Clan Crest Symbolism and other Notes

Crest Meaning: Farquharson

Crest Meaning: Farquharson

admin 13/10/2023 0
 The Farquharson crest includes a red lion holding a sword, on top of a cap of maintenance. The lion was taken by Alexader Nisbet in his 1722 System o...
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Crest Meaning: Erskine

Crest Meaning: Erskine

admin 04/10/2023 0
 The Erskine crest us a hand holding a skene (knife) on a chapeau hat. The motto is Je Pense Plus, French for ‘I think more’. The chief of the Erskine...
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Crest Meaning: Elphinstone

Crest Meaning: Elphinstone

admin 29/09/2023 0
 The Elphinstone crest is a lady from the waist up, richly dressed in red holding a tower and a laurel.   Laurel the traditional symbol of victory and...
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Crest Meaning: Eliott

Crest Meaning: Eliott

admin 27/09/2023 0
 The Elliot crest is a hand holding a cutlass. The modern version has an armoured arm, although the hand is left bare. The motto is Fortiter et Recte,...
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Crest Meaning: Durie

Crest Meaning: Durie

admin 19/09/2023 0
 The Durie crest is a simple golden crescent. We’ve already seen the crest of a crescent used for Arnot and Cathcart and there will be more to come (H...
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Crest Meaning: Dunlop

Crest Meaning: Dunlop

admin 19/09/2023 0
 The Dunlop crest of a right hand holding a dagger, with the motto ‘Merito’ (deservedly). This crest  was recorded in Nisbet’s 1722 System of Heraldry...
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Crest Meaning: Dundas

Crest Meaning: Dundas

admin 15/09/2023 0
 Lions were a popular symbol for the Dundas kindred. The old shield of the chiefly family, Dundas of Dundas (or ‘of that Ilk’) had a red lion rampant,...
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Crest Meaning: Duncan

Crest Meaning: Duncan

admin 14/09/2023 0
 The crest of a ship in distress for the Duncans has never been registered with the Lyon Court to represent the chiefly family, but has a long traditi...
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Crest Meaning: Dunbar

Crest Meaning: Dunbar

admin 12/09/2023 0
 This crest has been in use since George Dunbar (1340-1422) Earl of March and Dunbar, Lord Annandale and Man, whose crest was a bridled horse’s neck a...
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Crest Meaning-Drummond

Crest Meaning-Drummond

admin 01/09/2023 0
 The Drummond crest is a goshawk atop of a strawberry-leaved crown. The motto is ‘gang warily’, i.e. ‘go carefully’. It’s not clear if this is a recom...
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Crest Meaning: Douglas

Crest Meaning: Douglas

admin 01/09/2023 0
 The Douglas crest is a green salamander on fire, sat atop of chapeau (a type of prestigious medieval hat). Far from an act of animal cruelty, the Rom...
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Crest Meaning: Dewar

Crest Meaning: Dewar

admin 31/08/2023 0
 The Dewar crest is an armoured arm holding a sword, emerging from a crown with strawberry leaves. This is the crest of the Dewars of Vogie, the succe...
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Crest Meaning: Davidson

Crest Meaning: Davidson

admin 29/08/2023 0
 The Davidson crest is a stag’s head. In Nisbet’s 1722 System of Heraldry, the motto ‘Sapienter si sincere’ is recorded for the Davidsons of Curriehil...
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Crest Meaning: Dalziel

Crest Meaning: Dalziel

admin 04/08/2023 0
 Here we have the crest of the Dalziels, which is a dagger with the motto ‘I dare’. This is attached to the rather garbled arms of a naked man with hi...
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Crest Meaning: Dalrymple

Crest Meaning: Dalrymple

admin 28/07/2023 0
  The crest of the Dalrymples is a rock. and comes from the senior family, the Earls of Stair. The crest is recorded in the Lyon Registers on 2 June 1...
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Crest Meaning: Cunningham

Crest Meaning: Cunningham

admin 10/07/2023 0
 This is one where the symbolism seems straightforward at a glance, but increasingly harder to grasp on deeper exploration. Three theories are given i...
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Crest Meaning: Cumming

Crest Meaning: Cumming

admin 06/07/2023 0
 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.   ...
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Crest Meaning: Crosbie

Crest Meaning: Crosbie

admin 06/07/2023 0
 Anyone who knows the story of St Paul’s Cathedral in London knows how Wren supposedly found a broken tombstone in the ruins of the burnt-out medieval...
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Crest Meaning: Crichton

Crest Meaning: Crichton

admin 04/07/2023 0
 A dragon breathing fire. It’s rare to see a dragon in Scottish heraldry and this is something of a puzzler. The original recorded crest of the Lords ...
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Crest Meaning: Crawford

Crest Meaning: Crawford

admin 30/06/2023 0
 During the reign of James I (1406-1437) the abbey of Holyrood first used the image of a stag with a cross between its antlers. The story behind this ...
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Crest Meaning: Cranstoun

Crest Meaning: Cranstoun

admin 30/06/2023 0
 The crest and motto are recorded in Nisbet’s 1722 System of Heraldry. Where some Scottish crests are meant to inspire awe, fear, virtue or resolve, h...
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Crest Meaning: Craig

Crest Meaning: Craig

admin 30/06/2023 0
The Craig clan crest is one of the most impressive and memorable: a knight (chevalier) in full armour with broken lance. Exactly what this is referrin...
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Crest Meaning: Colville

Crest Meaning: Colville

admin 30/06/2023 0
 The Colville crest is a hind’s head. The golden hind is the most famous version of this animal, referring to the adventures of Hercules in Green myth...
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Crest Meaning: Colquhoun

Crest Meaning: Colquhoun

admin 30/06/2023 0
  The Colquhoun crest is a male red deer, a hart. Deer like these found on Scottish crests tend to have double meanings. On the one hand they are mean...
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Crest Meaning: Cockburn

Crest Meaning: Cockburn

admin 30/06/2023 0
 Although this Borders kindred is somewhat coy in pronouncing all the letters of their name, instead usually going for ‘Co-burn’, in contrast for thei...
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Crest Meaning: Cochrane

Crest Meaning: Cochrane

admin 29/06/2023 0
 A horse. There are a few possibilities of what this might be referring to. Unfortunately, as the crest and motto are recorded in Nisbett’s 1722 Syste...
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Crest Meaning: Clelland

Crest Meaning: Clelland

admin 29/06/2023 0
 The Clelland Crest has some relatively straightforward symbolism. It was mentioned in 1722 Nisbet’s System of Heraldry, but has an older pedigree. Th...
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Crest Meaning: Chisholm

Crest Meaning: Chisholm

admin 22/09/2021 0
 We can trace a boar’s head being associated with the Chisolm/Chisholms back to at least 1296, when Richard de Chesehelme of Roxburghshire used a boar...
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Crest Meaning: Chattan

Crest Meaning: Chattan

admin 16/09/2021 0
 Clan Chattan takes its name from Gilchattan Mor, the great servant of Saint Cattan, or Cathan. Saint Cathan was the son of the Dál Riatan King Áedán ...
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Tartan Videos by Antony Cummins

Tartan Videos by Antony Cummins

admin 09/02/2021 0
We were kindly contacted by Antony Cummins, who has made some very interesting videos of his tartan projects. Be sure to check out the rest of his cha...
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Crest Meaning: Charteris

Crest Meaning: Charteris

admin 22/01/2021 0
 Something of a pun here, albeit a slightly sinister one. The name Charteris is assumed to refer to Chartres in France and the family’s origins there....
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Crest Meaning: Chalmers

Crest Meaning: Chalmers

admin 15/01/2021 0
 The Chalmers crest is a lion with the motto ‘avance’, French for ‘advance’. On the surface this is pretty standard stuff, a lion being a famous symbo...
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Crest Meaning: Cathcart

Crest Meaning: Cathcart

admin 05/11/2020 0
 As discussed with the Arnot crest, the crescent is one of the older heraldic symbols, very popular among knightly circles, sometimes as a reference t...
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Crest Meaning: Carnegie

Crest Meaning: Carnegie

admin 28/10/2020 0
 Carnegie. Here’s a more unusual crest, a winged thunderbolt. In Ancient Greece the eagle and thunderbolt were symbols of Zeus, and this continued wit...
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Crest Meaning: Carmichael

Crest Meaning: Carmichael

admin 21/10/2020 0
 The crest for Carmichael is a broken lance raised triumphantly. This is a reference to the Battle of Baugé on 22 March 1421, during the Hundred Years...
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Creat Meaning: Campbell of Cawdow

Creat Meaning: Campbell of Cawdow

admin 14/10/2020 0
 Unlike the Campbells of Inveraray and the Campbells of Breadalbane who use a boar’s head as a crest, the Campbells of Cawdor (and Campbells of Airds)...
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Scottish Kirkyard Carvings

Scottish Kirkyard Carvings

admin 07/10/2020 0
Our Autumn 2020 range of kilt pins, just in time for Hallowe’en, celebrates the wonderful and unique Scottish art found on seventeenth century tombs. ...
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Crest Meaning: Campbell

Crest Meaning: Campbell

admin 23/09/2020 0
 CAMBPELL Here we have a boar’s head and the Latin motto ‘Ne Obliviscaris’, meaning ‘don’t forget’. There are two stories behind this crest. The boar ...
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Crest Meaning: Cameron

Crest Meaning: Cameron

admin 16/09/2020 0
 This crest was adopted in the 1740s by Donald Cameron of Lochiel, known to history as ‘Gentle Lochiel’, replacing an older crest of an arm holding a ...
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Crest Meaning: Burnett

Crest Meaning: Burnett

admin 08/09/2020 0
 From an armorial panel on Crathes Castle, this crest seems to have been in use since the early 1600s at least. A very interesting story here. This em...
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Crest Meaning: Buchanan

Crest Meaning: Buchanan

admin 02/09/2020 0
 BUCHANAN Here we have a hand holding a ducal cap topped with a rose, between two laurel branches. The earliest reference to this design comes in 1657...
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Crest Meaning: Buchan

Crest Meaning: Buchan

admin 27/08/2020 0
  The crest of the Lairds of Auchmacoy.Here we have a sunflower enjoying the sun. This is a very rare symbol in Scottish heraldry, although was quite ...
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The Battersea Shield

The Battersea Shield

admin 25/08/2020 0
The term ‘Celtic’ is best thought of as a language and artistic group, which spread across northern Europe in ancient times, and now primarily represe...
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Crest Meaning: Bruce

Crest Meaning: Bruce

admin 24/08/2020 0
 Bruce. A proud lion has obvious connotations to Scottish royalty. The Latin motto ‘Fuimus’, meaning ‘we have been’ is a little more cryptic, although...
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Crest Meaning: Brodie

Crest Meaning: Brodie

admin 20/08/2020 0
 The Brodies are one of the most enduring laridly families of Scotland, with an impressive castle not far from Inverness. Here in their crest we have ...
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Crest Meaning: Boyle

Crest Meaning: Boyle

admin 17/08/2020 0
 Here we have a double headed eagle ‘parted’ with a wiggly line. Not to imply some sort of Frankenstein’s bird, or bad taxidermy, the double-headed ea...
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The Lordship of the Isles - Part 3

The Lordship of the Isles - Part 3

admin 11/08/2020 0
 The Lordship of the Isles - Part 3 Somerled’s death at the battle of Renfrew to the forces of the Bishop of Glasgow in 1164 essentially ended the kin...
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Crest Meaning: Boyd

Crest Meaning: Boyd

admin 04/08/2020 0
 In 1572 the Boyds were said to be ‘a surname of right hardie men’ (Estimate of the Scottish Nobility, 1873, p.21). This is the crest of the Lords Boy...
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Crest Meaning: Borthwick

Crest Meaning: Borthwick

admin 22/07/2020 0
 The Borthwick Crest consists of a Moor’s head in profile and the Latin motto ‘Qui Conducit’. In 1522 a seal of William Lord Borthwick had a horse’s h...
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Crest Meaning: Bethune

Crest Meaning: Bethune

admin 16/07/2020 0
 Bethune, sometimes better known as Beaton. The crest is of an Otter’s head. The crest and motto are recorded in Nisbet’s 1722 System of Heraldry. The...
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The Kingdom of the Isles - Part 2

The Kingdom of the Isles - Part 2

admin 14/07/2020 0
So we learnt in part 1 that the old kingdom of Dal Riata was supplanted by incoming Vikings after 849AD. Raids on the Isles had started from 793, and ...
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Crest Meaning: Bell

Crest Meaning: Bell

admin 09/07/2020 0
 Today we have a reiving family, whose name is thought to derive from a French word for fair or handsome. Not much to explore with the crest: a dagger...
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Crest Meaning: Barclay

Crest Meaning: Barclay

admin 08/07/2020 0
 A surprisingly aggressive crest for a family famous for its Quakers. Here we have a hand holding a dagger emerging from a cap of maintenance. The dag...
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Crest Meaning: Bannerman

Crest Meaning: Bannerman

admin 03/07/2020 0
  Unsurprisingly, this family were the bearers of the royal standard in the tenth and eleventh centuries. However, due to conspicuous bravery at a bat...
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The Lordship of the Isles – Part 1

The Lordship of the Isles – Part 1

admin 02/07/2020 0
The Lordship of the Isles – Part 1 The Western Isles have always been a distinct part of Scotland. Where the sea dominates communications, the culture...
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Crest Meaning: Bannatyne

Crest Meaning: Bannatyne

admin 01/07/2020 0
 Another griffin (see Baird), although this one’s tooled up with a little sword. This was the crest of the Bannatynes of Corhouse (now known as Corra ...
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Crest Meaning: Baird

Crest Meaning: Baird

admin 29/06/2020 0
 A gryphon’s head. The griffon had the body, tail and legs of a lion, and the head and wings of an eagle… so we just have the eagle bit here, but take...
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Crest Meaning: Baillie

Crest Meaning: Baillie

admin 26/06/2020 0
 The first of many severed boars’ heads, perhaps the single most popular symbol in Scottish heraldry. A major cluster of boar-head heraldry could be f...
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Crest Meaning: Arnot

Crest Meaning: Arnot

admin 25/06/2020 0
 A surname from the placename in Kinross-shire. The crest for Arnot is an upturned crescent. No crest was recorded for the senior line of the family A...
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Crest Meaning: Armstrong

Crest Meaning: Armstrong

admin 24/06/2020 0
 Not much subtlety here. A strong arm, or Arm-Strong if you will. The ‘Invictus Maneo’ literally translates as ‘I remain unvanquished’, but there’s so...
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Irish Crests

Irish Crests

admin 23/06/2020 0
In Scotland, the chief of a clan/kindred will have their own coat of arms, consisting of the shield, supporters, crest and so on. Followers of that ch...
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Crest Meaning: Arbuthnott

Crest Meaning: Arbuthnott

admin 22/06/2020 0
 Named after the lands in the Mearns, this is the first crest so far whose motto is a command rather than a brag: the Latin ‘Laus Deo’ meaning ‘Praise...
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Machine or Hand Stitched Kilt?

Machine or Hand Stitched Kilt?

admin 19/06/2020 0
 Above you can see a machine-stitched kilt on the left, and a completely hand-stitched kilt on the right. What’s the difference? Both have their own a...
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St Andrews and its Tartan

St Andrews and its Tartan

admin 18/06/2020 0
 The restrained beep blue tartan of the Earl of St Andrews has a similar story to that of Royal Stewart: initially a restricted personal tartan for ro...
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Crest Meaning: Anstruther

Crest Meaning: Anstruther

admin 17/06/2020 0
  Another surname from a placename in Fife. There is a good story behind this crest, with some less fun Latin grammar. Here we have two armoured arms ...
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Crest Meaning: Anderson

Crest Meaning: Anderson

admin 16/06/2020 0
 The sons of the unknown Andrew. The arms of Anderson of Sterheuch, the leading line, are well recorded from at least 1563 in the Forman Manuscript, b...
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Crest Meaning: Ainslie

Crest Meaning: Ainslie

admin 15/06/2020 0
 This surname comes from Saxons who fled to Scotland from the Norman Conquest of England. The crest here has a naked arm wielding a scimitar – a state...
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The Book of Deer

The Book of Deer

admin 12/06/2020 0
When it comes to early art from Scotland, most attention is usually turned either to the enigmatic Pictish carvings, or the glorious Book of Kells, wh...
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Crest Meaning: Agnew

Crest Meaning: Agnew

admin 11/06/2020 0
 Two possible origins for this surname, either the Norman de Agneaux or the Ulster O’Gnyw. Either way, this crest comes from the Agnews of Lochnaw. He...
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Crest Meaning: Abercromby

Crest Meaning: Abercromby

admin 10/06/2020 0
The Abercromby surname comes from the place in Fife. Here we have a falcon and the Latin motto 'Petit Alta'.  The meaning behind this is nice and stra...
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What is a Sgian Dubh for?

What is a Sgian Dubh for?

admin 09/06/2020 0
 First and foremost, a sgian dubh is not a weapon and never was. Of course, it could be used as a weapon, and no doubt often was when the desperate ne...
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Clan Maps of Scotland

Clan Maps of Scotland

admin 08/06/2020 0
St Kilda offer two clan maps of Scotland. One version is online and can be found here the other is available to buy as a print, by the artist Hugh Dia...
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A little history of the Quaich

A little history of the Quaich

admin 05/06/2020 0
Properly pronounced with the guttural ‘ch’ (like loch), the word quaich comes from the gaelic cuach, literally meaning cup. Yet this isn’t the sort of...
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Finding the Name of a Tartan using our Colour Search

Finding the Name of a Tartan using our Colour Search

admin 04/06/2020 0
It happens to us a lot: you find a piece of tartan, but can’t for the life of you remember what one it is. Is that a MacDonald of Clanranald, or a Cam...
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A Short History of Clan Crest Badges

A Short History of Clan Crest Badges

admin 02/06/2020 0
A few things to make clear first – there is a big difference between Arms and Crests. Crests are taken from a chief’s Coat of Arms, and are the featur...
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Cockades!

Cockades!

admin 01/06/2020 0
Have you ever wondered about the black rosette worn on the bonnet? Often cap badges are mounted on these, indicating either an organisation, pipe band...
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A Short History of Sporrans

A Short History of Sporrans

admin 29/05/2020 0
Sewn-in garment pockets are a relatively new invention, only appearing, it seems, from the 1600s. Now they are more or less universal in every type of...
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