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Clans from Dumfries

VisitScotlandAmyVisitScotlandAmy Member ✪
in Understanding Scotland

Are you a Douglas, an Armstrong or a Maxwell?

Forget Game of Thrones, it was all kicking off among the clans of Dumfries and Galloway in days gone by.  They had to be feisty, after all they were right next door to the Auld Enemy.

Each had its own tartan, lands, and allegiances. And rivals.

They’ve calmed down since then. So hopefully it’s safe to ask… which clan is yours?


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Comments

  • VisitScotlandJohnVisitScotlandJohn Member, Moderator, VisitScotland Staff ✩
    I was looking at at Collins Scotland of Old Clan Names Map, and I noticed that at for the Dumfries and Galloway region there were a plethora of famous Scottish surnames. Stewart, McCulloch, MacDowall, Agnew, Gordon, McLellan, Hannay, and McKie all featured prominently, and I am sure that I read somewhere that Paul McCartney's ancestors all hailed from the southwest. 
  • VisitScotlandJulieVisitScotlandJulie Member, Moderator, VisitScotland Staff ✩
    VisitScotlandJohn said:
     Paul McCartney's ancestors all hailed from the southwest. 

    @VisitScotlandJohn, I wonder if he lived on Mull of Kintyre (with its mist rolling in from the sea) to be a little closer to those ancestors.  ;)
  • FishjaggerFishjagger Member ✭✭
    Very interesting @VisitScotlandAmy as I hail from a few different Highland clans. The Lowland clans - wonder what language they would have spoken? And with no shinty played in the borders how did they do their training? Fascinating subject!
  • BushmanBushman Member ✭✭
    @Fishjagger in the Borders we play the "Ba". Which in basic terms was rugby long before our neighbours in England ever picked up a round ball. The teams could consist of many players indeed sometimes in the hundreds. The idea was to score by getting the Ba to a goal. However the goals could be a mile apart.You got the Ba to the goal by any means possible. Legend has it that the Ba on some occasions would be the head of an english soldier who had ventured to close to the border. There was a game recorded just outside Selkirk on the 4th December 1815.   There is a Ba game still held in Jedburgh. The two teams are the uppies and the doonies.

  • JDouglasJDouglas Member ✭
    We are Douglases from across the pond.  Planning a 50th anniversary trip for my parents in Sept 2017 which will include three generations aged 14-71.  But first and foremost this is for my parents, especially my father who is very interested in Clan Douglas genealogy.  We will have 10 days and do plan to spend part of that in the highlands, Glasgow & Edinburgh, but any suggestions related to the history of Clan Douglas would be greatly appreciated!

    Douglas Museum?
    Castle Douglas/Threave Garden & Estate?

    Cheers!
  • VaScotVaScot Member ✭
    I'm not an Douglas, Armstrong or Maxwell, but I am an Elliott and I'm counting the days until I'll be in Scotland, in Redheugh, for the Elliott Clan Gathering in August!  I can hardly wait.  From there we will be staying in Kirkcudbright, Oban, Evanton, Dunvegan and Edinburgh.  We are renting a car, which makes me a bit nervous, and looking forward to seeing the countryside and meeting lots of folks.  Any information anyone can share about these areas, would be greatly appreciated!
  • IslanderswedeIslanderswede Member ✭
    I'm looking for the McDowell Clan.  I'm coming to Scotland in hopes of finding my ancestors.  Unfortunately all of my mothers family are gone and I didn't find out her real fathers name until she the last of her family died.  I have been on ancestry.com and cannot trace the lineage back to Scotland.  My grandmother took my mother away from her father (divorce) when my mother was just a baby in 1937.  Her father (my grandfather) name was Charles Raymond McDowell.
  • lushnpopslushnpops Member ✭✭
    I'm Clan Cameron... Will be coming over in 2019 for a 6 week visit... I'm hoping to get and see where the Clan started and to learn a bit more about our checkered past and the lands 
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