Lawnmower falls firmly into the category of inventions which most people need and most people hate using it's a necessary chore to keep up appearances in suburbia but only really odd people relish dragging one out of the shed and spending an hour or so walking up and down a patch of grass. Still, without them our lawns would quickly turn into grasslands with the potential to harbour deadly snakes (depending where you live), so in a sense its inventor Alexander Shanks may well have saved lives.
1. Rap Music
Out of all the strange entries on this list, none are quite as baffling as the idea that rap music was invented in Scotland. Everyone knows it came from the ghettos of American cities in the 70s and 80s, surely? Not according to an American professor - Ferenc Szasz claims that it originated in the ancient Caledonian art of flyting and was taken over to the States by Scottish slave owners, stating, "The Scots have a lengthy tradition of flyting - intense verbal jousting, often laced with vulgarity, that is similar to the dozens that one finds among contemporary inner-city African-American youth. If there's ever likely to be a claim more open to dispute we'd love to hear it. Do you know of any incredible inventions which herald from Scotland that most people are unaware of? Why not let us know in the comments below?
