No Such Thing As A Fish: Ten facts you didn’t know about Scotland

It all began in 2014, when four nerds gathered around their microphones to share the most interesting facts they’d learned that week.

Now, 30,000 facts later, and after becoming one of the UK’s most popular podcasts, No Such Thing As A Fish is coming to Scotland.

Hosts Dan, James, Anna and Andy are celebrating their 10th anniversary as podcasters with a world tour.

The podcast will stop off at The Playhouse in Edinburgh on 14 August and the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, on 17 September.

And to celebrate their up-coming tour, the hosts have shared their top ten facts about Scotland.

Ten facts you didn’t know about Scotland:

1. In 1715, a group of Jacobite rebels failed to take Edinburgh Castle because their rope ladders were six feet too short.

2. The patron saint of Edinburgh is Saint Giles who is also the patron saint of breastfeeding and people afraid of the dark. The patron saint of Glasgow is St Mungo, who died of shock after getting into a very hot bath.

3. Glasgow was once voted the friendliest and the most dangerous city in the UK in the same year.

4. In the 7th century, it was illegal in Scotland to dress as a horse and to dance anti-clockwise in January. 

5. In the 1960s, the RAF was forced to ban Tunnock’s teacakes from flights, as they had an unfortunate tendency to explode at altitude.

6. In 1599 two groups from either side of the England-Scotland border organised a game of football. Three Englishmen were killed, thirty were taken prisoner, and ‘many were sore hurt, especially John Whytfield whose bowels came out, but were sowed up again.’

7. Scottish tourism loses more than £200 million a year due to midges. 

8. According to a law of 1656, chicken owners in the Scottish Borders had to give their chickens clogs. 

9. There’s a town near Aberdeen called Lost. People sometimes get lost there, because the Lost sign is often lost.  

10. The word ‘wow’ was popular in Scotland for 400 years before it caught on in the rest of the English-speaking world.

Facts from the last 3,653 days:

Meerkats can turn their bottoms inside out.

The Great Wall of China is held together by sticky rice.

Britain exports over 50,000 boomerangs every year to Australia.

Before she became famous, Marilyn Monroe was named Artichoke Queen and Miss Cheesecake.

Charles Darwin invented the office chair.

Harry Houdini’s dog was a professional escape artist.

From 1841 to 1851, the MP for Thirsk thought he was a bird. He was replaced by a man who was killed by a turnip.

The World Chicken Congress has taken place in the cities of Kiev, Turkey and Brest.

The maximum PDF file you can send is bigger than Belgium.

The word ‘wow’ was popular in Scotland for 400 years before it caught on in the rest of the English-speaking world.

And for a 10th birthday bonus: Blowing out the candles on a cake increases the number of bacteria on it by 1,400%.

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