Whatever people’s feelings about the 1707 Union with England, the move certainly sparked a politically stable era that allowed Scots to focus on other things.

This helped lead to time of great wealth based on successful colonial projects – such as Jamaican sugar and Virginian tobacco plantations. Involvement in many of these made the merchants of Glasgow some of the richest in the British Empire and made their area of town, the Merchant City one of Britain's most impressive urban areas.

Scotland's industrial revolution followed and made it a worldwide powerhouse for heavy industries like shipbuilding and cotton mills, including New Lanark, which has since been beautifully restored.