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Quick & curious · History

Scotland's national animal: a unicorn.

On the British coat of arms, the unicorn represents Scotland and the lion represents England.

Stone statue of a unicorn holding a shield
Photo: AndyScott · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original

The story behind it

Scotland's national animal is a unicorn.

Scottish kings already had their coat of arms held by two unicorns. In today's British coat of arms the unicorn stands for Scotland, the lion for England.

Sources

Every statement in this discovery is backed by one of these sources and was checked before publication.

  1. Wikipedia: National symbols of Scotland (accessed 2026-10-05)
  2. Wikipedia: Unicorn (accessed 2026-10-05)

Image credits

  • “The Queen's Beasts, Kew, The unicorn of Scotland.jpg”, AndyScott, CC BY-SA 4.0