Highlanders v. Lowlanders

[Rob Wright]

Clan Colquhoun lands(west bank and islands of Loch Lomond) are right on the border. There is a geological fault line that starts about a third up Loch Lomond that is the line. For any of you golfers watching the,I think the British open(?), on TV in early July(?) is right on the dividing line. I find the map above interesting as it is not the line we draw! We may be wrong of course! But for ease, we start the line at Loch Lomond and then draw a line through Perth and finish at Dundee.Above the line is the highlands-----it may not be correct(I am not sure),but it is easier to explain and will not be far out.

Jock I've seen both used. As I recall, the line as seen in the map posted by Puffer has more to do with the settlements along the coast and their ties with Edinburgh ,though I have also seen a map that has the line end just north of Aberdeen. I think that the line has moved throughout the centuries to reflect various political thought and division within the kingdom and while nominally based on geography, much as the line you mention, the reality as always, is a bit more fluid, depending on who you talk to.

Rob

[Jock Scot]

Jock I've seen both used. As I recall, the line as seen in the map posted by Puffer has more to do with the settlements along the coast and their ties with Edinburgh ,though I have also seen a map that has the line end just north of Aberdeen. I think that the line has moved throughout the centuries to reflect various political thought and division within the kingdom and while nominally based on geography, much as the line you mention, the reality as always, is a bit more fluid, depending on who you talk to.

Rob

I have no problem with that Rob. As there are so many golf courses in Scotland(I am not a golfer!) and more than one televised golf tournament in Scotland, the golf course I am thinking of, right on the fault line, is the one at Loch Lomond. Just trying to avoid future confusion!

[skauwt]

here ya go jock you can just make out the hills that are on the fault line i took this image about a year or two ago i think i have a few more on my profile images

[O'Callaghan]

I thought that was English attire not Scot

Rob who needs to defend his lowland roots:

Scottish neds = English chavs (approximately)

[O'Callaghan]

When I looked up the Kerr Shepherd's Plaid on the Scottish Register of Tartans, they had this to say about it:



Now what makes one clan entitled to a plaid over another? And what exactly is a border plaid, and why is it different than (I guess) a tartan?

Regards,
Rex.

A sheperd's plaid is a small check, usually only two colours, rather than a large multi-colour sett. Perhaps they just mean it looks distinctive? Such a pattern was historically worn just over the border on the English side also, although not necessarily in the form of a kilt.

[O'Callaghan]

So, help me out with the knowledge you folks have. Cause, since I have been doing the 18th century Highlander for 15 years (Jacobite, F and I and Rev Wars) we get the questions all the time. I continually try to make sure my lads and I are giving the correct info. Please correct or modify the info I have below so I can get a better timeline of "kilt history".

1. Kilts first appear in the 1400s, I believe "they" trace it to that time period because there is a gravestone someplace that shows a Highlander in a kilt.... this supposedly the earliest indication of kilt wearing? Any good research before that. AND, before that it was all English clothing??
2. So, kilts were worn and were the fashion in the Highlands (I had read anything north of the river Tay was Highland). Then, we have the '45. After Culloden, Kilts (Scottish dress) was outlawed....they quickly went out of fashion unless you could get awa' with it, so far north the English didn't care??
3. However, if you joined the military (42nd, 78th, 77th, etc.) you could wear your "native dress", the kilt. This was done to entice young Scots to join the British army?
4. George IV and Sir Walter Scott make it vogue to wear the kilt, 1820s??
5. Sobieski brothers (cousins to the BP Charlie) do their hoax with "the book" of tartans and clans begin to register clan tartans....is this the time that Lord Lyon gets involved?
6. Brings us to today!!

Sorry this is long, but I'd like good, hard info to be able to share with the folks ask the questions at reenactments. I feel we do a good job with this, but it can always be better with XMarks info.

Your servant and MANY THANKS. Malcolm

Kilts didn't simply appear from nowhere. You should probably add a number zero, where the Scottish kilt evolved from the Irish brat.

The immediate predecessor of the 'great kilt' (aka Féileadh Mor, etc.) was the Irish brat (cloak). The Irish of the time wore the brat over the leine (tunic), and the great kilt continued to be worn over the leine for a long time after. 'Kilting' as a verb referred originally to gathering into pleats, invariably with a belt. The Irish did this with the leine itself, and the 'big' innovation (he says with tongue firmly in cheek) was to wear the belt on the outside of the cloak and 'kilt' (remember that's a verb here, meaning gather) the cloak instead of the leine (tunic). This was probably done because the Scottish highlands are windier than Ireland! Then, 'hey presto', the cloak magically changes from an Irish brat into a Scottish great kilt, even though both are the same piece of cloth, the same woolen blanket (or plaid, in Gaelic), and both are used as blankets for sleeping too.

Modern kilt vendors tend to call those sashes that mimic the top half of the great kilt a 'shoulder plaid' if Scottish but a 'brat' if intended to be Irish, but this is marketing. The Irish have worn kilts as far back as the lowland Scots, but never wore the great kilt.

So why am I even talking about Ireland? The leine and brat were brought to the highlands of Scotland with the Irish Gaelic tribe called the Dal Riada, who the Romans called the Scotii, from which the name 'Scots' comes. They certainly colonised the area around Argyll, and exercised control over a much wider area than that. Without the Irish Dal Riada settling in Scotland there would be no kilt, no Scots Gaelic language and no bagpipes.

The Gaels were not the only Celts in the British Isles, the Britons were Celts too, and the Picts who lived in the Scottish highlands before the Gaels came from Ireland may or may not have been Britons. What's more, many highlanders (and indeed people of certain other specific areas of the British Isles) descend from vikings. However, the Briton language seems to have left no trace in either Scots or Scots Gaelic or English, and the Dal Riada never held sway in the lowlands, so Gaelic blood in the lowlands is due to migration following the clearances. If you said Celtic rather than Gaelic that would include Britons, and that's a more difficult question to answer, as Briton DNA is probably far more widespread than Briton culture or language.

The lowland Scots are indeed a similar ethnic mix to adjacent parts of England, and adopted the kilt about as recently as the Irish, to turn things around a little.

FWIW, the O'Callaghans are of the Eoganacht or Eugenian tribe, not the Dal Riada, although all the tribes of Irish Gaels are considered to be branches of the Milesians.

[David Dalglish]

Scot's are Scot's & Kilts are kilts--Be thankful for both.

[Matthew Siegmann]

Interesting note, the Keiths weren't originally of gaelic or celtic origin, they came from a germanic tribe from the Rhineland known as the Catti. The Romans pushed them to the English channel about the first century B. C. From there they sailed to the northern area of what is now Scotland. So going back about 2000 years, some Eurpoean non-norse blood found its way into Scotland.

[ForresterModern]

Another variant origin of my own. Forresters were originally Forrestieres from the Flemish lowlands and were lieutenants of William the Conquerer who fought beside him during the Norman invasion, then were land granted a large area of the midlothian and westlothian lowlands west of Edinburgh (Corstorphine Castle area and westward), charged with maintaining it in William's name. So Flemish Normans as well invested into the Lowlands, and subsequently joined into some of the Riever bands as time went on and the borders turned into the constantly contested battlelands. As such we had no tartan or likely family kilts until American descendants generated designs in the late 20th century. Not sure what theScottish Forresters wore before then but probably wasn't the kilt unless it was of generic cloth or the Nurthumbrian/Shepherds plaid.

Yet another variant of where Scottish heritage and culture comes from to some degree. It's okay, I don't mind being called a "johnny come lately".

[Redshank]

Well I think Lowland Scots are spare English, 2nd class citizens in their own right