question posed on 14 November 1977 about the matter of Members of Parliament from constituencies outside of England having the ability to vote on issues which only affect people living within England.

A Labour Member of Parliament for the Scottish constituency of West Lothian asked, "For how long will English constituencies and English Honourable members tolerate ... at least 119 Honourable Members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland exercising an important, and probably often decisive, effect on English politics while they themselves have no say in the same matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?"

The matter is planned to be considered by a commission consisting of members of each constituent country.

Answer: Carlisle

Tourism is the most significant industry in Cumbria and its Lake District National Park alone attracts about 15.8 million visitors per year. Among the quaint attractions in the county are the Beatrix Potter Gallery, displaying the author's original sketches and watercolours, and the Cumberland Pencil Museum, home to the world's biggest colouring pencil.

Answer: Arran

The Isle of Arran, the largest island in the Firth of Clyde, is shielded from the Atlantic Ocean and the islands of the Hebrides by the Kintyre peninsula of Scotland.

Arran is the location of Brodick Castle, which has been printed on the Royal Bank of Scotland £20 note since 1987. There has also been a limited edition "Isle of Arran" version of Monopoly since 2010, which was funded by and features the logos of real local businesses.

Answer: Solway Firth

In 1964, a Cumbrian man named Jim Templeton took a few photographs of his daughter on a trip to Burgh Marsh, overlooking Solway Firth. Upon development of these photos, he was surprised to see one of the pictures show what seemed to be a figure in a spacesuit behind his daughter. Templeton asserted he did not see anyone or anything in the background when he took the photo.

Certain people dispute this spaceman claim and offer simple explanations such as a man in a white sweater and cap facing away from the camera, who was perhaps out for a run and disappeared as quickly as he arrived, which was the reason Templeton might not have seen him. For others, the "Solway Firth Spaceman" remains an intriguing mystery with paranormal overtones.

Answer: Tweed

The River Tweed rises near the village of Tweedsmuir, once home to Oliver Castle and the Tweedie clan. Scottish tradition tells the legend of a water sprite who impregnated a young woman on the banks of the River Tweed while her husband was away fighting in the crusades. When she told her husband the story, he believed it to be true and decided that the son should take the surname Tweedie.

The river flows mostly through the Scottish Borders before dipping into England in the county Northumberland's extreme north and into the sea at Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Answer: Luce Bay

The Rhins of Galloway is a hammer-head peninsula in southwestern Scotland. It helps enclose Luce Bay in the south and Loch Ryan in the north, and is not far from Beaufort's Dyke, the deepest trench in the North Channel at 200-300 metres deep. At its tip is the southernmost point of Scotland, the Mull of Galloway.

The remaining choices are not called bays but instead are Loch Carron, Loch Hourn, and Loch Long in Scotland.

Answer: Edinburgh

Scotland's capital city has earned heaps of praise and been awarded numerous titles, including being one of the top ten 'most musical' cities according to PRS for Music and "the most visited tourist destination in the United Kingdom, after London" with its one million annual visitors from overseas. (Source: Wikipedia - Edinburgh)

Answer: Newcastle

Newcastle upon Tyne, in present-day Tyne and Wear, and the neighboring town Gateshead across the River Tyne were the location of a terrible disaster in October of 1854.

A relatively new mill involved in manufacturing worsted yarn was set on fire on the night of Friday 6 October in Gateshead. As the building held great quantities of oil, which was used to treat the wool, it wasn't long before its roof caved in and it was completely devoured by the fire.

A seven-storey bond warehouse in the immediate vicinity was housing thousands of tons of sulphur and nitrate of soda at the time, as well as other combustibles. Despite the building's many precautions against fire, its supply of sulphur was ignited by the intense heat nearby and began streaming from the windows in its liquidised state. Three mild explosions occurred within the warehouse before a final, much more serious one set much of both Gateshead and Newcastle ablaze.

It is said the great force of the explosion threw debris as far as three-quarter miles (1.2 km) from its source and was heard as far as Hartlepool, 40 miles (64 km) away. The flames of the cities could be seen in the sky at Northallerton, Yorkshire, 50 miles (80 km) away. The explosion crater reached a depth of 12 m (40 ft) and a diameter of 15 m (50 ft).

Fire engines were dispatched to aid from cities like Durham, Carlisle, and Morpeth. The fire would revive as it overtook a flour mill around the riverbank before it would be successfully confined by a firebreak formed by destroying houses which were already ruined by the explosion.