All About Scotland

In south and east Scotland, they spoke Scots; the local dialect in Shetland, Orkney and much of the northeast, though Scots-based, contained elements of Norn (Old Norse); while the language of the rest of north and west Scotland, including the Western Isles, was Gaelic.

These linguistic differences were paralleled by different forms of social organization and customs. The people of north and west Scotland were mostly pastoralists, moving their sheep and cattle to Highland pastures in the summer and returning to the glens in the winter. They lived in single-room dwellings, heated by a central peat fire and sometimes shared with livestock, and in hard times they would subsist on cakes made from the blood of their live cattle mixed with oatmeal. Highlanders supplemented their meagre income by raiding their clan neighbours and the prosperous Lowlands, whose inhabitants regarded their northern compatriots with a mixture of fear and contempt. In the early 17th century, Montgomerie, a Lowland poet, suggested that God had created the first Highlander out of horse manure. When God asked his creation what he would do, the reply was 'I will doun to the Lowland, Lord, and thair steill a kow'.

'not until the late 17th century were certain tartans
roughly associated with particular clans'

It would be a mistake, however, to infer from the primitive nature of Highland life that the institutions of this society had existed from time immemorial. This is especially true of the 'clan', a term that only appears in its modern usage in the 16th century. In theory, the clan bound together blood relatives who shared a common ancestor, a concept clearly derived from the ancient Gaelic notion of kinship. But in practice many of the clans were of non-Gaelic origin - such as the Frasers, Sinclairs and Stewarts, all of Anglo-Norman descent - and it was the mythology of a common ancestor, rather than the actuality, that cemented the clans together. Furthermore, clans were often made up of people with a variety of surnames, and there are documented cases of individuals changing their names when they swapped allegiances.

At the upper end of Highland society was the clan chief (who might have been a minor figure, like MacDonald of Glen Coe, or a great lord, like the Duke of Argyll, head of the Campbells), who provided protection for his followers: they would, in turn, fight for him when called upon to do so. Below the clan chief were the chieftains of the septs, or subunits of the clan, and then came the tacksmen, major tenants of the chief to whom they were frequently related. The tacksmen sublet their land to tenants, who were at the bottom of the social scale. The Highlanders wore a simple belted plaid wrapped around the body - rather than the kilt - and not until the late 17th century were certain tartans roughly associated with particular clans. The detailed codification of the tartan was produced by the Victorians, whose romantic vision of Highland life originated with George IV's visit to Scotland in 1822, when he appeared in an elaborate version of Highland dress, complete with flesh-coloured tights.