In the lead up to the Bonnie Wingham Scottish Festival, Eric Richardson takes a look at the history of the Scottish clan system.
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The clan system, that confuses not only non Scots but many Scots themselves, grew out of a similar system in Celtic Ireland where the Scots came from.
It was an effective means of government in the Highlands of Scotland from sometime before 1000AD until it was essentially eliminated by the British in 1745.
What is a clan? Anthropologists generally define a clan as a group, whose membership stipulates descent from a common ancestor.
A clan therefore may be described as a bunch of cousins. However, in these days, we know that not all people, even of one surname, are genetically related.
Related: A Bonnie good time for Scots
Sir Ian Moncreiffe an accepted authority in Scotland of Scottish lore, has described the Scottish clans in a much more liberal way.
A Maclean or a Campbell, a Cameron or a McIntosh or a Murray, for example were distinguished by features which cut clean across class. While people speak of “old” or “core” families, in fact no family is older than any other.
What is meant by “old” is that particular families have managed to maintain their identity and retain their records of their past longer than the majority of other folk even of the same name.
That description should be particularly satisfying to highlanders because his description of what he calls “the sacred and dynastic origins of the founder chiefs” is a description of the clans themselves.
Whilst the purists claim that the only true clan was that which evolved in the highlands, the lowland Scots also evolved into extended family groups with a loyalty focussed on the landowner or laird.
Although there were many more surnames associated with the group, there developed a set of common traditions and with inter-marriage, extended families became and were known as clans.
In some families however the term ‘family’ is proudly promoted and one such “family”, the Bruces, who claim descent from Robert “The Bruce”, gathered in Wingham in 2014 to commemorate locally the victory at the Battle of Bannockburn where the Scots under the command of their king Robert the Bruce defeated the English commanded by their King Edward lll.
That was the first time that the Bruces have gathered as a family in Australia.
Now, when the clans have dispersed to the far corners of the world, what remains except a vague remembrance of Scots descent?
What remains is the clan: sense of family, of common roots, of a place from where we all came, strengthened by the romance of history, the skirling of the pipes, the swing of the kilt, and above all Scottish pride and loyalty.
The 2018 Bonnie Wingham Scottish Festival will be held from May 27 – June 3.