Scottish Dirk

[SF Jeff]

My mother went to Catholic school in the 50s and 60s and was left handed. Past tense because they made her write with her right hand. Good times.

When I was a baby in a high chair, my devoutly Catholic aunt would take my baby spoon out of my left hand and put it in my right hand. I don't think she was crazy enough to think I was possesed but it drove my mom crazy. They used to fight about it until my dad finally stepped in and told my aunt to chill out. Turns out I was not possessed, but to this day I eat and write left handed and do almost everything else right handed.

[Troglodyte]

Just bought a new dirk. I’ve seen it depicted as going on the right hip, but also more centered on the body. Which is more correct for a Highlander of the 16-18th century to carry it?

There are various 16th to 18th century records of observations that are often quoted.

They correspond with contemporary portraits and other images, but they generally agree that the dirk is worn suspended from a belt on one side of the sporran, with a pistol on the other. Observers note this curious placement by saying they appear to guard the delicate parts of the body that every man always protects with vigour.

If worn at the front, the dirk (or pistol) is reached and gripped easily by either hand, for a backhand stab or forehand thrust, or a quick straight shot. Until the general disarming of the population in the 18th century, it was common for men to 'walk abroad' with a sword, and the Highlander's preference was the basket-hilt broadsword which could have a blade three inches wide, and was used more as a cleaver than an epee. The sword was carried across the body on a baldric on the opposite hip to his dominant hand.

When it came to fighting, the highlander's way was to draw the sword with one hand and grasp the dirk with the other, so that an overhand cleaving strike could be followed immediately with a backhand stab, coming either from above and landing on the opponent's shoulder or neck, or lower-down sideways into the soft flanks.

When used in conjunction with a targe (particularly those fitted with a central spike) the armed Highlander was formidable. The targe would take the opponent's strike whilst the broadsword would come down heavy and fast from behind it. The dirk, being held in the same hand as the targe, would would stab at the opponent's sword-arm or any other exposed area after they had made contact with the targe.

There is an account from The '45 of a Government army officer in combat with a targe-weilding Highlander, and calls for him to come out from behind his 'door' and fight like a gentleman.

This type of close-quarters fighting was what made the Highland charge so effective - the fighting style enhanced by impetus. But with discipline, the receiving force could stop it in its track, which is essentially what made Culloden a relatively easy victory for the properly trained Government forces. The Highland charge had no follow-through move - it could only withdraw and charge again if checked as at Culloden, or it was strategic chaos if the reeiving lines broke, as at Falkirk a couple of months earlier.

The Black Watch were initially allowed to fight in their tradtional Highland way, when they became a regiment of the line and saw action on the Continent, striking new fear into the French at Fontenoy in 1745. But, dispite this, the broarsword, targe and other items were abandoned for active service during the collonial troubles later in the century. Odd, because in much of those fighting conditions, sword and dirk had far greater use and effect than firearms.

The carrying of the dirk at the right hip, so that it hangs down the side of the leg, is a regimental style that has been carried over into civilian style, and the current habit is a pared-down version of the heavily and ornamentally armed revivalist style of the 19th century. The dirk is now an ornament rather than a true fighting weapon, and is carried with ease and convenience for the diningroom or ballroom.

The pre-19th century Highland dirk resembles quite closely the eastern European style of stab-and-thrust weapons of the 16th-18th centuries, with the blades being long, wide and tapering evenly to a point along their whole length, and the grip or hilt were similar also. Many of the Highland blades were of German manufacture, and found their way to Scotland with the thriving Baltic trade into eastern ports like Aberdeen, Montrose and Dundee.

Short-bladed fighting weapons remained popular in other quarters, with soldiers using a short cutlass-like hanger, and the navy favouring their style of dirk - neither of which you would want to find yourself on the wrong side of..!