The Scots Gaelic Myth

[PatrickHughes123]

I have often heard the ridiculous myth that "Gaelic is purely the language of the Highlands and was never spoken by the Lowland Scots", which, quite frankly, isn't true. It has no basis in reality, and it I have no idea when this myth developed. I have the gut feeling it came about during the time of the Jacobites when there was a serious hatred of Highland culture & religion both by Lowlanders and the English, or maybe it developed earlier when the aristocracy of Scotland, became Scots speaking, and didn't want to associate themselves with the barbarous, savage and unruly Erse (Scots term for Gaelic at the time, it literally means Irish) speaking Highlanders.



Here is a historical map that I found from Reddit! Scots Gaelic is represented by the blue zone labelled 'Irish speaking'. You can clearly see that in this time, Gaelic was the dominating language. Gaelic was at one time spoken by most Scots, with the exception of the extreme South-East, Orkney and Shetland.

Let's also not forget, the numerous place-names of Gaelic origin in Lowland Scotland, such as; Kilmarnock; Auchinleck; Rutherglen; Cardonald; Galloway; Dumfries; Dundee; As well as many others.

This, when first heard, caused me to feel empty inside as I had my own culture ripped away from me, but then to realize it wasn't true, it's a commonly believed myth.