Recent posts with reference to the recent Rob Roy film can I think illuminate some of the background as to why those of us with a strong affinity by blood to a specific clan feel so strongly about such things as our unique tartan.

First a dash of reality, the history of the clans is a savage one of treachery, double dealing, feuds, cattle raiding the abduction of women, and just about everything to send the modern 'correct' individual into terminal shock. Whilst day to day life was harsh, by even the standards of the time: so there is good reason for the clans to be held in low esteem throughout the rest of Scotland-and as for England!

So whilst such films as Brigadoon, Braveheart, and of course Rob Roy paint a certain picture-it is one that paints a rather rosy scene.

However against this background there developed fierce loyalties, and the concept of the clan being the base for both aggression and defence: the lodestone of an individuals very being.

At this point it is possible to argue that such things as specific tartans are a recent ' oft early Victorian invention': however over a period of a couple of hundred years they have developed an association at both the actual and the mental level: so do whatever people might say today, loom large in the thoughts of the clansman of today.

Too whilst some would decry the wearing of the skean dhu, it is in the same way a link to our very being-our clansman/warrior being, so to discard it easily, or substitute a dummy, does not come easy.

Of course it would be possible to discount us as romantics hankering after an imagined past: not true at all, or we do not have a blinkered view of the past. Rather we are looking to something else: that is belonging, belonging to a particular group with a shared identity: so in simple terms: 'thanks to the past we know who we are today'.

This getting back to the discussion which takes place here , is why we get so unhappy when so called experts citing this or that authority say that anyone can wear any tartan-regardless of their bloodline claims. For the various books and authorities do not of necessity share the emotional links of the clansman: and as for the tailors with their lists!

However this is not to try and deny the ability of people without such a link to wear a tartan: for there are many district tartans, and such ones as the Jacobite which are available. Besides the solid colours, and all the tartans invented in recent years. Whilst with entire irony, the wider population of Scotland now lay claim to the kilt-a garment that not so long ago they would have scorned as the attire of 'ignorant savages'.

On a personal note, I have not the least intention of allowing my emotions upon the subject to intrude upon the reality of today. Rather I'm pointing out that on occasion some of the assumptions made today do trample on the feelings of many a clansman.

James