PANEL 62    English Advances, Gaelic Retreats

The defeat at Culloden in 1746 was the beginning of a long end for the Highland clans, their culture and their language. Gaelic had crossed the North Channel from Ireland with the establishment of the kingdoms of Dalriada and, at its zenith, the language was spoken all over the Highlands and the Western Isles but, as the brutal aftermath of the Jacobite Risings merged into the Clearances, people left the Highlands with Gaelic, a language that they rarely passed on to their children. Now it is spoken by less than 1 per cent of all Scots. The original native tongue of Scotland was what might be best described as Old Welsh or Cumbric. Now entirely effaced, its only traces are to be found in the landscape, in natural features and place names. Peebles is from pebyll, the Old Welsh word for tents and it probably meant a shieling. Altcluit meant the Rock of the Clyde, now Dumbarton Rock, and Penicuik is from Pen y Cog, Cuckoo Hill. Early versions of English invaded with the Angles as they overran the Tweed Basin and the Lothians in the seventh century and, in the medieval period, it spread with the establishment of towns and trade. But, until the 19th century, Gaelic reached down the Perthshire, Angus and Aberdeenshire glens and it is likely that those who lived on either side of the linguistic frontier understood each other well enough. Now the fate of Gaelic is very perilous and, if it is lost, it will be all Scotland’s loss.

 

Panel stitched by:

In Stitches

Jean Gowans

Tina Hammond

Carolyn Irvine of Drum

Helen Jackson

Diana Munro

Mairi Skinner

Stitched in:

Banchory, Letham, Potarch