There are two sports that are special to Scotland: curling and golf. Today there are well over six hundred curling clubs in Scotland and the sport is played by over fifteen thousand people of all ages If you want to see how it is played click here. As for golf, it seems that more Scots play golf than football.Scotland has won junior women's title at the World Junior Curling Championships twice so far, and an European World Competition for young junior golfers is held near Edinburgh every year. Nowadays, Scotland is considered the home of golf.
There are also other popular sports & games which are played in this land: tennis, Highland Games, football & mountain boarding. We can mention the Murray brothers in the world of tennis, and the Celtic Football Club, which was the first British team to become European Champions in 1967. In addition, the Scots have got the Highland Games, which is a day of traditional sporting competitions (piping, dancing, running & "heavy" competitions) celebrated all across Scotland through the summer months in cities, towns & villages. Besides, we must say that mountain boarding is the latest sporting fashion to hit Scotland these days!
DARK SCOTLAND
Not everything about Scotland is bright and sunny. There are also some dark stories: stories of lies, criminals and murderers.
-"Macbeth" is a famous story by the English writer, William Shakespeare. It's better known as "The Scottish play" and not Macbeth, as it's believed that it brings bad luck to say the name "Macbeth" unless you are actually acting in the play. There's also a film, by clicking here you can see a part of it. Nobody knows whether saying the name "Macbeth" really brings bad luck or not, but certainly some strange things have happened after mentioning it.
- There is another story, which took place in Glencoe, towards the end of the 17th century, which is considered to be Scotland's darkest hour. When visitors come to Glencoe, one of the most beautiful places in the west of Scotland, they can feel that something terrible happened here in the past.
- There is also the story of Scotland's most famous murderers: William Burke & William Hare, two Irishmen who came to live in Edinburgh in the early 1800s. By day Burke and Hare seemed to be good, hard-working men, but at night it was a very different story.
