Scotland’s six stunning UNESCO World Heritage Sites: St Kilda, the Heart of Neolithic Orkney, New Lanark, the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh, the Antonine Wall and the Forth Bridge.
The Antonine Wall
The Antonine Wall runs across central Scotland and marked the most northerly – and most complex – frontier of the Roman Empire nearly 2,000 years ago. Roman soldiers built the Antonine Wall for the Emperor Antoninus Pius around AD 142. Their efforts are commemorated by a unique group of distance slabs.
The Antonine Wall was the most northerly frontier of the Roman Empire nearly 2,000 years ago. It ran for 40 Roman miles (60km) from modern Bo’ness on the Firth of Forth to Old Kilpatrick on the River Clyde. At the time it was built, the wall was the most complex frontier ever constructed by the Roman army.
Built on the orders of the Emperor Antoninus Pius in the years following AD 140, the wall was both a physical barrier and a symbol of the Roman Empire’s power and control.
It was never a stone wall. The Antonine Wall was a turf rampart fronted by a wide and deep ditch. Forts and fortlets along the wall housed the troops stationed at the frontier. They also acted as secure crossing points to control movement north and south. A road known as the Military Way ran behind the rampart, linking the forts.
The Antonine Wall was the last linear frontier built by the Romans. It was only occupied for about a generation before being abandoned in the AD 160s.
Heart of Neolithic Orkney
Skara Brae, Maeshowe, the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar together make up one of the richest surviving Neolithic landscapes in Western Europe. Their impressive domestic and ritual monuments are masterpieces of Neolithic design and construction. They give us exceptional insights into the society, skills and spiritual beliefs of the people who built them.
Some 5,000 years ago, the prehistoric people of the Orkney Islands began building extraordinary monuments out of stone. Each of the four Heart of Neolithic Orkney sites is a masterpiece of Neolithic design and construction in itself. But together they represent one of the richest surviving Neolithic landscapes in Western Europe.
The series of important domestic and ritual monuments gives us incredible insights into the society, skills and spiritual beliefs of the people who built the monuments.
Skara Brae is a domestic settlement whose stone walls, passageways and stone furnishings – including beds and ‘dressers’ – survive to the present day.
Maeshowe, a chambered tomb, is an extraordinary example of Neolithic architectural genius. It was designed so that the light of the setting sun at the winter solstice focuses on the narrow passageway, illuminating the chamber inside.
The Stones of Stenness circle and henge is a very early example of this type of monument. The surviving stones are enormous, standing up to 6m tall.
The Ring of Brodgar is a great stone circle 130m across. Surrounded by a rock cut ditch, it is set in a spectacular natural amphitheatre of lochs and hills.
The Heart of Neolithic Orkney lies in a wider archaeological landscape rich with remains from Neolithic times and many later periods of Orcadian history.
Location
The Heart of Neolithic Orkney is near Stromness on the island of Mainland, Orkney.
New Lanark
New Lanark is a restored 18th-century cotton mill village situated in the narrow gorge of the River Clyde. Social pioneer Robert Owen was renowned for his enlightened management of the mill – the biggest cotton mill in Scotland and one of the largest factory sites in the world.
New Lanark is a restored 18th-century cotton mill village on the banks of the River Clyde, close to the Falls of Clyde in southern Scotland.
New Lanark was created as a cotton-spinning village in the late 18th to early 19th century. It was transformed under the management of Robert Owen.
Owen greatly improved the conditions, facilities and services for the workers and their families and this influenced many social improvements.
Social improvements influenced included:
progressive education
factory reform
more humane working practices
garden cities
By 1799, New Lanark was the biggest cotton mill in Scotland and formed one of the largest factory sites in the world. More than 2,000 people lived and/or worked in the village.
The mill continued to manufacture cotton for nearly 200 years, until 1968. This helps to explain why the buildings in the village have changed so little.
Location
New Lanark is located in southern central Scotland, near the market town of Lanark.
The Old and New Towns of Edinburgh
Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns form one of the most beautiful cityscapes in the world. The city’s unique character springs from the contrast between the medieval Old Town, with its pattern of distinctive narrow passageways, and the 18th-century New Town, the best-preserved example of Georgian town planning in the UK.
Edinburgh has been the capital of Scotland for more than 500 years and is renowned for its writers, artists, philosophers and scientists. It was home to economist Adam Smith, philosopher David Hume and authors Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, among many others.
Edinburgh is built on an extraordinary landscape of hills and valleys, formed millions of years ago by volcanoes and ice sheets. Together, these factors have created a truly distinctive skyline and stunning views, which are recognised around the world.
The city’s unique character comes from the contrast between the Old Town and the New Town, each of which contains many significant historic buildings. More than 75% of all buildings within the World Heritage Site are listed for their architectural or historic importance.
The medieval Old Town retains its distinctive pattern of narrow passageways known as closes and wynds. The New Town, designed in 1767, is the largest and best-preserved example of Georgian town planning in the UK.
Location
Edinburgh lies in the heart of Scotland. It sits on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth.
The city was originally founded on and around the Castle Rock.
Today Edinburgh spans seven hills:
Arthur’s Seat
Blackford Hill
the Braid Hills
Calton Hill
the Castle Rock
Corstorphine Hill
Craiglockhart Hill
St Kilda
St Kilda is a group of remote islands and sea stacks 100 miles off the west coast of Scotland. They host the largest colony of seabirds in Europe as well as unique populations of sheep, field mice and wrens. Evocative cultural remains chart some 4,000 years of human habitation up until the mass evacuation of the islands in 1930.
St Kilda is a group of five remote islands – Hirta, Soay, Boreray, Dun and Levenish – in the North Atlantic, 100 miles off the west coast of Scotland. It is one of the few World Heritage Sites to hold mixed status for its cultural and natural qualities.
The last residents of St Kilda were evacuated in 1930, bringing to an end about 4,000 years of human occupation. They had survived what appears to be a very harsh environment by catching seabirds for food, feathers and oil, farming crops and raising livestock.
The archipelago is a spectacular landscape of vertical cliffs and sea stacks surrounding the safe haven of Village Bay. Clear oceanic waters support a diverse and stunning range of animals and plants. Cliffs host the largest colony of seabirds in Europe. The sheep, field mice and wrens on St Kilda are unique to the islands.
As well as being a World Heritage Site, St Kilda is a:
National Nature Reserve
National Scenic Area
Site of Special Scientific Interest
European Union Special Protection Area
Location
The St Kilda archipelago is situated 100 miles off the west coast of Scotland.
The Forth Bridge
The Forth Bridge is a 2.5km-long, 110m-high cantilever bridge that links Edinburgh and the Lothians in the south with Fife and the Highlands in the north. The building of this masterpiece of human creative genius conquered a natural barrier of a scale and depth that had never before been overcome by humans.
The Forth Bridge is a 2.5km-long, 110m-high cantilever bridge, linking Edinburgh and the Lothians to the south with Fife and the Highlands to the north.
Stretching across the estuary of the River Forth, the Forth Bridge was innovative in its design, materials and scale – while it avoids decoration, it achieves tremendous grace for something so solid.
The Forth Bridge was designed by English engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker and constructed by William Arrol of Glasgow. The firm was also in the process of rebuilding the Tay Bridge and building the Tower Bridge in London. At the time of its completion in 1890, the Forth Bridge was:
the longest cantilever bridge span in the world – a title it held for 27 years
the world’s first major steel structure
representative of a landmark event in the application of science to architecture
Today, the Forth Bridge remains a potent symbol of Britain’s industrial, scientific, architectural and transport heritage.
A major rail crossing, the bridge still carries more than 200 trains a day. It was restored during an ambitious refurbishment programme, completed in 2011.
USEFUL LINKS
https://www.visitscotland.com/things-to-do/unesco-trail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Heritage_Sites_in_Scotland