The northern part of the island that the Romans called “Albion” runs from the southern extent of the Pennine Hills, in the Derbyshire Peak District, up to the Orkney and Shetland Isles lying off the north coast. North Britain contains the greater part of upland Britain and has an extensive coastline with many off-shore islands. The coast of Argyll, one of the regions on the west coast, is said to be longer than that of France. Shetland has 900 miles of coastline.
When it comes to human settlement, the regions of North Britain can be defined in many ways. We can make a case for four or five distinct regions in both Scotland and in northern England, with the many of the islands, such as the Isle of Man expressing further, unique identities.
Rivers have been often been used to define regional boundaries,, but this approach has little relevance in modern life. As a traveller, the only sense of transition that I get is when I cross the hills, using one of the numerous routes across the Pennines, or travelling across Rannoch Moor. The sense is strongest at Carter Bar, with the possibility of great views across the Borders and a steep, but largely hidden, descent into Northumbria. But the modern tourist industry has designed the crossing to look like a border post.
To be fair, for many years it was the site of the annual tryst where the English and the Scots Lairds of the Marches met with their men to settle outstanding grievances under the rough laws of this wild landscape.
I remember from my childhood that it was just a place to stop for some fresh air, and a bit of a pic-nic. But now when I stop there, I sense the transition of the high pass and I think of many other "summit" areas where competing families could have met in "no-man's land" to prevent the worst excesses of territorial rivalry.
Beattock has even more of the mountain pass about it, with Glasgow beckoning to the north and empty border lands to the east and west, and down the valley of the Eden to Carlisle
The hard road from Carlisle to Hawick, passing by the grim Hermitage Castle on what is now the A7, similarly takes us through a landscape where sheep outnumbered people many times over, and they and the hardy cattle were the currency of generations of rievers. Over generations this land was ravaged by the territorial ambitions of Scots and English kings, queens and nobility.
The main split in North Britain is not north-to-south, but east-to-west. The uplands form the natural barriers. The populations of Barnoldswick and Todmorden have become apoplectic in the past at the slightest hint that a boundary line on the map might be altered. Sometimes it is difficult to believe that the Wars of the Roses were over 500 years ago.
Further north, the cultural differences become more distinct and go further back into history, resulting in Scotland having at least three languages: Gaelic (related to Irish), Brythonic (nowadays sometimes named "Old Welsh") and variants of Anglian (both "Scots" and "modern English") deriving from Middle English.
The western parts of the country have a rich celtic heritage, with the Gaelic being one of Europe's oldest languages.
The Brythonic languages, once prevalent in Galloway, Cumbria, the Borders and further east died out, and it has been suggested that some of the ‘British tribes’ left for North Wales, filling the vacuum left by the demise of Roman settlers, and contributing to the marked differences between North and South Welsh. There is also speculation that eastern tribes such as the Picts had languages in this group.
In the east and south the Scots tongue shares many words with modern Scandanavian languages and carries germanic patterns of speech, Known north of the Tay as “the Doric” (after the Greek for “country-folk”), and in the Borders and in the Central Belt (including the Lothians and Fife) as Lallans, (Lowlands) it is the mother tongue of Robert Burns and is closely related to the dialects of Anglian in Northumbria. The distinct nordic and germanic influences push at the line between a dialect and a distinct language, as English readers of Burns will know.
Similarly the dialects of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria are influenced by Scandanavia and the landscape studded with nordic place names all the way up into the high hills.
Local difference and a strong sense of local identity remain marked characteristics of North Britons, be they English or Scots, to the extent that many immigrants have learned to respect the same differences.
Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang’s my arm
The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
You pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o’need
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead
"Ode to a Haggis" - Robert Burns
- If hosen and shoon thou ne'er gav'st nane
The whinnes sall prick thee to the bare bane.
- From Whinny-muir when thou may'st pass,
To Brig o' Dread thou com'st at last;Lyke Wake Walk
(Traditional, NE England)
Dhannsainn is ruidhleadh mi
Air oidhche banais Mór a'Cheannaich
Dhannsainn is ruidhleadh mi
Air oidhche banais Mórag
Dhannsainn is ruidhleadh mi
Air oidhche banais Mór a'Cheannaich
Dhannsainn is ruidhleadh mi
Air oidhche banais MóragTraditional Puirt A Beul, via Capercaillie