Edinburgh

The current capital of Scotland. There is controversy over the origins of the name Edinburgh, which may derive from King Edwin of Northumbria (Edwins-burgh, burgh being the Northumbrian and later Scots word for fort or town) or from the earlier Gaelic 'Dunedin'.

Edinburgh has a population of around half a million souls. It is the home of the Scottish parliament, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and the world's largest annual arts festival, the Edinburgh Festival.

The city is also a centre of commerce, education, and food processing. Natives of Edinburgh are called 'Edinburgers'. The unofficial motto of the city is "You'll have had your tea" which is a reference to the unofficial motto of their great rival Glasgow - "Your tea's oot".

Edinburgh has two football clubs Hibernian FC (nickname: the Hibees) and Heart of Midlothian FC (nickname: the Jambos). Both play in the Scottish Premier League. The famous author Sir Walter Scott wrote a novel "The Heart of Midlothian" based around the early days of the club and its founder Vladimir Romanov, an exile from Tsarist Russia.

Famous natives of Edinburgh: Sean Connery (actor) Irvine Welsh (author) Les McKeown (classical musician) James Connolly (political activist) Arthur Conan Doyle (author) John Leslie (television presenter) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author) Robert Louis Stevenson (author) Ian Rankin (author) Walter Scott (author) James Clerk Maxwell (physicist) James Hutton (geologist) John Napier (mathematician) David Hume (philosopher) Adam Smith (philosopher and economist) Tony Blair (politician and entertainer) Malcolm Rifkind (politician)