It is not all Burn's Night, or is it?

A rhetorical question perhaps but whenever going into Scottish folk music, our Rabbie will be found fairly soon. I hope I do not offend too many of my fellow Brits north of Hadrian's Wall when comparing Scottish and English folk music. First of let us consider the Scottish racial make-up. I maintain that your average Scot is just as much a mongrel as your average Englishman (in fairness, please refer to my comments on my own "race", the English). To put the record straight, the Scots came from Northern Ireland, the Ulster of today, across the North Channel raiding South West Scotland in the 3rd century AD. Here they came into contact with the so-called Picts (a Roman term meaning simply "painted people") whose tribes, probably Pre-Celtic or assimilated Celtic, included the Epidii, Novantae, Selgovae, Maeatae, Votadini, Dumnonii, Venicones, Taexali, Caledonii and Vacomagi. It was the Epidii and Novantae who bore the brunt of the raids as the Scots settled into the modern Argyll building up their kingdom of Dalriada. In the 9th century Dalriada itself in the time of Kenneth Mac Alpin was united with the kingdom of the Picts. A century later the Scotland of today emerged and the rest is, yes folks, history. But in considering this history, dear surfer, let us reflect on further aspects of the "Scottish" racial make-up. The Romans occupied the Scottish Lowlands up to the Antonone Wall and their centurions and others, as soldiers are want, no doubt passed on some genes to the Celtic and Pre-Celtic tribes that they came in contact with. And then, and then - the Vikings! Enter the Viking as they did to so many other countries. From the 9th century on, the Vikings increasingly raided Scotland eventually achieving complete political control of the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland.
To be continued . . . . please watch this space!

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