Scotland (Alba in Gaelic) is a nation in northwest Europe and a constituent country of the United Kingdom. The country takes up the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shares a land border to the south with England and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the south-west.

The Kingdom of Scotland was an independent state until 1 May 1707, when the Act of Union resulted in an incorporating union with the Kingdom of England to create the Kingdom of Great Britain.