Scotland’s royal connections
As Prince William and Catherine Middleton marry, it’s a perfect time to come and discover Scotland’s royal connections.
Scotland in a word
What single word would you use to describe Scotland? When we recently put this question to you, the response was fantastic, with over 1,400 of you offering up your suggestions.
The most popular word by far was 'home' with a hundred of you describing Scotland in this way. Also popular were 'breathtaking', 'magical' and 'heaven'.
Some of you invented your own words to describe Scotland including 'whiskelicious', 'tartanic', 'kiltalicious' and 'McBrill'.
We also saw the inclusion of some good Scots words such as 'gallus', meaning self-confident and cheeky; 'stoater', meaning really exceptional; and 'braw' meaning very good.
Amongst the Gaelic words included were 'iongantach', meaning wonderful; 'breagha' meaning fine or splendid and 'gaisgeil', meaning heroic; and 'ainmeil' which means renowned or celebrated.
Many of you were inspired by Scotland's landscape and natural beauty with words such as 'bonnie', 'beautiful' and 'majestic'.
Scotland in a word: 'GerardButlerland'?
Others made their appreciation of a certain Scottish movie star clear with 'GerardButlerland' and 'Gerard' cropping up amongst the list of words.
Some of you showed off your knowledge of unusual words including 'pulchritudinous' which means physically beautiful; and 'petrichor' which is a word used to describe the pleasant scent of rain after a dry spell.
However, quite a few of you simply described Scotland as 'perfect'.
In the end there could only be one first prize winner and this went to Lucie Brownson of Maryland, USA, for her choice of the word 'glorious' .
Second prize goes to Canadian Maureen Caldwell of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Maureen chose the original word 'zesty' , meaning lively and energetic, to describe Scotland.
Three runner-up prizes go to: Tara Graybeal, of Washington USA, for her suggestion 'MacFabulous' ; Karen McRae of North Carolina, USA, for 'homeland' ; and Garry Jantzen, of Oregan, USA, for his chosen word of 'inviting' .
The winners all receive a year's subscription to Scottish Field magazine plus a Scottish hamper containing a range of items from companies such as Deans, Arran Aromatics, Little Doone, Ness, Mackies of Aberdeen, Gillian Kyle and the Smithsonian Channel.
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Did you know...
Scotland gave the world its most well-known real detective. Glasgow-born Allan Pinkerton was the founder of the famous American Private Detective Agency. The agency's logo, the All-Seeing Eye, inspired the term "Private Eye."