Today, the flag of Scotland, also known as the St. Andrews Cross or Saltire, flys. This flag consists of white saltire over a blue background and is said to be one of the oldest national flags in existence.
The Flag Institute, the United Kingdom’s flag study organization, has a great paper on its web site entitled “The Story of Scotland’s Flags” by Graham Barton which breaks down how the saltire became the symbol of Scotland and how it ended up as Scotland’s flag.
Also flying today is the flag of the Orkney Islands of Scotland. These islands are located off of the northern tip of mainland Scotland. The Scottish portions of my family emigrated to the United States from Orkney many generations ago. The name of this blog comes from the name of the house from which my family came those many years ago.
In 1995, Orkney adopted the flag of St. Magnus as its own. This flag consists of a red nordic cross on a yellow background. Lord Lyon, the heraldic authority of Scotland declined to recognize this flag because of its similarity with other national flags, including the Kingdom of Ulster
The current Orkney flag dates back to 2007, when the Orkney Island Islands Council held a contest, which received over 100 entires. These were narrowed to five finalists, after consultation with Lord Lyon. The adopted flag was designed by Duncan Tullock of Birsay. In an interview with the BBC, he indicated, “Orkney has always been represented by red, so that was an obvious choice. The yellow symbolizes the royal standards of both Scotland and Norway and blue is for Scotland, and also for the sea that surrounds us.”
Cruesbreck Flags 
I like the Orkney flag. I didn’t know they had one.
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