Flag: Scotland Emoji

The flag of Scotland, known as the Saltire or St Andrew's Cross: a white diagonal cross (X) on a royal-blue field, 3:5 ratio, no other devices. Generally considered the oldest continuously used national flag in Europe, with the earliest documented use in heraldic seals from the 1180s and a clear national role from the 1290s onward. The Scottish Parliament standardized the exact shade of blue in 2003 as Pantone 300.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 is the flag Scottish users prefer for cultural and sporting content specifically about Scotland. It goes on Burns Night posts (January 25), Hogmanay countdown (December 31), St Andrew's Day (November 30), Six Nations rugby matchdays, Highland Games coverage from the whole diaspora, and the three big Scottish music and comedy festivals. The Tartan Army, Scotland's 200,000-strong travelling football support, used 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 as their signature emoji across Euro 2024 in Germany, covering every square in Munich, Stuttgart, and Cologne.

The Saltire sits as the middle layer of the Union Jack: the white diagonal cross on blue under the red Cross of St Patrick is the Scottish flag, unchanged in geometry. Wales is absent from the Union flag; Scotland is the reason the Union has a blue field at all.

The emoji is a seven-codepoint Unicode tag sequence on 🏴🏴 (black flag) plus the ISO 3166-2:GB-SCT region tag, terminated with U+E007FU+E007F. Added in Emoji 5.0 (2017). Rendering is supported by Apple, Microsoft, Google, Twitter/X, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Samsung; some Linux builds and a handful of older Android versions still fall back to a plain black flag.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 runs hottest in the diaspora, not at home.

The Scottish diaspora is roughly six times the size of Scotland's 5.5 million population. Estimates range from 28 to 40 million people worldwide claiming Scottish heritage, concentrated in Canada (Nova Scotia specifically), the United States (Appalachia, the Pacific Northwest, New England), Australia, New Zealand, and Northern Ireland. Burns Night on January 25 drives the single biggest annual 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 spike, with Burns Suppers held from Singapore to Saskatoon. The First Minister sends an annual letter to the global diaspora on Burns Night.

Sports. The Tartan Army drives major tournament windows. 200,000 Scotland fans travelled to Germany for Euro 2024, turning cities blue and covering social feeds in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. Six Nations rugby owns February and March with Scotland-England and Scotland-Ireland being the emotional peaks. Scottish football and the Scottish Premiership run year-round with Celtic, Rangers, and Hibernian leading the volume.

Hogmanay and St Andrew's Day. Edinburgh's Hogmanay street party is a three-day event drawing ~150,000 attendees; Stonehaven's fireballs swing through the town at midnight; Aberdeen and Glasgow have their own bonfire and fireworks routines. St Andrew's Day on November 30 became a Scottish bank holiday in 2006, and is the formal patron-saint holiday where most Scottish government and tourism accounts push 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 content.

Independence politics. Scottish independence content keeps a steady background hum around 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. The SNP, the Greens, Alba, and independence-leaning creators regularly use 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 alongside 🇪🇺 in a post-Brexit 'we'd be in the EU if we could' framing. Unionist posters prefer 🇬🇧 instead. The 2014 independence referendum and the ongoing constitutional debate keep the flag politically charged in ways other UK-subdivision flags aren't.

Film, TV, and gaming. Outlander fandom drives a huge ongoing 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 footprint, especially in the US. Trainspotting, Braveheart, Brave, and Rockstar's GTA-VI-adjacent Scottish indie-dev scene all stitch into the emoji's long tail.

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  Capital: Edinburgh (55.95°N, 3.19°W)
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  Population: ~5.49 million (2025)
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  Area: 77,933 km² (32% of UK landmass)
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  Currency: Pound sterling (GBP, £)
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  Languages: English, Scottish Gaelic (~57k speakers), Scots
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  Patron saint: St Andrew (feast day November 30)
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  National day: St Andrew's Day, November 30 (Scottish bank holiday)
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  National animal: The unicorn (officially, since the 12th century)

The Athelstaneford legend. Scottish tradition traces the Saltire to a battle fought in 832 AD at Athelstaneford in East Lothian. A Pictish and Scots army under King Óengus (Angus mac Fergus) was cornered by a larger Anglian force led by Athelstan. On the eve of battle, Óengus prayed for deliverance, and a formation of white clouds in the shape of a diagonal cross appeared against the blue sky. The Scots read it as a visitation from St Andrew, who had been crucified on a diagonal (decussate) cross at Patras in the 1st century. They won the battle and adopted the white saltire on blue as a national emblem. The Flag Heritage Centre at Athelstaneford sits where the battle is said to have happened, with a small museum and a flagpole flying the Saltire day and night.

The documented record. The Saltire appears on Scottish heraldic seals from the 1180s. It's clearly in use as a national flag by the Battle of Falkirk in 1298 against Edward I of England. The Guardians of Scotland used a saltire seal in 1286. The earliest surviving depiction as a heraldic flag is in Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount's Register of Scottish Arms, dated around 1542.

The 1606 Union. When James VI of Scotland became James I of England in 1603, the Saltire was layered under the Cross of St George to form the first Union Flag in 1606. English and Scottish sailors argued for years about whose flag should sit on top; James's royal decree put England's cross in front, which Scottish seafarers hated for a century and occasionally flew upside down in protest.

Modern codification. The exact shade of Saltire blue drifted through history, with navy, sky blue, and royal blue all in play. The Scottish Parliament set the specification in 2003: Pantone 300. Most government buildings, schools, and sports kits now use that specific shade. Older heraldic depictions with deeper navy are still considered historically valid, but 'the correct Saltire blue' in 2026 is Pantone 300.

The emoji was added in Emoji 5.0 (2017) as one of the first tag-sequence subdivision flags, alongside England and Wales. Campaigns for Unicode recognition dated back to 2007; the breakthrough was a sustained push from Rob Bradshaw and the SNP's devolved government, eventually backed formally by the UK government.

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  January 1 and 2: New Year and Hogmanay: Two bank holidays. Edinburgh's three-day street party, Stonehaven fireballs, first-footing traditions, Auld Lang Syne at midnight.
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  January 25: Burns Night: Robert Burns's birthday (1759). Not a bank holiday, but the biggest 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 diaspora night of the year. Haggis, neeps, tatties, 'Address to the Haggis'.
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  April 6: Tartan Day (diaspora): Observed mainly in North America. Commemorates the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath. The NYC Tartan Day Parade draws tens of thousands each year.
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  May 4, 2026: Early May bank holiday: UK-wide public holiday.
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  August 3, 2026: Summer bank holiday (Scotland only): Scotland takes the early-August Monday. Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe kick off mid-August.
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  November 30: St Andrew's Day: Scotland's patron saint and a Scottish bank holiday since 2006. Tartan, ceilidhs, whisky tastings.
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  December 25 and 26: Christmas and Boxing Day: UK bank holidays. Christmas was banned in Presbyterian Scotland from 1640 to 1958; Hogmanay took its place as the bigger party.
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  Six Nations Scotland home matches: Three Saturdays in February and March at Murrayfield. The Calcutta Cup against England is the emotional peak.
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  Highland Games season: May through September, over 70 events across Scotland. Braemar in September draws the royal family; Cowal in August is the world championship.

• •The Saltire's blue was standardized by the Scottish Parliament in 2003 as Pantone 300. Before that, shades drifted from navy to sky blue depending on the depiction.
• •Scotland's patron saint is St Andrew, one of Jesus's 12 apostles, said to have been crucified on a diagonal cross at Patras in Greece in the 1st century. His relics were reportedly brought to St Andrews in the 8th century by a monk named Rule.
• •St Andrew's Day became a Scottish bank holiday in 2006 after a long campaign. It's still not a UK-wide holiday.
• •Nova Scotia, Canada's Atlantic province, translates as 'New Scotland' and was founded in 1621 by a Scottish charter from James VI/I. Its flag is a direct blue-and-white inversion of the Saltire with a Scottish royal arms inescutcheon.
• •Roughly 28 to 40 million people worldwide claim Scottish heritage: 5.5 million in Scotland, the rest spread across Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Northern Ireland.
• •Burns Night on January 25 marks Robert Burns's birthday in 1759. The first recorded Burns Supper was held nine years after his death in 1801, by a group of Burns's friends, and the format (haggis, 'Address to the Haggis', 'Immortal Memory' speech, toast to the lasses) has barely changed in 225 years.
• •The Tartan Army won UEFA and FIFA fair-play awards multiple times for being the best-behaved travelling football fans anywhere.