Liz Weston

The narrator of the museum documentary we were watching in Edinburgh was referring to the geology of the United Kingdom, not its economy or politics.

Yet the phrase resonated somehow. Since devolution, when the Scottish Parliament was established after nearly 300 years of British rule, the Scots have definitely taken their own way.

One thing travel can do is help you better understand the world, and I understood Scotland a bit better after learning some of its history this summer. Its union with England was mostly supported by wealthy landowners, merchants and investors who wanted access to England’s colonies. The common people were not so enthralled. After that came the Highland Clearances, when tenant farmers were booted off their traditional holdings so that wealthy landowners could raise sheep instead. The evictions came with little notice and left a lot of suffering in their wake.

So maybe it’s not surprising that many Scots are suspicious of any system–political, social or economic–that favors the rich at the expense of regular people.

While England slashed public benefits after the financial crisis, Scotland restored tuition-free college education for its residents and added free long-term care for its elderly. (Actually, in-home care is free. Care in nursing homes is means-tested.)

As a result, Scotland is moving closer to the European model, where long-term care is at least in part funded by the government in many countries and where college education at public universities is free or very low cost.

These outlays might surprise people who believe the stereotype that Scots are tight with their money, but a Scotsman explained to me that what his people really like is good value for their money.

Renewable energy is a big thing in Scotland, too. The Scots surpassed their goal of 31% by 2011 and its 2020 target has been boosted from 50% to 100%. Again, that’s more like Northern Europe than the rest of the U.K.

Now Scotland is on the brink of deciding whether it wants to be independent. The U.K.’s prime minister, David Cameron, has promised Scotland more control if it stays with the union. So either way, it looks like Scotland may continue to rise.