St Kilda Kilts & Scottish Gifts

Here we have a full lion rampant. If that wasn’t terrifying enough, this one is yielding a dagger. Not a chap you want to meet in a dark alleyway.  

John Comyn the third of Badenoch, better known as ‘Red Comyn’ c.1274-1306, was one of the claimants to the Scottish throne after the death of Alexander III, and was a rival to Robert the Bruce. Bruce famously murdered Comyn in Greyfriars Church in Dumfries in front of the High Altar. The story goes that both men drew daggers with Bruce ultimately prevailing. The Comyns were there after broken as a power, and the Comyn Earls of Buchan were forced out of Scotland. These Comyns did not have a crest, the arms of the earls being three garbs (wheat sheafs).

The Comyn Garbs

Branches of the family, spelled Cumming, would survive or return to Scotland, such as the Cummings of Altyre, the chiefly line, whose crest this is. They descend from the Badenoch Comyns, their ancestor being brother to John second of Badenoch. Their line of descent (to be taken with a pinch of salt, as it is riddled with errors), and their crest is described in Sir Robert Douglas' Baronage of Scotland of 1798.

So what we have here is the lion representing the kingly credentials of the Comyns, with the dagger with which they fought with Bruce (who also use a lion as their crest).

The Carrick version of the Cumming Crest

The murder of Comyn has a grizzly legacy in Scottish heraldry, with certainly families keen to brag about their involvement. The Charteris crest has a dagger in commemoration of their role on Bruce’s side; the Fleming motto is ‘Let the deed shaw’ in like manner; the Kirkpatrick crest goes as far as having a bloody dagger.

MKP 6 July 2023