The Lang Scots Mile

This is the view from the back garden of Haddo House. The drive runs through the park and up a hill surmounted by two deer statues and a giant monumental stone urn. The distance is one Scots Mile.

Up until the 1700s, a ‘mile’ in Scotland could be of varying distance - but, it seems, always longer than an English mile. A Scots mile was believed to average 1,984 yards, or 5,952 feet (or 1,814 metres in ‘new’ money!), whilst the English mile was around 200 yards shorter at 1,760 yards. The Union of Parliaments in 1701 saw the English measurement being introduced in Scotland, although it wasn’t until the end of the century that the Lang Scots Mile was entirely replaced.