From Karen Gillan to Gordon Strachan via the fictional Princess Merida, Scotland and red hair are entwined like the nylon strands of a CU Jimmy hat soaked in Irn-Bru.
Yet scientists from Scotland's DNA project suggest the high incidence of fiery locks north of the Border does not have the incursions of Vikings or successive waves of Celtic migration as its cause, contrary to popular belief.
Rather, it's thought the gene emerged thousands of years ago in what was northern Britain, putting down especially deep roots on account of it helping carriers maximise the power of the sun. The fairer your skin, the better you absorb UV rays, helping create vitamin D which in turn leads to stronger teeth and bones.
In short, those who carry one of the 37 variants of the gene, many of whom will be unaware, have a reproductive advantage over non-carriers (whoever said blondes have more fun?) and are better equipped for Scotland's climate.
While this won't come as a surprise to many of you (in Edinburgh, 40% of the population carry the gene) it might make you pause the next time you grumble about rain showers or blustery weather. They are, in every sense, part of your DNA.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article