Scottish Thistle

The Scottish Thistle - one of the true emblems of Scotland.

How did it come to be identified with Scotland? It appears that nobody knows, but according to http://www.visitscotland.com/about/arts-culture/uniquely-scottish/thistle,"legend has it that a sleeping party of Scots warriors were saved from ambush by an invading Norse army when one of the attackers trod on a thistle with his bare feet. His cries raised the alarm, the roused Scots duly defeated the invaders, and the thistle was adopted as the symbol of Scotland."

The website goes on to say that there is no historical evidence to support this theory, but that the Scots love a good story!

This particular thistle was at the Kingsfield Golf centre, where Cameron and I went to practise his short game. It lives in some fairly serious "rough" at the edge of the green; a player who found his ball in that rough might be well advised to fish the ball out with his club... thistles tend not to be nice to stand among!