The 18th century traditions that still live on in Scotland’s annual festivities

Carolyn Kirby shares how the spirit of the 18th century still lives on in Scotland’s seasonal festivities.

Researching my new novel Ravenglass, I was fascinated to find the spirit of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s century alive in some of Scotland’s popular annual traditions. Ravenglass is a family mystery and a story of fluidity and forbidden love at the time of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s 1745 rebellion. Much of the action takes place against the seasonal festivities of lowland Scotland and the English border counties where enduring traditions provide clues to the origins national character and regional culture. 

Carolyn Kirby.

Guising

‘Mumming’ or ‘guising’ (from ‘disguise’) was a staple of winter celebrations in Scotland as well as in Whitehaven, home of the fictional Ravenglass family.

In a hint of later adventures, young Kit Ravenglass is fascinated by a troupe of cross-dressing mummers who go house to house at Christmastide to be rewarded with cake and beer.

Nowadays, seasonal dressing-up means Halloween ‘trick or treat,’ but in some rural Scottish communities ‘guising’ is still a feature of Hogmanay celebrations.

In a few places, new year is even celebrated according to the old Julian calendar that Charles Edward Stuart, alias Bonnie Prince Charlie, would have used whilst planning his rebellion. 

Credit Chris Flexen via Unsplash.

The islanders of Berneray in the Outer Hebrides celebrate ‘old new year’ every 12 January, the day that would start the year if our current calendar hadn’t been adopted in 1752 with the consequent loss of twelve days. 

On this ‘Oidhche Challain,’ the children of Berneray dress up in home-made costumes and together visit every one of the sixty houses on the island to deliver good wishes in Gaelic and receive money or food in return. 

Unlike the implied bartering of ‘trick or treat,’ this traditional guising encourages giving offerings freely in the spirit of island hospitality.

Shrove Tuesday

Kit Ravenglass hates Shrove Tuesday because Whitehaven is overrun for the day by the riotous annual ball game. Communal ‘football’ matches with few rules and much mayhem are still held in nearby Workington as well as in several Borders towns. 

In Jedburgh, shop windows are boarded up in preparation for the sometimes rowdy ‘ba’ game’ between two teams; Uppies and Doonies, which has taken place on the Thursday after Shrove Tuesday since at least 1704. 

When Scottish artist Alexander Carse painted ‘The Village Ba’ Game’ near Jedburgh in 1818, it was one of the first images of a football match. Only a few decades later, football was becoming organised into a massively popular professional sport. 

In Scotland and the north of England, football quickly became a badge of regional identity and fierce local pride. Every spring, football’s 18th century origins are plain to see in the ba’ games of the Borders.

White Rose Day

Before Bonnie Prince Charlie’s entry into Edinburgh at the head of a rebel Highland army, Kit Ravenglass, who has become ‘Stella,’ is living in the city and enjoying its many entertainments. 

One of these is White Rose Day on 10 June when supporters of the Stuart monarchy, celebrate the birthday of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s father who they regard as the rightful king. 

To join in, Kit wears a white Scottish rose, the rosa x alba, without realising its treasonous connotations. 

The white rose is still a nationalist symbol and some SNP MPs wore white roses in their lapels at King Charles III’s inaugural speech to Westminster parliament in November 2023. 

Also on White Rose Day, Kit experiences the Scottish tradition of fire-walking through night-time bonfires, a tradition revived in recent years by Edinburgh’s Beltane Fire Festival.

Lammas fairs 

The start of harvest every August brought Lammas fairs to 18th century Cumberland and Scotland. A big draw at these fairs were the prizes for tests of strength, speed and farming skills like the lamb-catching race in Ravenglass. 

After the 1746 Battle of Culloden which crushed Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rising, a brutal repression of Highland life saw the banning of Lammas fairs and other gatherings associated with rebel clans. 

Decades later, when these fairs re-started, rural games became more organised and during the 19th century, in an explosion of popularity for all things Scottish, the old tests of strength and agricultural skills evolved into the modern Highland Games. 

I hope Ravenglass will inspire readers to find out more about our rich history of local traditions and to spot the legacy of 18th century life in modern Britain.

Carolyn Kirby is an award-winning novelist. The Conviction of Cora Burns was longlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown Award and shortlisted for the Specsavers Debut Crime Fiction Award. When We Fall was chosen by The Times as one of the best novels of 2020.

Read more of The Good Books here.

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