Phenotypical observations on the Scottish people

[Watersater79]

Good afternoon/morning
I just got back from a 7 day trip to Scotland I did with my dad. We flew into Edinburgh and basically drove around the country in a clockwise direction. We drove up the east coast (Fife/Angus/Aberdeenshire), whereby we stayed for Aberdeen in one night, whereby we then drove northwest/north into the Highlands. Our point of destination at this point was Orkney. This was a seismic drive and we stopped off briefly in Elgin, Moray. I also had a small wander around Thurso once we got to the top of the mainland, after which we got the ferry. After two full days in Orkney we went back to the 'mainland' on the ferry and then drove down the west coast. On said day, we stopped in Inverness, and had a good walk around (got a good feel of the place). We spent the night in Fort William.... We then re-entered the lowlands, through the town of Dumbarton (which means 'fortress of the Britons' in Gaelic), and continued through the Glasgow metropolitan area. After that we were back in Edinburgh.
It was a good time, I needed a 'wee' break from work. Now we get to the Autistic side of things; I move onto the Scottish populace. In fairness, I was too smitten by the scenery to do a huge amount of 'observing'. From what I did observe, I can say that the Scottish are very varied in terms of height. Bizarrely I saw a lot of VERY tall women, but a lot of VERY short men.
People were huge up in Caithness/Orkney, however, no doubt that is courtesy of the Norse admixture (even if it does only amount to 20-25% in said area). However, blonde hair was very rare in said area, with the vast majority having dark brown hair. I could tell that the vast majority of blondes I saw in Scotland were dyed. Interestingly enough, I saw just as much brown eyes as blue eyes, and green eyes are pretty rare, unlike in Ireland. Despite it's prosperity Edinburgh did 'nae' seem particularly tall, and that certainly could not could be said for the rest of the east-coast as well. As a whole, the Scottish do seem 'stockier' than the English, but that could be assisted by diet. 80% of the populace also had very fair skin, which should not serve as a big surprise.
In this context, the subject of facial features is an interesting one. A great swathe of people just looked distinctly 'Scottish'; a lot just wouldn't pass as English. However, aside from those who didn't pass anywhere other than in Scotland, those who also struggled to pass as English, in my eyes, passed flawlessly as Welsh. There is some Scottish-Welsh phenotypical overlap that is undeniable, and then one reads that the majority of the historic Scottish genome is Brythonic/Pictish and it makes some sense. I don't quite understand how the Welsh seem to overlap genetically more with the Irish than the Scottish, when both groups are firmly native to 'Britannia'. I would say 50% of those who I saw (I am excluding the Central Belt/Glasgow, I barely saw anything there and there was also shit-tonnes of Irish immigration to said area), were in the above camp, with the other 50% just looking pan-Isles. When Scottish people don't have that distinctive 'Scottish' look they usually just look English to me, albeit a bit more robust.
That is another vital point as well; robust, round faces were EXTREMELY common, and I seldom saw anyone with a VERY long, narrow face (certainly not on the level that you see in England). The Scottish are definitely broader-faced on average than the Irish and that almost certainly goes for when you compare them to the English (the Irish are, ofc, slightly broader-faced than the English) as well. I would say that heart-shaped faces (wide forehead/cheekbones, narrow jawline) were much more common than square faces, however. Excluding that last sentence, the Scottish and Welsh are also very similar in this regard, both having 'robust', 'strong' faces on average and, I must reiterate, in this context, being 'broader' than the Irish/English. There were a lot of Dutchies visiting the country as well, and it was interesting seeing the comparison between them and the locals; that comparison should quell any assumptions from those who say that Scotland is still predominantly 'Nordic'. The Dutch were noticeably long/narrow-faced and their skulls/faces just seemed less 'heavy' (if you catch my drift). It was a stark contrast.
Also, I saw some pretty women, although unfortunately, pretty much all of them were steamrolled in makeup (which does 'nae' give a fine representative). There were two I saw who were VERY attractive, but both of them represented a phenotypical minority. The girl serving us at the pie shop in Moray; a dark-haired, dark-eyed, swarthy type, I am under no illusions her parentage was almost entirely from the area. She was basically a robust Alpine-Mediterranid. She had that pan-Scottish/Welsh look (another difference here is that a lot of swarthy Welsh types pass flawlessly in southern Europe, whilst, aside from Wales, swarthy Scottish types find it hard to). There was another girl who served us, who was ginger, pale as snow, and with brown eyes. They only had a minimal amount of makeup. They were truly natural beauties. Plenty of other Scottish girls were perfectly 'nice-looking' but there were certainly no knock-out types like you see in England (not discounting the fact that the polarisation in looks in England is still unfounded anywhere else).
There is also no denying the Scottish accent is the best in the world and the people are unrivalled in terms of their hospitality/amicability. In my 7 days there, I also only saw 12 kilts, all of which were in Edinburgh . It's a fascinating/beautiful country; the only area I haven't really touched at this point is the south-west (thinking of you, Anglo-Celtic). I will definitely be revisiting some other time, focusing my sights on said area.
But Scotland is fascinating in the context that its people are, in terms of genetics, predominantly Brythonic/Pictish, but due to historic conflicts/dynastic replacements, they are named after an Irish tribe whilst speaking (excluding those in the western extremities) a Germanic language (Scottish English or Scots)!
Anyway, let's get this thread started!

[Oliver109]

Hi thanks for your write up, I always appreciate a British thread on here and your observations are interesting and I generally agree, your point on narrow faces is bang on, my dad sort of looked out of place in Scotland despite being quite pale and blonde, he had a narrow face and large nose like Bruce Forsyth. I would say that the short men are probably the result of poor living standards though many Scottish men and women are naturally tall though I don't think they are as tall on average as the Belgians or some affluent southern English. There is a sort of rough featured provincial British look that you see in places like the West Midlands, Wales and northern England and it is similar to that of Scots, I know what you mean about overlap between many Welsh and Scots.

[Watersater79]

Hi thanks for your write up, I always appreciate a British thread on here and your observations are interesting and I generally agree, your point on narrow faces is bang on, my dad sort of looked out of place in Scotland despite being quite pale and blonde, he had a narrow face and large nose like Bruce Forsyth. I would say that the short men are probably the result of poor living standards though many Scottish men and women are naturally tall though I don't think they are as tall on average as the Belgians or some affluent southern English. There is a sort of rough featured provincial British look that you see in places like the West Midlands, Wales and northern England and it is similar to that of Scots, I know what you mean about overlap between many Welsh and Scots.

For the record, I should have phrased it better. Plenty of Scots had long faces, but they still don’t have that ‘horsey’ look you see on a lot of English and it was, unsurprisingly, to a far lesser extent than in England. I will also reiterate it is interesting just how many very tall women I saw, in comparison to the amount of very short men. Lots of couples where the women was as tall/taller than the gent.
Another thing I noticed was that there was a polarisation in terms of build, with a lot of tall men being very ‘big’ generally and shorter/short men genuinely being ‘small’ rather than being stocky.

[Oliver109]

For the record, I should have phrased it better. Plenty of Scots had long faces, but they still don’t have that ‘horsey’ look you see on a lot of English and it was, unsurprisingly, to a far lesser extent than in England. I will also reiterate it is interesting just how many very tall women I saw, in comparison to the amount of very short men. Lots of couples where the women was as tall/taller than the gent.
Another thing I noticed was that there was a polarisation in terms of build, with a lot of tall men being very ‘big’ generally and shorter/short men genuinely being ‘small’ rather than being stocky.

That's interesting and really different to more Nordic countries where the large majority are all tall, i don't remember the women of Scotland being that tall though lol then i haven't really been to the east coast but spent most of the time in Edinburgh which is as Scottish as central London is English or in Glasgow and the west coast and Inverness.