Royal Regiment of Scotland
infantry regiment of the British Army
The Royal Regiment of Scotland (SCOTS) is the senior and only current Scottish line infantry regiment of the British Army Infantry. It consists of three regular (formerly five) and two reserve battalions, plus an incremental company, each formerly an individual regiment of the line. However, three regular battalions maintain their former regimental pipes and drums to carry on the traditions of their antecedent regiments.
History
As part of restructuring in the British Army, the Royal Regiment of Scotland's creation was announced by Secretary of State for Defence Geoff Hoon in the House of Commons on 16 December 2004, after the merger of several regiments and the reduction in total regular infantry battalions from 40 to 36 was outlined in the defence white paper, Delivering Security in a Changing World, several months earlier.
The regiment consisted originally of a total of seven battalions: one of these was formed by the amalgamation of the Royal Scots and King's Own Scottish Borderers, while the others are each formed from one of the remaining single-battalion regiments of the Scottish Division. Of all of the new regiments formed following the announcement of 16 December 2004, the Royal Regiment of Scotland is the only one where the former regimental titles have been prominently retained with the new numbered battalion designations as subtitles. There is however a common regimental cap badge, tactical recognition flash (TRF), tartan, stable belt and Glengarry headdress but distinctively coloured hackles are also worn by each separate battalion on the tam o'shanter headdress to maintain their individual identity and the pipes and drums of each battalion continue to wear the ceremonial uniforms and tartans of their former regiments.
Along with the Rifles, the Royal Regiment of Scotland is also one of only two line infantry regiments to maintain its own regular military band within the Royal Corps of Army Music, which was formed through the amalgamation of the Highland band and Lowland band of the Scottish Division. In addition, there are two Army Reserve bands, the Highland Band and the Lowland Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, which are administered by the regiment's two Army Reserve battalions. The regiment also has previously had its own Parachute Display Team called the Golden Lions (disbanded in 2011) and shinty team, the Scots Shinty Club.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2038782. The first chronological checks are 2004 and 2011.
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This entry incorporates text from “Royal Regiment of Scotland” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.