119-569: Helmsdale ( Scots : Helmsdal , Scottish Gaelic : Bun Ilidh ) is a village on the east coast of Sutherland , in the Highland council area of Scotland . The modern village was planned in 1814 to resettle communities that had been removed from the surrounding straths as part of the Highland Clearances . The River Helmsdale ( Gaelic Ilidh ) was noted by Ptolemy as Ila , which remains an obscure name. The Gaelic name for
238-923: A 1996 trial before the Census, by the General Register Office for Scotland (GRO), suggested that there were around 1.5 million speakers of Scots, with 30% of Scots responding "Yes" to the question "Can you speak the Scots language?", but only 17% responding "Aye" to the question "Can you speak Scots?". It was also found that older, working-class people were more likely to answer in the affirmative. The University of Aberdeen Scots Leid Quorum performed its own research in 1995, cautiously suggesting that there were 2.7 million speakers, though with clarification as to why these figures required context. The GRO questions, as freely acknowledged by those who set them, were not as detailed and systematic as those of
357-457: A 900-metre (3,000 ft) bridge , the railway line instead follows the coast of the Firth. In fact, the railway does not return to an open coastline for another 40 route miles (64 km) until Golspie , even though the distance between Tain and Golspie as the crow flies is only 11.1 miles (17.9 km). There have been many unsuccessful proposals to build a new, shorter railway line between
476-650: A Scots language listing. The Ferret, a UK -based fact-checking service, wrote an exploratory article in December 2022 to address misconceptions about the Scots language to improve public awareness of its endangered status. In Scotland, Scots is spoken in the Scottish Lowlands , the Northern Isles , Caithness , Arran and Campbeltown . In Ulster , the northern province in Ireland , its area
595-469: A collection of children's nursery rhymes and poems in Scots. The book contains a five-page glossary of contemporary Scots words and their pronunciations. Alexander Gray 's translations into Scots constitute the greater part of his work, and are the main basis for his reputation. In 1983, William Laughton Lorimer 's translation of the New Testament from the original Greek was published. Scots
714-433: A continuum ranging from traditional broad Scots to Scottish Standard English . Many speakers are diglossic and may be able to code-switch along the continuum depending on the situation. Where on this continuum English-influenced Scots becomes Scots-influenced English is difficult to determine. Because standard English now generally has the role of a Dachsprache ('roofing language'), disputes often arise as to whether
833-453: A handful of houses in the immediate vicinity of the station, accessed by a private dirt road , which is marked as a public cycle trail on Ordnance Survey maps. The line then turns gently to the northeast, passing by several small lochs en route, before passing under the B870 road (the first public road close to the line since Forsinard). This is the site of Scotscalder station , which is among
952-415: A language from a dialect , scholars and other interested parties often disagree about the linguistic, historical and social status of Scots, particularly its relationship to English . Although a number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects exist, they often render contradictory results. Broad Scots is at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum , with Scottish Standard English at
1071-504: A little south of Helmsdale , in the county of Sutherland , but this development was more of a financial liability than an asset: the long-term viability of the line then depended on a Caithness willingness, not least from the 17th Earl of Caithness , to link the line to the population centres of Wick and Thurso. North of Helmsdale the line was built by the Sutherland and Caithness Railway . Turning inland, it reaches Forsinard in
1190-485: A more phonological manner rather than following the pan-dialect conventions of modern literary Scots, especially for the northern and insular dialects of Scots. Far North Line The Far North Line is a rural railway line entirely within the Highland area of Scotland , extending from Inverness to Thurso and Wick . As the name suggests, it is the northernmost railway in the United Kingdom. The line
1309-785: A native of Kildonan, who had spent 17 years in the goldfields of Australia. On his return home, the Duke of Sutherland gave him permission to pan the gravels of the Helmsdale River, and he prospected all the burns and tributaries. During World War II , the Royal Air Force built Loth Chain Home radar station at Crakaig , a few miles south-west of Helmsdale. There was also an RAF Chain Home Low radar station at Navidale, about one mile (1.5 kilometres) northeast of Helmsdale. During
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#17327904894351428-578: A recent neologism merging Ulster and Lallans. Scots is a contraction of Scottis , the Older Scots and northern version of late Old English : Scottisc (modern English "Scottish"), which replaced the earlier i-mutated version Scyttisc . Before the end of the fifteenth century, English speech in Scotland was known as "English" (written Ynglis or Inglis at the time), whereas "Scottish" ( Scottis ) referred to Gaelic . By
1547-612: A representative sample of Scotland's adult population) claim to speak Scots to varying degrees. The 2011 UK census was the first to ask residents of Scotland about Scots. A campaign called Aye Can was set up to help individuals answer the question. The specific wording used was "Which of these can you do? Tick all that apply" with options for "Understand", "Speak", "Read" and "Write" in three columns: English, Scottish Gaelic and Scots. Of approximately 5.1 million respondents, about 1.2 million (24%) could speak, read and write Scots, 3.2 million (62%) had no skills in Scots and
1666-423: A second time) and continue on to Wick. This procedure is mirrored for Inverness-bound services. Services between Inverness and Wick typically have a journey time of about 4 hours 20 minutes end-to-end. Georgemas Junction has been used for freight handling and had a new railhead opened in 2012 for the transportation of nuclear flasks , but the terminal has not attracted any commercial operators since. In 2020,
1785-595: A sharp, almost 180° right turn (from a west-southwest heading to north-northeast); Beauly station is located halfway along this curve. Closed in 1960, the station reopened in 2002 and its single operational platform has the distinction of being the shortest on the National Rail network, at just 15.06 metres (49 ft 5 in). The line then carries on north, crossing the historic county boundary from Inverness-shire into Ross and Cromarty just before reaching Muir of Ord station , which has two platforms and
1904-511: A single train each way running all the way to/from Wick. With the exception of some Wick services, all trains are timetabled to stop at every intermediate station. Dunrobin Castle station is only open during the summer months; no services call there in the winter. The stations at Culrain , Invershin , Rogart , Dunrobin Castle, Kildonan , Kinbrace , Altnabreac and Scotscalder are designated as request stops : passengers wishing to board
2023-506: A suitable medium of education or culture". Students reverted to Scots outside the classroom, but the reversion was not complete. What occurred, and has been occurring ever since, is a process of language attrition , whereby successive generations have adopted more and more features from Standard English. This process has accelerated rapidly since widespread access to mass media in English and increased population mobility became available after
2142-402: A supply route for Scapa Flow , Orkney . That the line extends beyond Ardgay in the county of Ross and Cromarty is due, to a large extent, to the railway enthusiasm (some might say madness) of the 3rd Duke of Sutherland . The duke realised his dream of running his own private train to and from his own station at Dunrobin Castle . The duke's enthusiasm took the line as far as Gartymore ,
2261-507: A temporary maintenance site at Muir of Ord. A new viaduct was opened in time for the 1990 summer season on 14 May 1990. All passenger trains are operated by ScotRail using Class 158 "Express Sprinter" diesel multiple units . The exact stopping pattern varies between each station, as not all trains run the full length of the Far North Line. All passenger services on the line start or terminate at Inverness . The service pattern
2380-647: A trial project funded by a £195,000 grant from the Scottish Government saw timber transported from Georgemas Junction to a processing facility near Inverness by Victa Railfreight. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway introduced two titled trains in 1936, the Orcadian and John O'Groat . In 1963, the line was listed for closure on the Beeching Report ; however, the Far North Line remained open due to pressure from protesters. Following
2499-513: Is among the shortest in all of Britain. There is no direct road connection between the two sides of the Kyle at this location, and a public footpath was only built alongside the viaduct in 2000; prior to this, the railway was the only way to travel between the two stations without taking a 7-mile-long (11 km) detour via Bonar Bridge. The Kyle once also marked the boundary between the historic counties of Ross and Cromarty and Sutherland ; however,
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#17327904894352618-532: Is entirely single-track, with only passing loops at some intermediate stations allowing trains to pass each other. Like other railway lines in the Highlands and northern Lowlands, it is not electrified and all trains are diesel-powered. The line links the city of Inverness , the largest city in the Scottish Highlands, with the towns of Wick and Thurso at the northeastern tip of Britain. Like
2737-562: Is in Scots, for example. Scott introduced vernacular dialogue to his novels. Other well-known authors like Robert Louis Stevenson , William Alexander, George MacDonald , J. M. Barrie and other members of the Kailyard school like Ian Maclaren also wrote in Scots or used it in dialogue. In the Victorian era popular Scottish newspapers regularly included articles and commentary in the vernacular, often of unprecedented proportions. In
2856-478: Is infrequent and very irregular, with intervals between consecutive trains at Inverness varying from just 15 minutes to as long as two-and-a-half hours. As of 2022, on weekdays (including Saturdays), there are 14 trains per day ( tpd ) arriving at Inverness from the north, and 12 northbound departures: On Sundays the services are even less frequent, with just 1 tpd (2 in the summer) to/from Kyle of Lochalsh, 1 tpd to/from Invergordon, 3 tpd to/from Tain, and just
2975-767: Is lykest to our language..." ( For though several have written of (the subject) in English, which is the language most similar to ours... ). However, with the increasing influence and availability of books printed in England, most writing in Scotland came to be done in the English fashion. In his first speech to the English Parliament in March 1603, King James VI and I declared, "Hath not God first united these two Kingdomes both in Language, Religion, and similitude of maners?" . Following James VI's move to London,
3094-432: Is no requirement to stop, the train can maintain line speed through the station, thus improving reliability on the whole line. The first of these kiosks was installed at Scotscalder on 15 August 2022 on a trial basis. Following the successful trial, the system was expanded on 20 December 2022 to cover five more request stops on the line, namely Culrain , Invershin , Rogart , Kildonan and Kinbrace . A further kiosk
3213-584: Is only open during the summer months (one of only two such stations on the National Rail network, alongside Falls of Cruachan elsewhere in Scotland), corresponding to the castle's annual opening times. The station is also notable for its lack of lighting; as such, no trains are scheduled to call at the platform before 9 am or after about 6 pm. The line continues along the coast for another 15 miles (24 km), occasionally coming just metres away from
3332-591: Is sometimes used in contemporary fiction, such as the Edinburgh dialect of Scots in Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (later made into a motion picture of the same name ). But'n'Ben A-Go-Go by Matthew Fitt is a cyberpunk novel written entirely in what Wir Ain Leed ("Our Own Language") calls "General Scots". Like all cyberpunk work, it contains imaginative neologisms . The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
3451-629: Is the last place on the line where passenger trains running in opposite directions can pass each other . The station serves the Forsinard Flows National Nature Reserve , among other nearby parts of the Flow Country; an RSPB visitor centre is adjacent to the station platforms. At Forsinard, the line crosses the A897, turns east-northeast, and does not meet another public road for over 17 miles (27 km). Soon,
3570-524: Is the site of the first passing loop on the line. The line continues to parallel the A862 as it passes through Conon Bridge station , which reopened in 2013 in a similar style to Beauly and whose platform is just 2 centimetres (0.8 in) longer than that at Beauly. Shortly afterwards, the line crosses the River Conon and passes through the village of Maryburgh before reaching Dingwall station –
3689-567: Is used to describe the Scots language after 1700. A seminal study of Scots was undertaken by JAH Murray and published as Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland . Murray's results were given further publicity by being included in Alexander John Ellis 's book On Early English Pronunciation, Part V alongside results from Orkney and Shetland, as well as the whole of England. Murray and Ellis differed slightly on
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3808-540: Is usually defined through the works of Robert John Gregg to include the counties of Down , Antrim , Londonderry and Donegal (especially in East Donegal and Inishowen ). More recently, the Fintona -born linguist Warren Maguire has argued that some of the criteria that Gregg used as distinctive of Ulster-Scots are common in south-west Tyrone and were found in other sites across Northern Ireland investigated by
3927-490: The A882 and B874 roads, and terminates at Wick station on the east coast. At 18 miles 35 chains (29.7 km), the distance between Georgemas Junction and Wick is the longest between any two adjacent stations on the line, although three other stations existed along this stretch until 1960. Wick is the nearest station to Wick Airport as well as to the village of John o' Groats (approximately 17 miles (27 km) to
4046-590: The A897 . Kildonan station , one of the least-used stations on the line, lies approximately halfway along the Strath; the station was the site of a second open level crossing until early 2022, when it was replaced with a more standard barrier crossing (ABCL) . The far end of the Strath, close to the point where the A897 meets the B871 road , marks the location of Kinbrace station . Beyond Kinbrace, in stark contrast to
4165-629: The A9 trunk road north of Inverness, the Far North Line broadly follows the east-facing coastline of the Moray Firth , with all three termini located on the coast. As such, the railway links many of the same places as the road. Many more places were served by both the railway and the road before three new road bridges were built: across the Beauly Firth (between Inverness and the Black Isle ),
4284-514: The Cold War there was a Composite Signals Organisation (CSO) radio monitoring station in Helmsdale itself. The CSO is associated with GCHQ . On 3 August 2008, Highland Council announced plans to modernise and catalyse industry in Helmsdale and its surrounding areas. This included a £3.5 million revamp of the harbour and the development of two battery processing factories. Work on the harbour
4403-626: The Cromarty Firth and the Dornoch Firth . As a result, at some locations the railway is now a long way inland from the modern route of the A9. The railway also loops a long way inland between Tain and Golspie , running via Lairg , which has never been on the A9; it was envisaged at the time of construction that this diversion would open the centre of Sutherland to trade. It also takes a large inland detour north of Helmsdale , running via
4522-481: The English Dialect Dictionary , edited by Joseph Wright . Wright had great difficulty in recruiting volunteers from Scotland, as many refused to cooperate with a venture that regarded Scots as a dialect of English, and he obtained enough help only through the assistance from a Professor Shearer in Scotland. Wright himself rejected the argument that Scots was a separate language, saying that this
4641-699: The Flow Country , which the A9 also never passed through; this diversion was dictated by the unfavourable terrain of the Caithness coastline. The railway line begins at Inverness station , where passenger connections are available for the Highland Main Line (to Perth , Glasgow , Edinburgh and London ) and the Aberdeen–Inverness line (to Inverness Airport , Elgin and Aberdeen ), as well as for bus services to destinations throughout
4760-479: The Flow Country . The building of the line through the Flow Country – one of the most scarcely populated parts of Scotland – was to avoid the Berriedale Braes . North of Helmsdale as far as Lybster, it would have been impractical to build a railway without massive civil engineering projects. Thus coastal villages such as Latheron and Lybster are not served by the line. In 1902, under the provisions of
4879-574: The Light Railways Act 1896 , the standard gauge Wick and Lybster Railway was built along the east coast of Caithness, running south from Wick to Lybster . This line was never profitable, and it closed in 1944. Historic branch lines also served Dornoch and the Black Isle . On 7 February 1989, Ness Viaduct, just west of Inverness station, collapsed in unprecedented flooding. The remaining 270 miles (430 km) of network to Kyle of Lochalsh and The Far North line had to be operated from
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4998-509: The Linguistic Survey of Scotland . Dialects of Scots include Insular Scots , Northern Scots , Central Scots , Southern Scots and Ulster Scots . It has been difficult to determine the number of speakers of Scots via census, because many respondents might interpret the question "Do you speak Scots?" in different ways. Campaigners for Scots pressed for this question to be included in the 2001 UK National Census . The results from
5117-501: The Low Countries . Scots also includes loan words in the legal and administrative fields resulting from contact with Middle Irish , and reflected in early medieval legal documents. Contemporary Scottish Gaelic loans are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as cèilidh , loch , whisky , glen and clan . Cumbric and Pictish , the medieval Brittonic languages of Northern England and Scotland, are
5236-735: The Protestant Church of Scotland adopted the 1611 Authorized King James Version of the Bible; subsequently, the Acts of Union 1707 led to Scotland joining England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain , having a single Parliament of Great Britain based in London. After the Union and the shift of political power to England, the use of Scots was discouraged by many in authority and education, as
5355-793: The Scottish Highlands . While the A9 leaves Inverness by crossing the Beauly Firth on the Kessock Bridge , the Far North Line instead heads west and runs alongside the Firth. The single track crosses both the River Ness and the Caledonian Canal before it leaves Inverness and parallels the A862 road towards the village of Beauly . After 10 miles (16 km), the line crosses the River Beauly and then takes
5474-469: The Second World War . It has recently taken on the nature of wholesale language shift , sometimes also termed language change , convergence or merger . By the end of the twentieth century, Scots was at an advanced stage of language death over much of Lowland Scotland . Residual features of Scots are often regarded as slang. A 2010 Scottish Government study of "public attitudes towards
5593-594: The University of Aberdeen , and only included reared speakers (people raised speaking Scots), not those who had learned the language. Part of the difference resulted from the central question posed by surveys: "Do you speak Scots?". In the Aberdeen University study, the question was augmented with the further clause "... or a dialect of Scots such as Border etc.", which resulted in greater recognition from respondents. The GRO concluded that there simply
5712-593: The West Germanic language family . Most commonly spoken in the Scottish Lowlands , the Northern Isles of Scotland , and northern Ulster in Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots ), it is sometimes called: Lowland Scots , to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic , the Celtic language that was historically restricted to most of the Scottish Highlands , the Hebrides , and Galloway after
5831-627: The prestige dialect of most of eastern Scotland. By the sixteenth century, Middle Scots had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England. From 1610 to the 1690s during the Plantation of Ulster , some 200,000 Scots-speaking Lowlanders settled as colonists in Ulster in Ireland. In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one. The name Modern Scots
5950-555: The " Buchan Claik ". The old-fashioned Scotch , an English loan, occurs occasionally, especially in Ulster. The term Lallans , a variant of the Modern Scots word lawlands [ˈlo̜ːlən(d)z, ˈlɑːlənz] , is also used, though this is more often taken to mean the Lallans literary form . Scots in Ireland is known in official circles as Ulster-Scots ( Ulstèr-Scotch in revivalist Ulster-Scots) or "Ullans",
6069-554: The Crowns in 1603, the Standard English of England came to have an increasing influence on the spelling of Scots through the increasing influence and availability of books printed in England. After the Acts of Union in 1707 the emerging Scottish form of Standard English replaced Scots for most formal writing in Scotland. The eighteenth-century Scots revival saw the introduction of a new literary language descended from
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#17327904894356188-781: The Highland Railway was grouped into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway , under the Railways Act 1921 . Like railway lines generally in Britain , the line was not a product of any strategic plan, but was an ad hoc development, facilitated by Private Acts of Parliament (which were themselves a significant expense for developers) and dependent on cooperation between companies and individuals, each with their own private vested interests. The line became strategically important during World War I and World War II as part of
6307-399: The Kingdom of Great Britain, there is ample evidence that Scots was widely held to be an independent sister language forming a pluricentric diasystem with English. German linguist Heinz Kloss considered Modern Scots a Halbsprache ('half language') in terms of an abstand and ausbau languages framework, although today in Scotland most people's speech is somewhere on
6426-489: The Middle English of Northumbria due to twelfth- and thirteenth-century immigration of Scandinavian-influenced Middle English–speakers from the North and Midlands of England . Later influences on the development of Scots came from the Romance languages via ecclesiastical and legal Latin , Norman French , and later Parisian French , due to the Auld Alliance . Additionally, there were Dutch and Middle Low German influences due to trade with and immigration from
6545-409: The Philosopher's Stane , a Scots translation of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , was published by Matthew Fitt . The vowel system of Modern Scots: Vowel length is usually conditioned by the Scottish vowel length rule . The orthography of Early Scots had become more or less standardised by the middle to late sixteenth century. After the Union of
6664-480: The Scots language was also featured. It was found that 1,508,540 people reported that they could speak Scots, with 2,444,659 reporting that they could speak, read, write or understand Scots, approximately 45% of Scotland's 2022 population. The Scottish Government set its first Scots Language Policy in 2015, in which it pledged to support its preservation and encourage respect, recognition and use of Scots. The Scottish Parliament website also offers some information on
6783-419: The Scots language" found that 64% of respondents (around 1,000 individuals in a representative sample of Scotland's adult population) "don't really think of Scots as a language", also finding "the most frequent speakers are least likely to agree that it is not a language (58%) and those never speaking Scots most likely to do so (72%)". Before the Treaty of Union 1707 , when Scotland and England joined to form
6902-512: The Scottish Executive recognises and respects Scots (in all its forms) as a distinct language, and does not consider the use of Scots to be an indication of poor competence in English. Evidence for its existence as a separate language lies in the extensive body of Scots literature, its independent – if somewhat fluid – orthographic conventions , and in its former use as the language of the original Parliament of Scotland . Because Scotland retained distinct political, legal, and religious systems after
7021-505: The Standard English cognate . This Written Scots drew not only on the vernacular, but also on the King James Bible , and was heavily influenced by the norms and conventions of Augustan English poetry . Consequently, this written Scots looked very similar to contemporary Standard English, suggesting a somewhat modified version of that, rather than a distinct speech form with a phonological system which had been developing independently for many centuries. This modern literary dialect, "Scots of
7140-497: The Union, many Scots terms passed into Scottish English. During the 2010s, increased interest was expressed in the language. The status of the language was raised in Scottish schools, with Scots being included in the new national school curriculum . Previously in Scotland's schools there had been little education taking place through the medium of Scots, although it may have been covered superficially in English lessons, which could entail reading some Scots literature and observing
7259-467: The activities of those such as Thomas Sheridan , who in 1761 gave a series of lectures on English elocution . Charging a guinea at a time (about £200 in today's money ), they were attended by over 300 men, and he was made a freeman of the City of Edinburgh . Following this, some of the city's intellectuals formed the Select Society for Promoting the Reading and Speaking of the English Language in Scotland. These eighteenth-century activities would lead to
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#17327904894357378-419: The beginning of the fifteenth century, the English language used in Scotland had arguably become a distinct language, albeit one lacking a name which clearly distinguished it from all the other English variants and dialects spoken in Britain. From 1495, the term Scottis was increasingly used to refer to the Lowland vernacular and Erse , meaning "Irish", was used as a name for Gaelic. For example, towards
7497-521: The book" or Standard Scots, once again gave Scots an orthography of its own, lacking neither "authority nor author". This literary language used throughout Lowland Scotland and Ulster, embodied by writers such as Allan Ramsay, Robert Fergusson, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Charles Murray , David Herbison , James Orr, James Hogg and William Laidlaw among others, is well described in the 1921 Manual of Modern Scots . Other authors developed dialect writing, preferring to represent their own speech in
7616-435: The border between English and Scots dialects. Scots was studied alongside English and Scots Gaelic in the Linguistic Survey of Scotland at the University of Edinburgh , which began in 1949 and began to publish results in the 1970s. Also beginning in the 1970s, the Atlas Linguarum Europae studied the Scots language used at 15 sites in Scotland, each with its own dialect. From the mid-sixteenth century, written Scots
7735-399: The busiest station on the line aside from Inverness, with just over 80 thousand passengers recorded in the 2019–20 financial year. At Dingwall Junction just north of the station, the Kyle of Lochalsh line diverges to the west. The Far North Line, meanwhile, rejoins the coast and continues northeast along the shoreline of the Cromarty Firth; the railway meets the A9 again shortly after, at
7854-400: The capacity of the lines. Between 2022 and 2023, the Far North Line became the first railway line in the United Kingdom to implement a new "Press & Ride" system for its request stops . Under the traditional system (still in use on the rest of the National Rail network), passengers wishing to board the train at a request stop had to flag the train by raising their arm; this meant that
7973-405: The coast at Golspie , with the station located at the western end of the village. Just east of Golspie, the line meets Dunrobin Castle station , which was built as a private, single-platform halt for the Duke of Sutherland to serve Dunrobin Castle a short distance south of the track. The station closed in 1965 but reopened in 1985; today, the station is a public request stop, although it
8092-403: The creation of Scottish Standard English . Scots remained the vernacular of many rural communities and the growing number of urban working-class Scots. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the use of Scots as a literary language was revived by several prominent Scotsmen such as Robert Burns . Such writers established a new cross-dialect literary norm. Scots terms were included in
8211-427: The driver needed to reduce the train's speed before a request stop (to look out for any potential passengers on the platform and be able to stop if necessary), even if the platform was empty. The new system, developed by Transport Scotland , envisaged the installation of an automatic kiosk (with a button for passengers to press) at each request stop. This alerts the driver about any waiting passengers in advance; if there
8330-694: The early twentieth century, a renaissance in the use of Scots occurred, its most vocal figure being Hugh MacDiarmid whose benchmark poem " A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle " (1926) did much to demonstrate the power of Scots as a modern idiom. Other contemporaries were Douglas Young , John Buchan , Sydney Goodsir Smith , Robert Garioch , Edith Anne Robertson and Robert McLellan . The revival extended to verse and other literature. In 1955, three Ayrshire men – Sandy MacMillan, an English teacher at Ayr Academy ; Thomas Limond, noted town chamberlain of Ayr ; and A. L. "Ross" Taylor, rector of Cumnock Academy – collaborated to write Bairnsangs ("Child Songs"),
8449-425: The elimination of steam traction by the early 1960s, trains on the line were normally hauled by Inverness allocated Class 24 diesel locomotives (D5114-32), then subsequently by Class 26 diesel locomotives. In the 1980s these were replaced by more powerful Class 37 locomotives, still with Mark 1 rolling stock. These were replaced by Class 156s in the 1990s by British Rail . Three trains each way per day (Mon-Sat)
8568-580: The end of the fifteenth century, William Dunbar was using Erse to refer to Gaelic and, in the early sixteenth century, Gavin Douglas was using Scottis as a name for the Lowland vernacular. The Gaelic of Scotland is now usually called Scottish Gaelic . Northumbrian Old English had been established in what is now southeastern Scotland as far as the River Forth by the seventh century, as
8687-539: The evening Marquee Dance the village population of 700 doubles thanks to visitors attending the dance. Helmsdale is home to Bunillidh Thistle F.C. and Helmsdale United. Helmsdale is a fishing port at the estuary of the River Helmsdale . It was once the home of one of the largest herring fleets in Europe. Scots language Scots is a language variety descended from Early Middle English in
8806-461: The fifteenth century, much literature based on the Royal Court in Edinburgh and the University of St Andrews was produced by writers such as Robert Henryson , William Dunbar , Gavin Douglas and David Lyndsay . The Complaynt of Scotland was an early printed work in Scots. The Eneados is a Middle Scots translation of Virgil 's Aeneid , completed by Gavin Douglas in 1513. After
8925-622: The language in Scots. In September 2024, experts of the Council of Europe called on the UK Government to "boost support for regional and minority languages", including the Scots Language. The serious use of the Scots language for news, encyclopaediae, documentaries, etc., remains rare. It is reportedly reserved for niches where it is deemed acceptable, e.g. comedy, Burns Night or traditions' representations. Since 2016,
9044-574: The language used in different situations. Such an approach would be inappropriate for a Census." Thus, although it was acknowledged that the "inclusion of such a Census question would undoubtedly raise the profile of Scots", no question about Scots was, in the end, included in the 2001 Census. The Scottish Government's Pupils in Scotland Census 2008 found that 306 pupils spoke Scots as their main home language. A Scottish Government study in 2010 found that 85% of around 1000 respondents (being
9163-445: The least-used stations on the line, typically averaging less than 1 passenger per day. After another two and a half miles (4.0 km), the track passes south of Halkirk – the first unscattered village in over 44 route miles (71 km), although there is no longer a railway station serving it (the old station having closed in 1960 along with 19 others on the line). The line reaches its penultimate station, Georgemas Junction , at
9282-409: The line leaves the county of Sutherland and enters Caithness . As the track passes through Caithness countryside, it eventually reaches Altnabreac station . This single-platform halt is often listed as one of Britain's most geographically isolated railway stations, being about 11 miles (18 km) from the nearest village and 6.8 miles (11 km) from the nearest paved road. There are, however,
9401-473: The line takes a sharp turn northwest and heads inland towards the Flow Country – the largest expanse of blanket bog in Europe. This is by far the most remote section of the entire line: the majority of the intermediate stations along this stretch are request stops , and each station only serves a handful of isolated houses. Initially, the single track follows the course of the Strath of Kildonan together with
9520-587: The local community. West Helmsdale lies across the river from the main village above the railway station; Old Helmsdale is immediately to the north while East Helmsdale is a settlement less than one mile (1.5 kilometres) east. The village is on the A9 road , at a junction with the A897 to Melvich, and has a railway station on the Far North Line . Buses operate about every two hours from Monday to Saturday and infrequently on Sundays from Helmsdale to Brora , Golspie , Dornoch , Tain and Inverness in
9639-571: The local dialect. Much of the material used was often Standard English disguised as Scots, which caused upset among proponents of Standard English and proponents of Scots alike. One example of the educational establishment's approach to Scots is, "Write a poem in Scots. (It is important not to be worried about spelling in this – write as you hear the sounds in your head.)", whereas guidelines for English require teaching pupils to be "writing fluently and legibly with accurate spelling and punctuation". A course in Scots language and culture delivered through
9758-544: The medium of Standard English and produced by the Open University (OU) in Scotland, the Open University's School of Languages and Applied Linguistics as well as Education Scotland became available online for the first time in December 2019. In the 2011 Scottish census , a question on Scots language ability was featured In the 2022 census conducted by the Scottish Government , a question in relation to
9877-527: The modern boundary between the respective lieutenancy areas lies several miles to the south, putting both stations in modern-day Sutherland. The track then continues northwards along the River Shin for another 5.5 miles (8.9 km) until it reaches Lairg station , located about 1.6 miles (2.6 km) south of the village itself . This is the furthest point away from the coast on the Lairg loop; beyond
9996-411: The mostly mountainous Scottish Highlands , there are no tunnels on the line. The line is almost entirely single-track, but there are 10 double-track passing loops along the route, which allow trains to pass each other: these are at Muir of Ord , Dingwall , Invergordon , Tain , Ardgay , Lairg , Rogart , Brora , Helmsdale and Forsinard . The loops at Rogart and Brora are not timetabled to be
10115-420: The newspaper The National has regularly published articles in the language. The 2010s also saw an increasing number of English books translated in Scots and becoming widely available, particularly those in popular children's fiction series such as The Gruffalo , Harry Potter , Diary of a Wimpy Kid , and several by Roald Dahl and David Walliams . In 2021, the music streaming service Spotify created
10234-488: The north end of the Cromarty Bridge . The next station on the line is Alness , which closed in 1960 but reopened 13 years later. After Alness the line turns gently eastwards to reach Invergordon station before turning northeast again. The line continues in this direction for nearly 10 miles (16 km) without another station until Fearn . Located approximately 1.2 miles (1.9 km) west of Hill of Fearn ,
10353-542: The north) at the northeastern tip of mainland Britain, which is linked to the town by a bus service operated by Stagecoach Highlands . The full line between Inverness and Wick (excluding the Thurso branch) is 161 miles 33 chains (259.8 km) long; the Thurso branch has a length of 6 miles 50 chains (10.7 km). The whole line is unelectrified . Despite its considerable length and passing through
10472-401: The old court Scots, but with an orthography that had abandoned some of the more distinctive old Scots spellings and adopted many standard English spellings. Despite the updated spelling, however, the rhymes make it clear that a Scots pronunciation was intended. These writings also introduced what came to be known as the apologetic apostrophe , generally occurring where a consonant exists in
10591-456: The other. Scots is sometimes regarded as a variety of English, though it has its own distinct dialects; other scholars treat Scots as a distinct Germanic language, in the way that Norwegian is closely linked to but distinct from Danish . Native speakers sometimes refer to their vernacular as braid Scots (or "broad Scots" in English) or use a dialect name such as the " Doric " or
10710-556: The passing place for any scheduled passenger services, but they can be used as such during major disruption on the line. The whole line north of the former Clunes station (about 7 miles (11 km) west of Inverness), together with the Kyle of Lochalsh line , are signalled using the Radio Electronic Token Block system, which is very cost-effective in both implementation and maintenance, but significantly limits
10829-497: The past (e.g. Corby or the former mining areas of Kent ). In the 2022 census conducted by the Scottish Government , it was found that 1,508,540 people reported that they could speak Scots, with 2,444,659 reporting that they could speak, read, write or understand Scots, approximately 45% of Scotland's 2022 population. Among the earliest Scots literature is John Barbour's Brus (fourteenth century), Wyntoun 's Cronykil and Blind Harry 's The Wallace (fifteenth century). From
10948-456: The point where the line crosses the A9 again. Adjoining the station on the south side is a freight terminal built in 2012 by Direct Rail Services ; this was used by trains taking nuclear material from Dounreay to Sellafield . At Georgemas Junction, which is not a request stop, the lines to Thurso and Wick diverge; this is the northernmost railway junction in the United Kingdom. The Wick-facing Thurso branch curves north immediately west of
11067-480: The primary source of traffic at the station, it is also the nearest railway stop to the Seaboard Villages . The railway then takes a sharp turn to run northwest for approximately 3 miles (5 km) until it reaches Tain station on the south side of the Dornoch Firth . A short distance west of Tain , the Far North Line and the A9 part ways again – while the road crosses the Dornoch Firth by means of
11186-518: The region was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria . By the tenth century, Middle Irish was the language of the Scottish court , and the common use of Old English remained largely confined to this area until the thirteenth century. The succeeding variety of Northern Early Middle English spoken in southeastern Scotland is also known as Early Scots . It began to further diverge from
11305-413: The remainder had some degree of skill, such as understanding Scots (0.27 million, 5.2%) or being able to speak it but not read or write it (0.18 million, 3.5%). There were also small numbers of Scots speakers recorded in England and Wales on the 2011 Census, with the largest numbers being either in bordering areas (e.g. Carlisle ) or in areas that had recruited large numbers of Scottish workers in
11424-410: The rest of the line (and most of the Scottish Highlands ), the topography of the surrounding area becomes flat and low-lying, and will remain so until the railway's two northern termini. The line carries on northwards alongside the A897 for seven and a half more miles (12.1 km) until it reaches Forsinard station which, despite its isolation, is not a request stop. With two platforms, this station
11543-521: The seventeenth century, anglicisation increased. At the time, many of the oral ballads from the borders and the North East were written down. Writers of the period were Robert Sempill , Robert Sempill the younger , Francis Sempill , Lady Wardlaw and Lady Grizel Baillie . In the eighteenth century, writers such as Allan Ramsay , Robert Burns , James Orr , Robert Fergusson and Walter Scott continued to use Scots – Burns's " Auld Lang Syne "
11662-518: The shoreline, passing through Brora station before reaching the village of Helmsdale , located at the mouth of the river of the same name . Helmsdale station lies on the other side of the river from most of the village. Beyond Helmsdale, the railway is forced to divert away from the Moray Firth coast and from the A9 once again, avoiding the unfavourable terrain of the Ord of Caithness . Instead,
11781-634: The sixteenth century; or Broad Scots , to distinguish it from Scottish Standard English . Modern Scots is a sister language of Modern English , as the two diverged from the same medieval form of English. Scots is recognised as an indigenous language of Scotland by the Scottish government, a regional or minority language of Europe, and a vulnerable language by UNESCO . In a Scottish census from 2022, over 1.5 million people in Scotland reported being able to speak Scots. Given that there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing
11900-482: The slightly larger village of Bonar Bridge on the opposite side of the Kyle of Sutherland . From Ardgay, the line runs northwards alongside the Kyle, and after just over 3 miles (5 km) it reaches the first two request stops en route – Culrain and Invershin , which lie on either side of the Invershin Viaduct over the Kyle. At just 34 chains (680 m), the distance between these two stations
12019-543: The south and Berriedale , Dunbeath , Halkirk , Thurso and Scrabster in the north. These are on routes X98 and X99 and are operated by Stagecoach Highlands , but tickets can be bought on the Citylink website. Facilities in Helmsdale include an independent youth hostel , a heritage centre , an art gallery , and an inn . Helmsdale hosts a Highland Games which are held on the third Saturday in August each year. For
12138-618: The station and runs alongside the River Thurso , paralleling the A9 until it reaches Thurso station – the northernmost railway station in Britain, by the northern coast of Scotland. Thurso is the nearest station to the ferry terminal at Scrabster , which has ferry services to and from the town of Stromness in the Orkney Islands . Meanwhile, the main line to Wick continues in an east-southeasterly direction, sandwiched between
12257-468: The station the line curves sharply eastwards and heads back towards the Moray Firth along Strath Fleet, now paralleling the A839 road . The line then passes through another request stop, Rogart , which actually lies in the small hamlet of Pittentrail and about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of Rogart itself; the station briefly closed in 1960, only to be reopened less than 9 months later. Immediately east of
12376-482: The station there is an open level crossing – the only such crossing on the line. Four miles (6.4 km) after Rogart, the railway meets the A9 again, as it passes by Mound Alderwoods and Loch Fleet . This was once the site of The Mound station and a junction with the Dornoch Light Railway to Dornoch; both the station and the branch closed in 1960. The railway then turns northeast and returns to
12495-467: The suspected source of a small number of Scots words, such as lum (derived from Cumbric) meaning "chimney". From the thirteenth century, the Early Scots language spread further into Scotland via the burghs , which were proto-urban institutions first established by King David I . In fourteenth-century Scotland, the growth in prestige of Early Scots and the complementary decline of French made Scots
12614-612: The train at these stations must press a button at a designated kiosk on the platform (except at Altnabreac, where passengers need to flag the train by raising their arm – see above ), while those wishing to alight must inform the on-board guard to arrange for the train to stop. If there are no passengers wishing to get on or off the train, it will pass through without stopping. Since 2000, trains to and from Wick have run via Thurso. On arrival at Georgemas Junction from Inverness, trains reverse to serve Thurso, then reverse again from Thurso to run back to Georgemas Junction (stopping there for
12733-820: The twentieth-century biographer of James Boswell (1740–1795), described James's view of the use of Scots by his father Alexander Boswell (1706–1782) in the eighteenth century while serving as a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland : He scorned modern literature, spoke broad Scots from the bench, and even in writing took no pains to avoid the Scotticisms which most of his colleagues were coming to regard as vulgar. However, others did scorn Scots, such as Scottish Enlightenment intellectuals David Hume and Adam Smith , who went to great lengths to get rid of every Scotticism from their writings. Following such examples, many well-off Scots took to learning English through
12852-550: The two villages via Dornoch , which led to the existing route via Lairg being sometimes unofficially called the "Lairg loop". Soon after the A9 splits away, the line crosses the lieutenancy area boundary from Ross and Cromarty into Sutherland . The track follows the route of the A836 until the next station on the line, Ardgay , at the end of the Dornoch Firth. The station is in the village of Ardgay and also serves
12971-673: The varieties of Scots are dialects of Scottish English or constitute a separate language in their own right. The UK government now accepts Scots as a regional language and has recognised it as such under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . Notwithstanding the UK government's and the Scottish Executive's obligations under part II of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages,
13090-508: The village, Bun Ilidh , means Ilie-foot . Norse settlers called the strath Hjalmundal , meaning Dale of the Helmet , from which the modern village name Helmsdale is derived. The remains of Helmsdale Castle were demolished in the 1970s in order to build the new A9 road bridge. The castle was the location of the murder of John Gordon, 11th Earl of Sutherland and his Countess, Marion Seton, in 1567. They were poisoned by Isobel Sinclair,
13209-546: The wife of Gordon of Gartly. Isobel Sinclair's own son also died, but the fifteen-year-old heir of Sutherland , Alexander Gordon was unharmed. He was made to marry the Earl of Caithness ’s daughter Barbara Sinclair. In 1569 he escaped from the Sinclairs to Huntly Castle . The previous bridge, which still stands, was designed by Thomas Telford and completed in 1811. The last force-fire (a sort of sacred flame) in Helmsdale
13328-489: Was a "quite modern mistake". During the first half of the twentieth century, knowledge of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literary norms waned, and as of 2006 , there is no institutionalised standard literary form. By the 1940s, the Scottish Education Department 's language policy was that Scots had no value: "it is not the language of 'educated' people anywhere, and could not be described as
13447-591: Was added at Dunrobin Castle in May 2023. The last kiosk, at Altnabreac , was also expected to be in operation from spring 2023; however, this has been delayed indefinitely, reportedly due to local homeowners blocking access to the station, and as of December 2023 the kiosk is yet to be installed. The line was built in several stages: Much of the work was done by the Inverness -based Highland Railway company or, when completed, taken over by that company. In 1923
13566-468: Was in about 1818. Two tributaries of the river were the scene of a gold rush in 1869. The history of Kildonan's gold started in 1818, when a single nugget of gold was found near the Suisgill and Kildonan burns. Late in 1868, a brief announcement in a local newspaper stated that gold had been discovered at Kildonan in the county of Sutherland. The credit for the discovery goes to Robert Nelson Gilchrist,
13685-659: Was increasingly influenced by the developing Standard English of Southern England due to developments in royal and political interactions with England. When William Flower , an English herald , spoke with Mary of Guise and her councillors in 1560, they first used the "Scottyshe toung" . As he found this hard to understand, they switched into her native French. King James VI , who in 1603 became James I of England , observed in his work Some Reulis and Cautelis to Be Observit and Eschewit in Scottis Poesie that "For albeit sindrie hes written of it in English, quhilk
13804-415: Was not enough linguistic self-awareness amongst the Scottish populace, with people still thinking of themselves as speaking badly pronounced, grammatically inferior English rather than Scots, for an accurate census to be taken. The GRO research concluded that "[a] more precise estimate of genuine Scots language ability would require a more in-depth interview survey and may involve asking various questions about
13923-529: Was set to begin in spring 2009, while the battery plants were expected to open before May 2009. It was hoped up to 50 new jobs would be created. On 7 August 2024, King Charles III visited Helmsdale railway station to mark the 150th anniversary of the Sutherland and Caithness railway line . The King, met railway workers, representatives of Helmsdale Community Council and members of Sutherland Schools Pipe Band. He afterwards laid flowers at Helmsdale War Memorial to mark its centenary and met veterans and members of
14042-432: Was the notion of "Scottishness" itself. Many leading Scots of the period, such as David Hume , defined themselves as Northern British rather than Scottish. They attempted to rid themselves of their Scots in a bid to establish standard English as the official language of the newly formed union. Nevertheless, Scots was still spoken across a wide range of domains until the end of the eighteenth century. Frederick Pottle ,
14161-497: Was translated into Scots by Rab Wilson and published in 2004. Alexander Hutchison has translated the poetry of Catullus into Scots, and in the 1980s, Liz Lochhead produced a Scots translation of Tartuffe by Molière . J. K. Annand translated poetry and fiction from German and Medieval Latin into Scots. The strip cartoons Oor Wullie and The Broons in the Sunday Post use some Scots. In 2018, Harry Potter and
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