I'm sorry, I cant call it scotish country dancing, it was a ceilidh, and thats what its always been called to me, from childhood.

To be honest, I find it really difficult to associate ceilidhs with scotland or ireland any anything celtic. The band that played for my wedding where the ones who played most of the ceilidhs when I was younger, and EVERY one I went to, it was a geordie band with a geordie caller, so to me, there's northing more geordie then a ceilidh!
I'm assured that there's a difference between a Ceilidh and SCD dancing. Seems to me that 'Proper' SCD dancing is just more complicated, is all.

It's not at all unusual to have the dancing and the callers there.
A lot of the dancers I know here are from Newcastle and their grandparents or great-grandparents are Scottish.
They were the ones who brought the dancing down there and made it popular.
I hear and you seem to confirm, that it is thoroughly entrenched down there. And fantastic to know it!