Calling All Scots to Gather in Edinburgh

IT HAS LONG BEEN a source of some amusement to Scots that Scottish expatriates, émigrés and their descendents in North America have clung more firmly to their Scottish culture and identity than have the Scots back home. Scots abroad celebrate their Scottish identity with gusto in St. Andrews Societies, pipe bands and music, and Burns Nights from Halifax to San Diego. More than 100,000 Canadians and Americans belong to a score of clan societies.
But times have changed. The reestablishment of the Scottish parliament is just one hallmark of the renaissance of Scottish nationalistic feeling that has grown in recent years. Now, Scotland is promoting itself and its national pride throughout 2009 in a celebration called Homecoming Scotland. As the name suggests, the emphasis of Homecoming Scotland is to call on Scots abroad—and their descendents—to revisit the old country. Events are also celebrating the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns’ birth.

DANA HUNTLEY

You can expect McLeods and Buchanans, Stuarts and Gordons and traditional old clan rivals like the Campbells and McDonalds to come from around the world to the streets of Edinburgh this summer at The Gathering 2009—perhaps the signature event of Homecoming Scotland. In fact, if you are a Scot by blood or birth yourself, the invitation to The Gathering is most definitely for you.
The Gathering calls the clans to Edinburgh for the weekend of July 25. Holyrood Park will be the staging area for the World Highland Games Heavy Events Championship. Top competitors from around the world will compete in the seven traditional games, including tossing the caber and throwing the hammer. Piping, highland dancing, music and traditional Scottish food will fill the grounds.

DANA HUNTLEY

To me, Edinburgh is beautiful at any time of the year—including the damp gray of the Scottish coastal winter. July, however, is absolutely gorgeous. The flowers along the Princes Street Gardens and carpeting Sir Walter Scott’s Memorial alone are worth the trip. The New Town and the Royal Mile are busy with good-natured visitors, and the proliferation of kitsch souvenirs and buskers only adds to the city’s historic charm. To be in Edinburgh for this unique celebration of Scottish heritage and culture would be the proverbial cat’s meow.
It looks to be a busy weekend. I would love to sit in on the Clan Convention to be held in the Scottish Parliament. Clan chiefs, commanders and sundry leading representatives will deliberate on the role of the clan in the 21st century.
Early on Saturday evening, the Clan Parade will travel from Holyrood through the cobbled streets of the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle. Don your kilt and tartan and march under the banners of your clan. More than 8,000 clan members will join in the largest clan march since Sir Walter Scott’s Royal Pageant in 1822. Quite a crowd of onlookers is anticipated as well.
On the Castle Esplanade, the grandstands mounted annually for the Edinburgh Tattoo will provide seating for the evening’s Clan Pageant, billed as highlight of the the weekend. Beneath the castle ramparts, massed pipe bands, dancers and assorted spectacle will trace the development and history of the clans through the centuries. I have been on the esplanade as the languid summer shadows sink to twilight and Arthur’s Seat becomes an outline against the sky; it will be a magic evening indeed.
The Gathering organizers are confident this will be one of the largest clan gatherings in history. Those holding a “pass-port,” as event tickets are called, will certainly be a part of history and will carry away indelible memories. If you have ever been to one of the 300 Scottish gatherings and highland games held annually in the States and Canada, you can only imagine The Gathering as the grandest such meeting of all time.
It hardly takes a special reason to visit Edinburgh. If you have been waiting for a little extra push to visit Auld Reekie or the Athens of the North, however, The Gathering provides opportunity to be a part of a once in a lifetime celebration. For those British Heritage readers of Scottish ancestry, it’s hard to imagine a more appropriate time to connect with those Scottish roots. Hands across the sea indeed.

The entire program and event database for Homecoming Scotland can be found at www.homecomingscotland2009.com. The Gathering 2009 has a great Web site at www.clangathering.org, including all program and passport information.
The nuts and bolts of travel and accommodation can be easily researched at www.visitscotland.com. Scotland’s national tourism Web site provides one-stop-shopping for travel to and in Scotland. It allows you to search and book accommodation, tickets and transport of all varieties on a single dedicated site, and provides helpful visitor planning material.

DANA HUNTLEY