Embo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the scientific organisation, see European Molecular Biology Organization.

Embo
Scottish Gaelic: Eurabol
Embo shown within Scotland
Population	300 (approx.)
Council area	Highland
Lieutenancy area	Sutherland
Constituent country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	DORNOCH
Postcode district	IV25
Dialling code	01862
Police	Northern
Fire	Highlands and Islands
Ambulance	Scottish
European Parliament	Scotland
UK Parliament	Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
Scottish Parliament	Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross constituency in the Highlands and Islands electoral region
List of places: UK • Scotland

Coordinates: 57°54′N 3°59′W / 57.9, -3.98

Embo (Scottish Gaelic: Eurabol) is a village in the Highland Council Area in Scotland and the former/postal county of Sutherland, about 2 miles NNE of Dornoch.

On 16 July 1988, Embo declared itself independent from the rest of the United Kingdom for one day. This was done to raise funds to convert the unused primary school in the village into a community centre.

The declaration of independence was legal & approved by HM Queen Elizabeth II & the Prime Minister at the time (Margaret Thatcher)^{[citation needed]}. The village issued its own currency, called the Cuddie. The rate of exchange was 2 cuddies to the pound.

Cuddies were accepted in the local public house - Grannies Heilan' Hame, in exchange for a measure of Clynelish Malt Whisky.

The owners of the distillery, in nearby Brora, sponsored the bid for independence by issuing a commemorative label on 50 cases of Clynelish Malt Whisky - "The Spirit of Free Embo"

Bronze Age remains were excavated to the south of the village in 1956, other burials having previously been discovered in the area.

Nancy Dorian's research of the local East Sutherland Gaelic dialect showed that in 1964, over 100 of the village's total population of fewer than 300 still actively spoke Gaelic, and that many more had a "smattering" or were "perfect passive bilinguals". This percentage even briefly increased during the 1970s with "returners" to the village. Until the end of the 1970s at least, Embo was a bilingual Gaelic and English speaking community. Brora and Golspie had much smaller percentages of Gaelic speakers at that time.

As with the entire region of East Sutherland, the end of the 19th century and the collapse of the fishing industry coincided with the decline of Gaelic as the majority language of the people.