Highland

The Highlanders are the Gaels of the Gàidhealtachd in Scotland. Their Gaelic came from Dál Riata's Gaels and was the speech of Alba before retreating north and west of the Highland line. Viking settlement produced the Norse-Gaels, whose descendants the MacDonalds ruled as Lords of the Isles until James IV forfeited the lordship in 1493.

Clan society under chiefs was bound by dùthchas, each clansman's right to clan land, and had a martial tradition of the Highland charge; Gaelic lingered in Galloway.

After the 1603 Union James VI curbed the clans, yet Highlanders joined the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745; defeat at Culloden in 1746 brought disarming, tartan bans and the end of clan order. The Clearances from around 1750 enclosed townships into sheep pastures, turning tenants into crofters or emigrants to Canada, while Black Watch regiments carried Gaelic renown abroad.