Greetings all, 9 October, 657amMST

Some of you are going to want to punch me out for this, but here goes anyhoo....

The concept of "Clan" is a Highland and Island thing. The Lowlanders and Borderers are not and never were Clans.

It stems from the time when Alba was invaded by the Irish. Gaelic Clans,(Clann=Family) who warred against the Picts, who were in situ in Alba at the time in the years following the Roman pull-out. The unification of the Irish Gaels and Picts came under the auspices of King Kenneth MacAlpin.

I am not stating that the Clan/Tribal society was not observed among the Lowlanders and Borderers. Those people and particularly the Borderers, had a similar societal structure, as has already been pointed out.

The Gaelic influence of Ireland has more to do with the evolution of Highland and Island Scottish Clans.

The evolution of Scotland as it is known now, is not from strictly a Gaelic influence. That was most prevalent in the Highlands and Islands, but there were other influences from the Continent, that had a larger impact regionally than the Irish Gaels did.

Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Norwegians, French Normans, and not to be forgotten; the Sarmatians imported by the Romans from the steppes of central Asia.

These other invading cultures impacted the regions where they made their respective beach heads.

I think the concept of "Clan" as is generally applied to all Scots Families, comes from the time of Queen Victoria, and the lifting of the Disarming Act, which was imposed after Culloden.

When the Pommies figured out that the Scots weren't so bad after all,
( circa 1820's), and the spinners, weavers, and kiltmakers all went back to work én massé, tartans were indiscriminately designed and handed out to anyone who wanted one.

What ever original tartan patterns that were in existence before Culloden; most of which disappeared with the passing of a couple generations, when tartan was outlawed.

So having stated all that, I think that the modern mindset of "Clan" necessarily includes tartans, then it becomes a concept which is all encompassing as far as the modern non-Scottish idea of Scotland is concerned.

I'll be happy to be punched at now by all the Borderers out there who think they are part of Clans.

Fide et Fortitudine, aye!

Tim
Clan Shaw, ( Highland Clann from near Inverness)
Caldwell Idaho