Clans and Families in Scotland - Article by Dr Bruce Drurie

[Bruce Scott]

I thought this may be of some interest: https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/10/2/44

The full title is: "Towards a List of Clans and Families in Scotland—Identity Politics, Cultural Appropriation and Romantic Idealism"


Dr Bruce Drurie: http://brucedurie.co.uk/who_is_bruce_durie.htm

[Jock Scot]

Well, I cannot help but agree with the author in general terms. The detail he uses only confirms much of what I have always thought and on occasion, said. Although his Northern end(right of map) of the "Highland Line" on his map, is higher than I had imagined.

[OC Richard]

That's a great read, thanks!

It's hilarious, all that Mark Twain stuff. If you read Innocents Abroad you'll know about Twain's disdain for the pretentions of European culture, but I had no idea he specifically targeted Sir Walter Scott.

The author briefly mentions McIan but doesn't mention that he, too, was an English imposter who also did lasting harm to outsider's perceptions of Highland culture by replacing reality with his fantasies.

[jsrnephdoc]

That's a great read, thanks!

It's hilarious, all that Mark Twain stuff. If you read Innocents Abroad you'll know about Twain's disdain for the pretentions of European culture, but I had no idea he specifically targeted Sir Walter Scott.

What I didn't see mentioned about Scott is how he swallowed the Allen Brothers' nonsense hook, line, and sinker. Scott's promoting of the Brothers' creations did irreparable harm to authentic Highland tartan.

The author briefly mentions McIan but doesn't mention that he, too, was an English imposter who also did lasting harm to outsider's perceptions of Highland culture by replacing reality with his fantasies.

I would NEVER claim to be a historian. One bit of evidence is how easily I fell for the apparent nonsense regarding the origin of "Ghillie Brogues."

I've not read Drurie's entire essay as yet, but I hope I can be forgiven if what follows is based on inaccurate consumption of material available to the American tourist in Scotland from what would generally be considered "authoritative" sources.

As a youngster, my understanding of Scottish history, culture and dress was based largely on little books my dad possessed that displayed images of Clan tartans, a map of the clans that hung on the wall of his office, and neckties and blazer pocket patches we all had by the time we were old enough to WEAR those garments. Of course there were also scratchy 78 rpms Harry Lauder and Royal Scots Guards Pipes and Drums recordings.

My first visit to Scotland was a one-week deviation during a month in France with my then 13 year old younger son. The day before we flew to Edinburgh from Paris (on British Airways, the pre-takeoff safety demo elaborately done in English by the live flight attendants followed by an audio-only repetition in difficult to hear French) my son and I visited the Verdun WWI memorial.

I've said here before that the Verdun memorial is among THE most sobering anti-war advocacy statements I've ever seen, on a par with the museums in Berlin and Washington DC that detail the horrors of the 1940s Holocaust.

The day after we landed in Edinburgh, we visited the Castle Museum, my memories of which are extraordinarily different, including the light-hearted (a museum staffer lying on the pavement demonstrating how to dress in a sheepherder's great kilt), but (far more importantly) an overriding declaration from the exhibits that "yeah, them English have decimated us repetitively over the centuries, but just give us one more chance against their nukes and jets with our Claymores, Dirks, and Sgian dubhs, and we'll slaughter 'em all! (OK, that might be a BIT hyperbolic, but the message really DID come through).

During my most recent visit (summer, 2023, with my older son), that slant seemed still present, with LONG lines waiting up on the roof of the museum to see the Stone of Scone in a virtual temple overlooking the city, signifying its Christmas Eve stealthy retrieval from London.

In fairness, however, more balanced essays exist as well. At Culloden, we learned that it was the BRITISH, not English army that slaughtered the highlanders.

But my favorite line in Drurie's essay is "Robert Burns never wore a kilt."

[PiperPadre]

That's a great read, thanks!

It's hilarious, all that Mark Twain stuff. If you read Innocents Abroad you'll know about Twain's disdain for the pretentions of European culture, but I had no idea he specifically targeted Sir Walter Scott.

What I didn't see mentioned about Scott is how he swallowed the Allen Brothers' nonsense hook, line, and sinker. Scott's promoting of the Brothers' creations did irreparable harm to authentic Highland tartan.

The author briefly mentions McIan but doesn't mention that he, too, was an English imposter who also did lasting harm to outsider's perceptions of Highland culture by replacing reality with his fantasies.

He revealed his disdain for Scott in "Huck Finn" by naming the floundering and sinking ship "Walter Scott".

[jsrnephdoc]

That's a great read, thanks!

It's hilarious, all that Mark Twain stuff. If you read Innocents Abroad you'll know about Twain's disdain for the pretentions of European culture, but I had no idea he specifically targeted Sir Walter Scott.

What I didn't see mentioned about Scott is how he swallowed the Allen Brothers' nonsense hook, line, and sinker. Scott's promoting of the Brothers' creations did irreparable harm to authentic Highland tartan.

I've already admitted that I'm no historian, and never even "played one on TV," but I'm curious about your statement that Sr. Walter Scott was seduced by their fabrications. A casual finger dance in the address bar of my internet browser produces the exact opposite impression regarding Scott's opinion of the Alan (or Allen, or whatever name one chooses for them). For example, there's this:

Sir Walter Scott warned Dick-Lauder that the brothers 'are men of warm imaginations ... of much accomplishment but little probity – that is, in antiquarian matters'.^[27] Sir Walter Scott, who died in 1832, had rejected the entire notion of clan tartans, saying that the 'idea of distinguishing the clans by their tartans is but a fashion of modern date'. On behalf of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries he was shown a transcript of part of the brothers' manuscript but from its language alone 'indignantly declared his conviction that the MS itself must be an absolute fabrication'.^[28] Scott remembered seeing one of the brothers wearing the badge of High Constable of Scotland (as the Earls of Erroll were), 'which he could have no more right to wear than the Crown'.

But, I'm also curious, because, allegedly the Allen brothers did LOOK remarkably like Bonnie Prince Charlie, whether bits of DNA might be available for testing, because I read also that there are some still seduced by their ancestral claims.

And, on a personal note, I'm also curious about Durie's "guest list" for King George's 1822 Edinburgh bash. FWIW, I've read in several places that the Clan Donnachaidh chieftain was there, sporting exactly that Robertson Red (white line) Wilson's tartan I'm hoping to acquire for myself one day to that assembly, but apparently he didn't make the list in Durie's research. (I guess, with no more iPhones than were allowed in Madison Square Garden for last week's 1,000-guest wedding, we'll never find photographic evidence) One other reason: I have a VERY close friend of Polish ancestry whose profession was pediatric neurology but whose avocation was poetry. By the time I was goofing off in junior high school, he'd read ALL of Scott's Waverly novels and written an epic poem tribute to Scott, and I plan to forward Durie's paper to him.

[OC Richard]

I've already admitted that I'm no historian, and never even "played one on TV," but I'm curious about your statement that Sr. Walter Scott was seduced by their fabrications. A casual finger dance in the address bar of my internet browser produces the exact opposite impression regarding Scott's opinion of the Alan (or Allen, or whatever name one chooses for them). For example, there's this:

Sir Walter Scott warned Dick-Lauder that the brothers 'are men of warm imaginations ... of much accomplishment but little probity – that is, in antiquarian matters'.^[27] Sir Walter Scott, who died in 1832, had rejected the entire notion of clan tartans, saying that the 'idea of distinguishing the clans by their tartans is but a fashion of modern date'. On behalf of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries he was shown a transcript of part of the brothers' manuscript but from its language alone 'indignantly declared his conviction that the MS itself must be an absolute fabrication'.^[28] Scott remembered seeing one of the brothers wearing the badge of High Constable of Scotland (as the Earls of Erroll were), 'which he could have no more right to wear than the Crown'.

But, I'm also curious, because, allegedly the Allen brothers did LOOK remarkably like Bonnie Prince Charlie, whether bits of DNA might be available for testing, because I read also that there are some still seduced by their ancestral claims.

And, on a personal note, I'm also curious about Durie's "guest list" for King George's 1822 Edinburgh bash. FWIW, I've read in several places that the Clan Donnachaidh chieftain was there, sporting exactly that Robertson Red (white line) Wilson's tartan I'm hoping to acquire for myself one day to that assembly, but apparently he didn't make the list in Durie's research. (I guess, with no more iPhones than were allowed in Madison Square Garden for last week's 1,000-guest wedding, we'll never find photographic evidence) One other reason: I have a VERY close friend of Polish ancestry whose profession was pediatric neurology but whose avocation was poetry. By the time I was goofing off in junior high school, he'd read ALL of Scott's Waverly novels and written an epic poem tribute to Scott, and I plan to forward Durie's paper to him.

I'm so sorry you're 100% correct!!

I had a "senior moment" and talked off the top of my head rather than pull out a book, and mixed up Lauder with Scott.

It was Scott, having extensive knowledge of historical writing, who immediately spotted the numerous anachronisms committed by the Allen Brothers in their attempt to make their fake manuscript sound old.

I'm editing my above post to get rid of my misinformation.

About the Allen Brothers' supposed resemblance to Bonny Prince Charlie, now that I've read more about it I think it wasn't that, but how they resembled portraits of King Charles I, a look they obviously cultivated.

[jsrnephdoc]

I'm so sorry you're 100% correct!!

I had a "senior moment" and talked off the top of my head rather than pull out a book, and mixed up Lauder with Scott.

It was Scott, having extensive knowledge of historical writing, who immediately spotted the numerous anachronisms committed by the Allen Brothers in their attempt to make their fake manuscript sound old.

No problems. Frankly, what amazed me was a little smudge in your seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of Scottish history and culture.

Hell, I don't have senior "moments." I have entire WEEKS! But, forgetfulness is part of our constitution at any age, and our ability to recognize it and correct for it is one thing that still distinguishes "us" from AI bots.

Another is our ability to have action conditioned by emotion. Just yesterday I "fell" for an (in retrospect fairly obvious) "please help our darling brave child" scam on the Nextdoor social media plan. The scammer begged for money for a 4 year old survivor of life with no kidneys who (allegedly), thanks to pre-birth infusions of amniotic fluid) had made it to life in the first place, and, thanks to dialysis from birth, was now considered to be eligible for a kidney transplant, but too ill to travel on a commercial plane, so desperately needed just under $50,000 for a private jet transport to a renowned American medical center for her pre-transplant evaluation. There were MANY red flags in that story that should have been obvious to me, but I fell for it (not to the point of sending money), but did so primarily because from my decades as a practicing nephrologist I knew that the poor little girl would not survive long after surgery even if a donor were found, and there were SO many other ways to advance the common good in medical care that would make more sense.

I'd NOT known that antenatal injections of amniotic fluid could help fetuses make it to life and confirmed that online, but what I should have done is tickle that URL entry window in my browser with "Is 'wings for Hanna' a scam?"

What I DID do was post the story in an email to my group of lifelong med school buddies. 2 of 10 immediately saw the deceit. One (an academic pediatric neurologist) was even more triggered by the apparent courage and persistence of the parents than I!

But I remain curious whether, given our ability to identify the meadows where certain sheep shed their biological blankets to make a woven one that could be characterized 400 years later despite spending most of that time resting in mud, couldn't we also find little bits of double helix that might tell us once and for all whether Johnny and Charlie Alan (or Allen, or whatever) were also entitled to "Stuart" and "Sobieski?" Some still believe so.