Clipmarks | Patty2007's 'kilt' clips

Clans: backbone to Scotland's culture

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:47:19 GMT

clipped by: Patty2007
clipper's remarks: "The succession of the clan chief in the Celtic tradition was decided by the system of "tanistry", an ancient law that brought members of the ruling elite together to choose the next heir. This system ensured that a strong leader was always chosen, but inevitably led to conflict and fracturing of some clans. When Malcolm III became King in 1058 he adopted the English Feudal system and also changed the language of court from Gaelic to English. To some extent this was the start of the intensification of the struggle between Lowland Scotland and Highland Scotland that was to reach its zenith in Culloden."

Clip Source: heritage.scotsman.com

In days gone by, clansmen protected their land and their people, but reaching concensus on clans' historical accuracy is a challenge.

OUR UNDERSTANDING of a Highland clan is driven more by wishful thinking than by historical accuracy. If you are a "clansman" and share your surname with hundreds of thousands of people across the world, then the idea of you all being related in some distant way is extremely appealing.

There have been tribal groupings in Scotland, or Caledonia as it was then known, since records first started. Tacitus, the Roman historian, noted that these tribes had chiefs at the head and that the banded together to resist a common foe. But the idea of a clan functioning through its combined sense of "Kinship" is more of a medieval idea.

The word itself derives from the Gaelic clann, meaning children. In many ways this notion of a child, being protected within a paternal society is how clans are still regarded today.

The heritage of clans have their roots in the Highlands

Tags: scotland, kilt, culture, tradition

Great Kilt History

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 18:18:32 GMT

clipped by: Patty2007
clipper's remarks: "The Great Kilt was made from wool, often grown on one's own sheep. It could take a year for someone to shear and spin enough wool to make one kilt. The yarn would then be taken to the local weaver to weave into cloth. Looms of the time wove a piece of cloth 27" wide and up to 30" wide. And, like today, cloth is easiest to handle if it doesn't get to be too much of it. Today when you by cloth it comes on a bolt. The thinner the cloth, the more that is on the bolt; the thicker the cloth, the less is on the bolt. A finely made silk may have 30 yards on the bolt, but once folded and wrapped, it would constitute about 8" thick by 21"-30" long."

Clip Source: www.kilts-n-stuff.com

Great Kilt History & Info

The Great Kilt is also known as the "breacan an fheilidh" or "feile mor". The first known reference to this mode of dress was made in 1594 in The Life of Red Hugh O’Donnell in a description of a corps of Hebrideans who had come to The O’Donnell’s assistance: “They were recognised among the Irish soldiers by the distinction of their arms and clothing, their habits and language, for their exterior dress was mottled cloaks of many colours with a fringe to their shins and calves, their belts were over their loins outside their cloaks."

Tags: kilt, scotland, highlander

The Origins of Tartan

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:47:14 GMT

clipped by: Patty2007

Clip Source: www.bbc.co.uk

A History of Tartan

The Origins

Tartan did indeed originate in Ireland, and it was then introduced to the then unnamed country of Scotland by the Scots, who moved from Ireland to re-found their ancient kingdom, Dalriada. It was they who gave Scotland its name. The very first form of tartan is nothing like its modern day counterpart, being a type of shirt that ended just above the knee, known as léine in Irish Gaelic. It is generally accepted that it was made of linen, and although the earliest references to this garment describe it as light-coloured, it may have been of a darker yellow shade which led to the English describing it as a saffron shirt. In the 16th Century there are many descriptions of the léine and comments made by a French visitor to the country in 1556 are typical:

Tags: tartan, kilt, scotland

The Early History of the Kilt

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:49:58 GMT

clipped by: Patty2007

Clip Source: www.albanach.org

Nowhere, not once, has good solid evidence been presented to support the wearing of the kilt in Ireland. And only since the mid-19th century, at the absolute earliest, has it even been suggested that the kilt was early worn in Ireland. These were primarily Scottish writers trying to assert the antiquity of the kilt in that country. Irish writers of the time never mention the wearing of the kilt at all.

Tags: scotland, kilt

Hunting Tartans

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:15:10 GMT

clipped by: Patty2007

Clip Source: www.tartans.scotland.net

The idea of a darker pattern being required for outdoor wear, so that its wearer would stand out less clearly on the open hillside, is again Victorian in origin. It is possible that the demand arose because of the very harsh colours of the early synthetic dyes. In most cases the hunting tartans were made, like dress tartans, by another change in the ground colour with, for example, a red ground becoming either brown, blue or green.

Hunting Tartans

Tags: tartan, kilt, scotland

Tartan types

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:12:10 GMT

clipped by: Patty2007

Clip Source: www.tartans.scotland.net

Tartans have become synonymous with Scotland and Scottish clans and families in particular. However, tartans were originally a style of cloth intended to be decorative. They had patterns that were popular within certain districts of manufacture, they relied on a limited range of colour dyes and were made of the local coarser type of wool.

This has lead to the idea of district tartans being the original association, between the land, the community and its cloth. Where there was a strong clan within a district, as was often the case in the highlands, then visitors from other areas might well have been recognised as of a clan from their tartan. This must have been true of visitors from the Western Isles, for instance. It is this concept of clan tartans that today predominates, but the use of tartan is yet richer.

Tags: tartan, kilt, scotland