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IT is now well understood
that the Celts originally came out of the east. Guest, in his Origines
Celticoe describes the routes by which they streamed across Europe
and along the north coast of Africa in a bygone century. The migration
did not stop till it had reached the shores of the Atlantic. The Celtic
flood was followed within the Christian era by the migrations of
succeeding races— Huns, Goths, Vandals, Franks, these variously called
themselves—and before the successive waves the Celts were driven
against the western coast, like the fringe of foam driven up by wind and
tide upon a beach. This process was seen in our own islands when the
British inhabitants were driven westward by the oncoming waves of
Saxons, Angles, and Danes in the fifth and following centuries. Thus
driven against the western shores these Celts were known, down to the
Norman Conquest, as the Britons or Welsh of Strathclyde, of Wales, and
of West Wales or Cornwall.
In the north, beyond the
Forth and among the mountain fastnesses, as well as in the south of
Galloway, the Celtic race continued to hold its own. By the Roman
chroniclers the tribes there were known as the Caledonians or Picts.
Between the Forth and the Grampians were the Southern Picts, north of
the Grampians were the Northern Picts, and in Galloway were the
Niduarian Picts. To which branch of the Celtic race, British or Gaelic,
or a separate branch by themselves, the Picts belonged, is not now
known. From the fact that after the Roman legions were withdrawn they
made fierce war upon the British tribes south of the Forth, it seems
likely that they were not British. Dr. W. F. Skene, in his Highlanders
of Scotland, took elaborate pains to prove that the Picts were
Gaelic, an earlier wave of the same race as the Gaels or Scots who then
peopled Ireland, at that time known as Scotia.
Exactly how these Scots
came into the sister isle is not now known. According to their own
tradition they derived their name from Scota, daughter of one of the
Pharoahs, whom one of their leaders married as they passed westward
through Egypt, and it is possible they may be
identified with the division of the Celtic tribes which passed along the
north coast of Africa. According to Gaelic tradition the Scots migrated
from Spain to the south of Ireland. According to the same tradition they
brought with them the flat brown stone, about nine inches thick, known
as the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, on which their kings were crowned,
and which was said to have been Jacob’s pillow at Bethel on the plain
of Luz. From Ireland they began to cross into Kintyre—the
"Headland "—in the sixth century. Their three leaders
were Fergus, Lorn, and Angus, Sons of Erc, and their progress was not
always a matter of peaceful settlement. Fergus, for instance, made a
landing in Ayrshire, and defeated and slew Coyle the British king of the
district, whose tumulus is still to be seen at Coylesfield, and whose
name is still commemorated as that of the region, Kyle, and in popular
rhymes about "Old King Cole."
In Kintyre and the adjoining
neighbourhood the Invaders established the little Dalriadic kingdom, so
called from their place of origin in the north-east of Ireland,
Dal-Riada, the "Portion of Riada," conquered in the third
century by Fergus’s ancestor, Cairbre-Riada, brother of Cormac, an
Irish King. They had their first capital at Dun-add near the present
Crinan Canal, and from their possession the district about Loch Awe took
the name of Oire-Gaidheal, or Argyll, the "Land of the Gael."
These settlers were Christian, and
the name of their patron saint, Kiaran, remains in Kilkiaran, the old
name of Campbeltown, Kilkiaran in Islay, Kilkiaran in Lismore, and
Kilkerran in Carrick, which last, curiously enough, is a possession of
the Fergusons at the present hour. The invasion, however, received one
of its strongest impulses from a later missionary. Columba crossed from
Ireland and settled in Iona in the year 563, and very soon, with his
followers, began a great campaign of Christian conversion among the
Northern Picts. The Picts and early Britons, as is shown by their
monuments and the folk-customs they have handed down to us, were
worshippers of Baal and Ashtaroth. Columba’s conversion of Brud, king
of the Northern Picts at his stronghold at Inverness, opened up the
whole country to the Gaelic influence. By and by marriages took place
between the Pictish and the Gaelic royal houses, and these led, in the
ninth century, to disputes over the succession to the Pictish crown. In
the struggle which followed, Alpin, king of the Scots, was beheaded by
the Picts on Dundee Law, in sight of his own host. But the whole matter
was finally decided by the victory of Alpin’s son, Kenneth II., over
the last Pictish army, in the year 838, at the spot called Cambuskenneth
after the event, on the bank of the Forth near Stirling. Six years later
Kenneth succeeded to the Pictish throne.
The history of these early
centuries is to be gathered from Adamnan’s Life of Columba, the
Annals of Tighernac, the Annals of Ulster, the Albanach
Duan, Bede’s Chronicle, and other works.
By that time another warlike race
had made its appearance on the western coasts. At their first coming,
the Dalriads or Scots from Ireland had been known as Gallgael—Gaelic
strangers. The new piratical visitors who now appeared from the eastern
shores of the North Sea, received the name of Fion-gall or
"fair-haired strangers." Worshippers of Woden and Thor, they
proved at first fierce and bitter enemies to the Christian Picts and
Gaels, slaying the monks of Iona on their own altar, and even
penetrating so far as to burn Dunbarton, the capital of the Britons of
Strathclyde, in the year 780. In the face of this menace, Kenneth, in
the year of his victory over the Picts, removed the Lia Fail from his
own stronghold of Dunstaffnage on Loch Etive, to Scone on the Tay,
transferred the bones of Columba from Iona to Dunkeld, and fixed his own
royal seat at the ancient capital of the Southern Picts, Forteviot on
the Earn. This remained the capital of the Scoto-Pictish kings for two
centuries, till in 1057 Malcolm Canmore, son of the "gracious"
Duncan and the miller’s daughter of Forteviot, overthrew Macbeth, and
set up the capital of his new dynasty at Dunfermline.
Meanwhile the Norsemen overran not
only the Western isles but much of the northern part of the country. For
a time it was an even chance whether ancient Caledonia should become
Norseland or Scotland. Under Malcolm Canmore and his sons, however, the
Scots pushed their conquests south of the Forth, annexed Strathclyde,
Northumberland, and Westmoreland, and became a formidable power in the
land. David I. fortified his dynasty against attack by planting the
country with Norman and English barons and introducing the feudal
system; and the final issue with the Norsemen was fought out by the last
of his race, the last of the Celtic line of kings, Alexander III., at
the battle of Largs in 1263.
It is about this period that the
traditional history of the Highland clans makes a beginning. It was long
the custom to attribute the origin of
all these clans to a Gaelic source. The late Dr. W. F. Skene wrote his book,
The Highlanders of Scotland, to show that many of the clans,
particularly in the more eastern and northern parts of the Highlands,
must have been of Pictish origin. Without going into the somewhat
elaborate details of his evidence and argument, with later modifications
in his Celtic Scotland, it may simply be said that the
proposition appears reasonable. Nor would it appear less honourable to
be descended from the ancient Pictish race of Caledonia than from the
Scottish race which crossed the narrow seas from Ireland. The record of
the Picts includes their magnificent and victorious struggle against the
Roman legions, their defeat of the British Arthur himself at Camelon in
537, and the overthrow of Egcfrith of Northumbria at Nectansmere in Fife
in the year 835. But it must be remembered that the Norse race has also
contributed to the origin of the clans. The names of the ancient MacLeod
chiefs—Torquil, Tormod, and the like— would of themselves be enough
to point this out; and it must be remembered that the wife of the mighty
Somerled, from whom all the Macdonald and several other clans are
descended, was sister of Godred the Norwegian King of Man. It is equally
certain that several clans are of Anglian and Norman origin. The Murrays
claim descent from Freskin the Fleming. The Gordons, whether Gordon or
Seton, are Norman from the Scottish Border. And the Macfarlanes, cadets
of the older Earls of Lennox, are of Northumbrian, or Anglian source.
Nothing could be more interesting than the process by which families of
such various origin, in the course of a few generations became so
impregnated with the spirit of their surroundings as to be practically
indistinguishable in instinct and characteristics. Sir Walter Scott had
the Highlanders as a whole in view when he framed his famous and apt
description of "Gentlemen of the north, men of the south, people of
the west, and folk of Fife."
The clan system no doubt took its
origin largely from the mountainous nature of the country in which the
people found themselves, each family or tribe living in its own glen,
separate from the rest of the world, and too remote from any capital to
be interfered with by a central government. In these circumstances, as
in similar circumstances elsewhere, Afghanistan and Arabia, for
instance, the father of the family naturally became the ruler, and when
the family grew into a tribe he became its chief. In later days, when
great combinations of related clans were formed, the chief of the
strongest branch might become captain of the confederacy, like the
Captain of Clanranald and the Captain of Clan Chattan. The chiefship was
inherited by the eldest legitimate son, but it must be remembered that
in the Highlands the son of a "hand-fast" union was considered
legitimate, whether his parents were afterwards married or not.
Handfasting was a form of trial marriage lasting for a year and a day.
If it proved unfruitful it could be terminated at the end of that time,
but sometimes a chief might die or be slain before his handfast union
could be regularised, and in this case his son was still recognised as
his heir. The system arose from the urgent desirability of carrying on
the direct line of. the chiefs.
Another outcome of a state of
society in which the rights and property of the tribe had constantly to
be defended by the sword was the custom of tanistry. If the heir of a
chief happened to be too young to rule the clan or lead it in battle the
nearest able-bodied relative might succeed for the time to the chief
ship. This individual was known as the tanist. A conspicuous example of
the working of the law of tanistry was the succession of Macbeth to the
crown of his uncle, King Duncan, notwithstanding the fact that Duncan
left several sons, legitimate and illegitimate. By his right as tanist
Macbeth ruled Scotland ably and justly for seventeen years.
By writers on the customs
of the clans a good deal has been made of the so-called law of gavel. It
is supposed that under this "law" the whole property of a
chief was divided among his family at his death, and Browne, in his History
of the Highlands, accounts by the action of this "law" for
the impoverishment and loss of influence which overtook some of the clan
chiefs. By this process, he says, the line of the chiefs gradually
became impoverished while the senior cadet became the most powerful
member of the clan and assumed command as captain. There seems, however,
some misunderstanding here, for the law of gavel would apply equally to
the possessions of the senior cadet. The "law" of gavel
probably meant no more than this. A chief portioned out his lands to his
sons as tenants. When his eldest son succeeded as chief, as these
tenancies fell in he portioned out the lands in turn to his own sons in
the same way. Thus the nearest relatives of the chief were always the
men of highest rank and most influence in the clan, while the oldest
cadets, unless they had secured their position in time by their own
exertions, were apt to find their way to the ranks of the ordinary
clansmen. As all, however, claimed descent from the house of the chief,
all prided themselves upon the rank of gentlemen, and behaved
accordingly. To this fact are owed the high and chivalrous ideas of
personal honour which have always characterised the Scottish Highlander.
As an acknowledgment of
his authority all the clansmen paid calpe or tribute to the chief, and
when outsiders— sometimes inhabitants of a conquered district, or
members of a "broken" clan, a clan without a head—attached
themselves to a tribe, they usually came under a bond of manrent for
offence and defence, and agreed to pay the calpe to their adopted chief.
If a clansman occupied more than an eighth part of a davach of land, he
also paid the chief a further duty, known as herezeld. The fundamental
difference between the clan system of society and the feudal system
which was destined to supersede it, was that the authority of the clan
chief was based on personal and blood relationship, while that of the
feudal superior is based upon tenure of land.
Of the origin of the
Highland costume not much Is known. The kilt is one of the primitive
garments of the world; it is one of the healthiest and probably the
handsomest, and there can be no question that for the active pursuits of
the mountaineer it is without a rival. In its original form, as the
belted plaid, it afforded ample protection in all weathers, while
leaving the limbs absolutely free for the most arduous exertions. The
earliest authentic mention of the kilt appears to be that in the Norse
history of Magnus Barefoot, with whom Malcolm Canmore made his famous
treaty. According to that document, written about the year 1097, Magnus,
on returning from his conquest of the Hebrides, adopted the dress in use
there, and went about bare-legged, having a short tunic and also an
upper garment, "and so men called him Barefoot." Next, in the
fifteenth century is the notice by John Major, the historian, who
mentions that the Highland gentlemen of his day "wore no covering
from the middle of the thigh to the foot, clothing themselves with a
mantle instead of an upper garment, and a shirt dyed with saffron."
As for the tartan, in
Miss Donaldson’s Wanderings in the Highlands and Islands, a
proposition is made that the numbers of colours employed had a relation
to the rank of the wearer—that eight colours were accorded to the
service of the altar, seven to the king, and so on in diminishing number
to the single dyed garment of the cumerlach or serf. In view, however,
of the fact that all the members of a clan wear the same tartan, and
that the tartans of some of the greatest clans contain but a small
number of colours, such a theory obviously will not bear examination.
The earliest costumes of the clansmen appear to have been not of tartan
at all, but of plain colour, preferably saffron. Certain early
references, like that of Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne in 970, and that
of Ossian when describing a Caledonian woman as appearing in robes
"like the bow of the shower," are by no means conclusive as
referring to tartan. As variety came to be desired, each clan would use
the natural dyes most easily procured in its district, and the easiest
pattern to weave was one of simple warp and woof. By and by a clansman
would come to be identified by the local pattern he wore, and before
long that pattern would come to be known as the tartan of his clan.
Whether or not this describes the actual origin of the Highland tartans,
there can be no question as to their suitability for the purposes of the
hunter and the warrior, to whom it was important to be as little
conspicuous as possible on a moor or mountain-side. It was also of value
to the clansmen in battle, who required readily to distinguish between
friend and foe. After the last great Highland conflict at Culloden, it
is said, the dead were identified by their tartans, the clansmen being
buried, each with his own tribe, in the long sad trenches among the
heather. To the Highlander the garb of his forefathers has always justly
counted for much. Sir Walter Scott gave immortal expression to the
feeling when he made the Duke of Argyll and Greenwich exclaim to Jeanie
Deans, "The heart of MacCailean More will be as cold as death can
make it, when it does not warm to the tartan."
While we have a lot of
information on the history of the Highland Clans you might like to
download the pdf version of the two volume...
The Highland Clans of
Scotland: Their History and Traditions by George Eyre-Todd
Volume 1 |
Volume 2
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