My Hope Is Constant In Thee

As a Scotsman, I am inordinately proud of my heritage. I have always regarded myself as Scottish first followed by British and a poor third of European. We have long felt the oppressed underdogs of the conquering English and spent years fighting with them, whilst aligning ourselves with some of the Scandanavian countries, particularly the Norwegians. Generally though, we liked a good scrap, and if we couldn't find any English to fight with, then we fought amogst ourslves too, one such battle was that of Killikrankie.

For those of you who don't know, and I think really that includes most Scotsmen too, there are quoted anything from 5-300 clans or clan associations. I was unable to find any definitive answer to the question of how many there were. Some say that all Scottish and Irish clans come from 5 original families. This list here seems to indicate 873 familiy name associations with 90 clans, and my name isn't even on there! This list shows 262 so who knows for sure. I did find some great information on the whole forming of the clan structure, land ownership etc on Wikipedia.

My clan, Macdonald Of Clanranald, one of the biggest of the MacDonald branches, was based off the West coast of Scotland just below Skye on the island of Rhum. I will be the first, however, to admit that my knowledge of history both of my country and my clan, how it was formed is sadly lacking. At school, I was always into the much more practical subjects, maths, technical drawing, woodwork, and the sciences, always tending towards absolutes. I certainly would never necessarily believe in something just because someone told me about it, or suggested that I had faith, I always wanted proof, and hence my leaning towards those subjects.

I don't regret much from my life, preferring to look at things objectively and emotionlessly (is that a word) as learning opportunities, but one of the things that I do wish I had spent more time on is history. Occasionally I watch the history channel and regular readers will know that I try to reasearch items reasonably deeply before I blog about them, giving me the opportunity to learn about some of the history of my new home.

When I bought my outfit, the guy in the shop told me that I was related the MacDonald Of Clanranald line, and the one I actually chose is on the right here. For each clan, there are typically 7 tartans, Standard, Modern, Ancient, Muted, Antique, Reproduction and Dress. At this point, if you are sitting there saying "Just what the heck is tartan anyway?" then check out this link.

Lorraine has fully embraced my Scottish heritage as a theme for the wedding, and apart from me wearing my kilt and the traditional Lowlanders garb, ghillie shirt, lowlander waistcoat and plaid, we have included the clan crest on invitations, placecards and menus and the clan motto (the title of this posting) will be used in various ways too.

Personally, I believe my clan motto is a great sentiment that we should all take into our relationships, be they professional, friendship, or marital, and I just happen to be lucky enough to be able to claim it.