25th Annual Texas Scottish Festival

**Morris at Heathfield** · 9th June 11, 12:56 AM

The world's oldest clan society. I don't recall seeing a Buchanan booth at previous games, so I stopped by. While I was there a woman and her daughter showed up. The woman had questions about several surnames, and I ended up helping her find the surnames in a Scottish surname dictionary, pointed out the areas where they were found on a map of Scotland, and showed her the Roxburgh Red tartan (associated by Tartan For Me! with one of the surnames) in District Tartans. Sometimes all my obsessing over tartans actually pays off.

I stopped by Clan Donnachaidh's booth to see if I could find anything definite on the supposed connection between the Robbie surname (common in the Lowlands) and the Robertsons. I didn't find anything I didn't already know.

I passed the Stewart booth, but didn't stop by this year. I didn't see kscaddo there at this time, although I saw him later.

At the Campbell booth I made use of their copy of Campbell Tartan to find out what I could on the original Campbell of Breadalbane (Breadalbane Fencibles) tartan. I wrote down a couple of thread counts on a piece of paper. Unfortunately, it was the same piece of paper I wrote the NTCP&D's set list on.

At the Clan Donald booth I tried to see if I could find anything on an ancestor of mine who was apparently born in eastern New York state in the mid-18th century. No luck. I remembered that at previous games Clan Donald had a chart of all their tartans. I asked to see it so I could take another look at the MacRory tartan. Yeah, I know there's always the Tartan Ferret and the Scottish Register of Tartans, but it seems more real when it's on a piece of paper at the Highland games. I'm sure it would seem even more real if it were woven and made into a kilt....

**Morris at Heathfield** · 9th June 11, 01:00 AM

There probably aren't a whole lot of Highland games where you can join the 9th Texas Infantry and relive the 1860s.

**Morris at Heathfield** · 9th June 11, 01:09 AM

Apart from the piping and the dancing, what I was looking forward to the most this year was David Gressett's class on Gaelic. I took a semester of Scottish Gaelic in junior college, so it wasn't totally new to me, but I did learn a few new things. The class was packed and lasted over an hour, but there was only enough time for a brief introduction to Gaelic phonology, a few greetings, and a smattering of grammar.

Among the people who attended the class, a man wearing a Macdonald tartan kilt and a Balmoral bonnet with two feathers and a red hackle decided to grace us with his presence.

At the end of class the teacher had us sing a traditional Gaelic folk song.

**Morris at Heathfield** · 9th June 11, 01:10 AM

The sheaf toss, near the dance tent.

**Morris at Heathfield** · 9th June 11, 01:27 AM

The Houston Highlanders practicing for the competition. I love the Caledonia tartan, so I was rooting for them to win. This is why I can never be a judge.

The Houston Highlanders performing their set in the Heritage Dance Tent.

The North Texas Caledonian Pipes & Drums performing their set.

The Bayou City Pipes and Drums decided to make a grand entrance onto the stage.

Performing their set on the stage.

And performing yet another set while exiting the stage.

They come to a halt, and the performance is over.

**Morris at Heathfield** · 9th June 11, 01:33 AM

The judges are busy tallying the points. Will the Houston Highlanders' tartan affect Bob Richardson's decision?

Now they're conferring to determine the winner. At least, I assume that's what they're doing.

Congratulating each other after the awards are given. The results were:

3rd: Houston Highlanders
2nd: North Texas Caledonian Pipes & Drums
1st: Bayou City Pipes and Drums

The Houston Highlanders came in second place for drumming, however. If I overheard correctly, they also got high marks for their uniforms.

I asked one of the Houston Highlanders what tunes they performed. (Because the Caledonians performed one of the same tunes in their set, I mistakenly assumed they all performed the exact same set.) I wrote them down on a piece of paper—the same piece of paper I noted down the Breadalbane Fencibles tartan thread count on.

**Morris at Heathfield** · 9th June 11, 01:44 AM

After the Gaelic class I noticed this woman lining up for whisky tasting. In particular I noticed the lovely tartan she was wearing. Later on I saw her standing in line near a brewery booth. Finally, when I saw her just walking along, I had to ask her if I could take her picture. I told her I had ancestors from Angus, but I didn't think to ask her why she was wearing the Angus tartan. (Although "because it's pretty" would suffice for me.)

**Spartan Tartan** · 9th June 11, 02:24 AM

Now THIS is a picture thread!!!

Absolutely wonderful. I feel like I was there. Thank you for taking the time to post and explain all those pictures. I really enjoyed reading this.

**WillieMacG** · 9th June 11, 08:09 AM

Originally Posted by Morris at Heathfield

At the Clan Donald booth I tried to see if I could find anything on an ancestor of mine who was apparently born in eastern New York state in the mid-18th century. No luck. I remembered that at previous games Clan Donald had a chart of all their tartans. I asked to see it so I could take another look at the MacRory tartan. Yeah, I know there's always the Tartan Ferret and the Scottish Register of Tartans, but it seems more real when it's on a piece of paper at the Highland games. I'm sure it would seem even more real if it were woven and made into a kilt....

Nice shot of the Clan MacInnes tent in the background! Can't quite see me as I was sitting in the back of the tent in the shade.

Too bad I didn't yet know about this forum or I could have met several of y'all. Ah well, maybe next year. BTW, I did notice a huge omission in your report. It was HOT!!!! But, great pics all around! Thanks for the thread.