Video: Archaic Scottish laws that sound bizarre today

Test your ability to discern outrageous Scots law, international oddities and urban myths in the legal world.

When you look through some of the asinine laws that still exist in Scotland, you have to question the mysterious events that led up to their introduction.

One can only wonder why boys under the age of ten were legally prohibited from seeing a naked mannequin.

Perhaps there is a perfectly plausible explanation for the head and tail of beached whales to be divided up differently if on the throne sat a King or a Queen.

Pro tip: Don't get caught handling salmon suspiciosly. Picture: Phil Wilkinson

In the last decade, more effort has been put into abolishing truly archaic laws, such as permission to murder a Scottish archery enthusiast should he be holidaying within York’s city walls.

Some of these bizarre laws stretch across the whole of the UK and some lean closer to tradition.

The long-thought ‘law’ of being obliged to grant travellers who knock on your door access to your bathroom is likely nothing more than a common courtesy, a custom passed down through generations.

In the video above, you can see a small glimpse of the many archaic laws still in effect here in Scotland, across the UK and indeed around the world.

Some, thankfully, have been abolished since their introduction, but the very fact they existed is enough to make you rethink law as boring.