Lowland/Scotch-Irish/American Colonists vs. Highlanders.

[ThistleDown]

It's sad to me as so many of you explain how the Scottish hire shops are re-defining highland wear to their own benefit without respect to tradition, history or reality.

It is for us, too, FB, and may explain why some of us on here crack on ad nauseum about THCD and how it is 'properly' worn in the Highlands. We simply want folks to get it right no matter where they live and have very few places where we can do so. At home we don't critique someone for wearing a belt with a waistcoat, or ghillie brogues -- we let them do it because it is impolite to do otherwise. On this forum we are asked 'how' and we respond from our personal knowledge and experience. Often, sadly, that is emphatically rejected in favour of how it is done outwith the Highlands.

Back to David's point in this thread. For those who have not done so, I suggest some heavy reading: Ken McGoogan's 'How the Scots Invented Canada'; Paul Cowan's 'How the Scots Created Canada'; Tom Devine's 'To the Ends of the Earth', Colin Calloway's 'White People, Indians and Highlanders'; Tom Devine's 'The Scottish Nation 1700 to 2000'; and James Hunter's 'A Dance Called America'.