A Pile Of Stones At Glencoe

The Highland Scots were a different people from the Borderers. While the Borderers were a mixture of many different groups, the Highlanders were predominantly Gaelic in ancestry, with a touch of the Norse. The greatest diversity of ethnic origin was among the Highland aristocracy, who often were not blood kin to the average members of the clans they controlled, and were even sometimes of Norman or Flemish stock. The Highland clansman was raised to be a warrior and little else, swearing his loyalty to a chieftain who often had scant regard for his personal welfare. When an 18th century visitor to a clan chieftain joked about having been rudely accosted by one of the local clansman, the chieftain offered to have that clansman killed. The visitor thought the chieftain himself was joking at first, then realized he was serious. Highland warriors were squandered at pitched battles to please their lords - and it was the chieftains themselves, not the evil Sassenachs, who authorized the Highland clearances to make way for the grazing of sheep.