Great Sugar Loaf Mountain (Irish: Ó Cualann; “Lump of Cualu”), with heather prairie blooming in the foreground and the remainder of the Wicklow Mountains in the background; county Wicklow, Ireland. ??

The name of this mountain reflects the original and more ancient name of the region, for Cualu was the name of a territory that encompassed almost the whole of present county Wicklow and parts of county Dublin, from Arklow to the river Liffey. According to the Irish place-name index, www.logainm.ie, the Wicklow Mountains were also formerly known as Sliabh Ruadh, meaning “Red Mountain”. The current Irish name is Sléibhte Chill Mhantáin; “Mountains of the Church of St. Mantan”, and is more modern.

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Cragivar Castle, Scotland,
16th century

In only two councils was the population majority religious, with Na h-Eileanan Siar having the largest response of Church of Scotland (35.3%) and in Inverclyde being Catholic (33.4%) as the most common response.

Additionally, large ethnic change is happening in Scotland. 12.9% are now from an ethnic minority background, compared to 8.2% in 2011 and 4.5% in 2001. I'll list these out.

Irish: 1.02% to 1.05%
Polish: 1.16% to 1.67%
Gypsy/Traveller: 0.08% to 0.06%
Roma: 0.06% (not previously counted)
Showman/woman: 0.03% (not previously counted)
Other White: 1.93% to 2.92%
Mixed: 0.37% to 1.12%
Pakistani: 0.93% to 1.34%
Indian: 0.62% to 0.97%
Bangladeshi: 0.07% to 0.13%
Chinese: 0.64% to 0.87%
Other Asian: 0.4% to 0.59%
African: 0.56% to 1.08%
Carribbean: 0.12% stable
Arab: 0.18% to 0.41%
Other: 0.09% to 0.5%

Around 3 quarters of the Other White group wrote a European origin in their answer. Aberdeen has the biggest Polish population portion, 4.4%, Edinburgh is at 3.2%. In Aberdeen City, the Tillydrone/Seaton/Old Aberdeen ward has the highest portion, at 13.2%.

The biggest takeaway is that Scotland's population would have decreased were it not for migration. This is framed as an issue by many in charge, but a natural population decrease is not necessarily a bad thing.

Now for the good news - Scottish Gaelic.

Finally reversing the trend of the language's slow decline, 2.5% of the population aged 3 and above has some skill in Gaelic, compared to 1.7% in 2011 and 1.9% in 2001. Not quite the comeback of the century, but encouraging nonetheless. I imagine much of this is due to increased government focus in this area with sites like LearnGaelic.scot and SpeakGaelic.scot being supported and deployed, in addition to the Gaelic course being added to the Duolingo platform. Not surprisingly, Na h-Eileanan Siar has the highest percentage of Gaelic speakers at 57.2%. The Highland council is second, with 8.1% of its residents speaking the language, Argyll & Bute being third at 6.2%. All other councils had less than 3%.

The percentage of people with some skill in the Scots language also increased, 46.6% from 37.7%. The north-east leads in this category, with Aberdeenshire having the highest at 64.1%, and Na h-Eileanan Siar the lowest at 30.7%.

Further information available at https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/2022-results/scotland-s-census-2022-ethnic-group-national-identity-language-and-religion/. I have simply highlighted the details I find most relevant.

Fragment of a Pictish carved stone found at Forteviot, in Strathearn, Scotland; 9th century AD. ??????? The bizarre imagery features a bull biting a serpent. Forteviot was the first royal seat or inaugural site of the kings of Alba (i.e. Scotland), and the stone is thought to date to the early days of the kingdom when it was first founded.

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View of Benbulben mountain from Rosses Point, in county Sligo, Ireland.

Rosses Point was the site of a medieval battle between the Irish Kingdom of Tír Chonaill and the Kingdom of England. ??⚔️??????? The Battle of Creadran Cille was fought in the year 1257, resulting in victory for king Gofraidh Ua Domhnaill (Anglicized: Geoffrey/Godfrey O’Donnell) of Tír Chonaill. The forces of the English Lordship of Ireland were led by Maurice FitzGerald, 2nd Lord of Offaly. FitzGerald and O’Donnell met in single combat during the battle, inflicting severe wounds upon each other, from which FitzGerald later died. His army suffered severe losses and was ultimately put to flight. The Irish followed up the battle by sacking and burning the town of Sligo. The battle was a revanche for Tír Chonaill, which had lost the Battle of Ballyshannon ten years earlier against the same FitzGerald, who held the title of Chief Justiciar of Ireland at that time (i.e. governor or viceroy). Gofraidh’s predecessor as king of Tír Chonaill, Máel Sechnaill Ua Domhnaill, had lost his life in that battle.

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