The national animal of Scotland is the unicorn, a mythological creature. They have been mentioned in various cultures since antiquity and are usually described as a horse-like beast with a single horn coming from its forehead. It has been used as a symbol in Scottish heraldry for many centuries.
So, while most national animals tend to be animals that really exist in the world, Scotland has instead chosen a mythological creature—significantly, the mythological enemy of the lion.
Scottish national identity incorporates the unicorn into its symbolism in a variety of different ways and it plays a big role in national mythology.
Let’s find out more.
What is the national animal of Scotland?
The national animal of Scotland is the unicorn.
This as you are probably aware is a mythological creature that has featured heavily in the legends of many different countries.
Typically, today, we have a very particular and specific image of a unicorn: a horse, usually a white horse, with a blonde mane and a single, spiralling horn coming out of its forehead.
This has roughly been the image of the unicorn in European art for the last thousand years or so, though it has also variously been depicted as something more like a goat.
This animal was a very important symbol in the European Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, and this is when it became the national symbol of Scotland—but more on why shortly.
They were described as being extremely wild woodland creatures that would be very difficult to capture.
Indeed, in some stories, it is impossible to capture a unicorn unless you are a virgin.
They were important symbols of purity and grace.
Their horns were supposed to have powers, rendering water drinkable and healing sickness. Narwhal tusks were often sold as unicorn horns.
Unicorns have taken on many different forms over the millennia, but we are primarily concerned with the medieval conception of the unicorn in Europe.
This is what most heavily influenced the adoption of the symbol by Scotland, and indeed is the largest part of the myth that endures today.
We often continue to think of unicorns as being symbols of rarity, anything that is extremely hard to find often being called a unicorn.
In the Medieval period, it often stood as a symbol of the incarnation, with unicorns lying their heads on the lap of a maiden in stories and thus being direct symbols of Christ.
Why, then, was this symbol adopted in Scotland?
Why is the unicorn the national animal of Scotland?
There are various reasons why the unicorn was adopted as the national symbol of Scotland.
Let’s first look at the simplest and most straightforward historical reason why this symbol was adopted.
The unicorn was, in many different times and places including Medieval Scotland, considered to be the natural enemy of the lion.
The lion, of course, was a symbol adopted by the royal houses of England sometime around the 14th Century.
The Scottish royal house, then, adopted the unicorn as its royal symbol in the 15th Century.
While some would have you believe the Scots and English were always at one another’s throat, this was not necessarily true—but in this period they certainly were.
Thus, one of the main reasons the Scottish adopted this symbol was to signal their opposition to the English royalty.
Beyond that, though, the unicorn is supposed to have been a symbol of purity and innocence in Celtic myth, but also one of masculine power.
There were many tales of dominance over the unicorn which may have been popular in Scotland at the time and may have driven the adoption of the unicorn as a national animal.
Fun facts about unicorns
- William Shakespeare references unicorns in some of his plays including “Julius Ceaser” and “The Tempest”
- In Celtic mythology, the unicorn is a symbol of power, innocence and purity.
Locations in Scotland that feature the unicorn
There are many locations and attractions in Scotland that feature the unicorn.
We have featured some of the locations below that you may want to visit if you go to Scotland.
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle has many unicorns in and around Crown Square.
Stirling Castle
The unicorn is featured quite prominently on the tapestry in the castle.
Palace of Holyroodhouse
The unicorn can be seen at the Palace of Holyroodhouse on ceilings, on the gate posts, carved into walls and much more.
Where do unicorns come from?
To be clear, unicorns do not exist and they don’t literally come from anywhere—the origin of the unicorn myth is a matter of great debate.
The simple answer is that it seems to long predate written sources.
There are images of unicorns on soapstone from the Indus Valley civilization of the Bronze Age around 2000 BC.
Unicorns are described only in the natural history of Greek sources, and not in the mythology.
The first written mention of something like a unicorn comes to us from 400 BC in India.
Plainly, then, the exact origins of this myth go far further back than we will ever be able to.
Did unicorns ever exist on Earth?
Unicorns as we understand them have never existed on Earth, at least as far as the fossil record shows.
However, we do have evidence of a species of rhino, which went extinct around 40,000 years ago, which hard a single, large horn on its forehead.
It is, of course, pure speculation, but it’s entirely possible that this influenced the very earliest human stories of unicorns.
Humans would have co-existed with these creatures and may even have hunted them, since woolly rhinos were a favorite of prehistoric humans.
So, something like a unicorn certainly existed on Earth.
Again, it’s very interesting that Scotland has adopted a mythological creature as its national animal when most nations use an actual animal that lives in the country.
As we’ve seen, though, there are many reasons for this, not least of which the nation’s historical animosity with neighboring England.
Beyond that, though, the animal simply came to be an established national symbol of dominance, purity and innocence while also being an important emblem of masculine power.