Lowland/Scotch-Irish/American Colonists vs. Highlanders.

[MacKenzie]

It's ironic, then, that descendants of Lowland Scots and Ulster Scots in North Carolina have adopted the trappings of Highland culture (tartan, kilts, bagpipes) as a means of celebrating their own heritage.

I came across this article recently.

http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/peo...rica-1-4213493

Considering the landings and migrations pre-Revolution, it's not too difficult to see how an amalgamation of the Lowland/Ulster & Highland Scots cultures/trappings would have occurred... over here.

[davidlpope]

I came across this article recently.

http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/peo...rica-1-4213493

Considering the landings and migrations pre-Revolution, it's not too difficult to see how an amalgamation of the Lowland/Ulster & Highland Scots cultures/trappings would have occurred... over here.

But the graphic from the article shows the point explicitly: The Highlanders from the Cape Fear Region (Cross Creek and Campbelltown) duked it out during the Revolution with the Scotch-Irish in the Piedmont Backcountry (and some Lowland/Borders Scots who settled there with them). Some of the Highlanders stayed after the Revolution, some went north to Canada or back to Scotland. The two groups didn't really mix, as far as I can tell. The only thing in common was that both groups tended to be Presbyterian. Very little Episcopal or RC in either area of the state.

[MacKenzie]

The two groups didn't really mix, as far as I can tell.

Maybe so. Maybe no.

Looking at just the McKenzie's for example, there are concentrations (sorta-kinda) in the Grayson/Carroll county Va. and Rowan/Salisbury NC areas. They (we?) would have appeared to follow the Lowland/Ulster migration (and are probably where the Tennessee bunch branched off from). Then there's a bunch of McKenzies in the Cape Fear/Argyll Colony region.

Hard to say. There seems to always have been McKenzies/MacKenzies on both sides of the pitch.