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Months in 2010 edit
- January
The National Wallace Monument is a tower standing on the summit of Abbey Craig, a hilltop near Stirling in Scotland. It commemorates Sir William Wallace, the 13th century Scottish hero.
Completed in 1869 to the designs of architect John Thomas Rochead, the monument is a 67 metre (220 ft.) sandstone tower, built in the Victorian Gothic style. It stands on the Abbey Craig, a volcanic crag above Cambuskenneth Abbey, from which Wallace was said to have watched the gathering of the army of English king Edward I, just before the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
- February
Fair Isle (from Old Norse Frjóey) Scottish Gaelic Eileann nan Geansaidh is an island off Scotland, lying around halfway between Shetland and the Orkney Islands.
The most remote inhabited island in the United Kingdom, it is famous for its Bird Observatory and a traditional style of knitting. The island is administratively part of Shetland and lies 38 kilometres (24 mi) south-west of Sumburgh Head on the Mainland of Shetland and 43 kilometres (27 mi) north-east of North Ronaldsay, Orkney. It is 4.8 kilometres (3 miles) in length, 2.4 kilometres (1.5 miles) wide and has an area of 768 hectares (3 square miles), making it the tenth largest of the Shetland Islands.
- March
Calton Hill is a hill in central Edinburgh, Scotland, just to the east of the New Town. Views of, and from, the hill are often used in photographs and paintings of the city.
Calton Hill is the headquarters of the Scottish Government, which is based at St Andrew's House, on the steep southern slope of the hill; with the Scottish Parliament Building, and other key buildings, for example Holyrood Palace, lying near the foot of the hill. The hill also includes several iconic monuments and buildings: the National Monument, Nelson's Monument, the Dugald Stewart Monument, the New Parliament House (the Royal High School), the Robert Burns Monument, the Political Martyrs' Monument and the City Observatory.
- April
Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles often occur all over the plant - on surfaces such as those of the stem and flat parts of leaves. These are an adaptation that protects the plant against herbivorous animals, discouraging them from feeding on the plant.
In the language of flowers, the thistle (like the burr) is an ancient Celtic symbol of nobility of character as well as of birth, for the wounding or provocation of a thistle yields punishment. For this reason the thistle is the symbol of the Order of the Thistle, a high chivalric order of Scotland.
- May
The Glasgow Necropolis is a Victorian cemetery in Glasgow, Scotland. It is on a hill above, and to the east of, Glasgow Cathedral (St. Mungo's Cathedral).
Fifty thousand individuals have been buried in approximately 3500 tombs. It was conceived as a Père Lachaise for Glasgow, and subsequently established by the Merchants' House of Glasgow in 1831. Alexander Thomson designed a number of its tombs, and John Bryce and David Hamilton designed other architecture for the grounds. The main entrance is approached by a bridge over what was then the Molendinar Burn.
- June
Loch Etive (Scottish Gaelic, Loch Eite) is a 30 km sea loch in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It reaches the sea at Connel, 5 km north of Oban. It measures 31.6 km (19 3/4 miles) in length and from 1.2 km (3/4 mile) to 1.6 km (1 mile) in width.
The name Etive is believed to mean little ugly one from the Gaelic Goddess associated with the loch. It heads east for half its length alongside the main road and rail link to Oban, before heading northeast into mountainous terrain. A road along Glen Etive makes the head of the loch accessible from Glen Coe.
- July
Dunfermline Abbey is a large Benedictine abbey in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. It was administered by the Abbot of Dunfermline. The abbey was founded in 1128 by King David I of Scotland, but the monastic establishment was based on an earlier foundation dating back to the reign of King Máel Coluim mac Donnchada (i.e. "Malcolm III" or "Malcolm Canmore", r. 1058-93). Its first abbot was Geoffrey of Canterbury, former prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, the Kent religious house that probably supplied Dunfermline's first Benedictine monks. At the peak of its power it controlled four burghs, three courts of regality and a large portfolio of lands from Moray in the north down into Berwickshire.
- August
Iona (Scottish Gaelic: Ì Chaluim Chille) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland. It was a centre of Celtic Christianity for four centuries and is today renowned for its tranquility and natural beauty. It is a popular tourist destination. The Hebrides have been occupied by the speakers of at least four languages since the Iron Age, and as a result many of the names of these islands have more than one possible meaning. Nonetheless few, if any, can have accumulated so many different names over the centuries as the island now known in English as "Iona". Its modern Gaelic name means "Iona of (Saint) Columba" (formerly anglicised "Icolmkill").
- September
Loch Lomond /ˈloʊmənd/, (Scottish Gaelic Loch Laomainn) is a freshwater Scottish loch, lying on the Highland Boundary Fault. It is the largest loch/lake in Great Britain, by surface area, and contains many islands, including Inchmurrin, the largest fresh water island in the British Isles. It is a popular leisure destination and is featured in song. Of all lakes in Great Britain, it is the largest by surface area, and the second largest (after Loch Ness) by water volume. Within the United Kingdom (and indeed the entire British Isles), it is surpassed only by Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland.
- October
New Lanark is a village on the River Clyde, approximately 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometres) from Lanark, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was founded in 1786 by David Dale, who built cotton mills and housing for the mill workers. Under the ownership of a partnership that included Dale's son-in-law, Robert Owen, a Welsh philanthropist and social reformer, New Lanark became a successful business and an epitome of utopian socialism. After the mills closed in 1968, the New Lanark Conservation Trust (NLCT) was founded in 1975 to prevent demolition of the village. By 2006 most of the buildings have been restored and the village has become a major tourist attraction. It is one of five UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Scotland and an Anchor Point of ERIH - The European Route of Industrial Heritage.
- November
Loch Leven (Scottish Gaelic: Loch Lìobhann) is a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland. Loch Leven extends 8¾ miles (14 km), varying in width between 220 yards (200 m) and just over a mile (1.8 km). It opens onto Camus a'Chois at North Ballachulish, part of Loch Linnhe at its western end. There are nine small islands, some rocky and covered with heather and some just smooth green grass, near the western end of the loch. The village of Glencoe lies on its southern shore. The burial place of the MacDonald clan of Glencoe lies on an island - Eilean Munde Eilean a' Munda, or St Munn's (St Fintan Mundas) Island, opposite the village.
- December
The geography of Scotland is highly varied, from rural lowlands to barren uplands, and from large cities to uninhabited islands. Scotland comprises the northern one third of the island of Great Britain. Aside from the mainland, Scotland is surrounded by 790 islands encompassing the major archipelagoes of the Shetland Islands, Orkney Islands and the Outer Hebrides. Scotland's only land border is with England, which runs for 96 kilometres (60 mi) in a northeasterly direction from the Solway Firth in the west to the North Sea on the east coast. The topography of Scotland is distinguished by the Highland Boundary Fault – a geological rock fracture – which traverses the Scottish mainland from Helensburgh to Stonehaven.