Scottish Australian Heritage Council

12/10/2026

12/10/2026

A few images of Clan stalls and some events at the Canberra Highland Gathering on Saturday 10 October.

09/10/2026

Would you like an online taste of Zooarchaeology this weekend?:

09/10/2026

Some more Bonnie Wingham Scottish festival photos!

08/10/2026

The Canberra Highland Gathering is back for another year, so make sure to join us for the afterparty! 🎉🥳

We've got pipers and dancers from 5:30pm, AND live music with Shanagolden from 7:30pm! Plus some sweet deals 🤩
2x Pizzas + jug of beer/soft drink $35/$30
10x Wings + jug of beer/soft drink $30/$25
Irn-Bru + Vodka JUST $8

06/10/2026

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 SAVE THE DATE! 🥁🎶

The Sydney Highland Gathering

25th October 10am,
The Scots College-Main Oval

Get ready for the Sydney Highland Gathering!

Welcoming:
🎵 The Sydney Thistle Pipe Band
🎵 NSW Police Pipe Band
🎵 Manly Warringah Pipe Band
🎵 The Pipe Band Club

Also joining will be A, B & C Grade competition bands from The Scots College, along with The Scots College Old Boys Pipe Band.

It’s set to be a fantastic celebration of Scottish culture, music, tradition and community. 💙🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Save the date!- for more details please contact Scots College and Pipes and Drums- The Scots College

04/10/2026

A free day of live Celtic folk tunes and pipe bands by the river? Count us in! 🎻

The Brisbane Celtic Festival returns to Moorlands Park in Auchenflower on Sunday, October 11. Catch sets from local folk favourites like Limerick, Ishka, Australian Celtic Women, and the Queensland Irish Choir, plus massed pipe bands and traditional dancing. There's even a competition for best Celtic dress!

And for kids there will be a junior kilt and tartan race, and a junior caber toss!

It's on from 9am - 3:30pm and is TOTALLY FREE to attend

04/10/2026

🪶 If you ever see a Scot wearing feathers in his bonnet, count them. The number is not decoration. It is a statement, and it is still enforced.

Three eagle feathers behind the crest badge means a clan chief. Two means a chieftain, the recognised head of a substantial branch of the clan. One means an armiger, a person who holds arms in their own right from the Lord Lyon. And no feathers at all means everybody else, which is very nearly all of us. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

What surprises people is that this is not folklore or club etiquette. Heraldry in Scotland is real law, administered by the Court of the Lord Lyon, which is a court in the actual sense with a judge and the power to prosecute. Scotland is unusual in Europe for having kept a functioning heraldic jurisdiction, and misusing arms is a genuine offence rather than a social blunder.

The feathers themselves are worth pausing on. They came from golden eagles, and in the old Highlands an eagle feather was not something you bought. It was taken from the hill, which meant somebody had climbed to an eyrie for it. The symbol carried a real cost before it carried any rank.

And here is the part I like. The system says something quite blunt and rather democratic. A chief is one man. Everybody else standing in that circle, wearing the same tartan and the same crest badge in a strap and buckle, is expressing loyalty rather than claiming status.

The strap around a clansman's badge means exactly that. I belong to this chief. I am not him. ⚔️

So if somebody shows you a photograph of a great grandfather in a bonnet with three feathers, look very carefully, because either your family is far grander than anyone told you, or, far more likely, a Victorian photographer had a box of props.

Both of those are good stories.

03/10/2026

A few photos from Clan Hope of Craighall Society at the inaugral Penrith Highland Festival on Saturday 3rd October.
The clan stalls only look empty because we’d been so busy with visitors I couldn’t get out to take photos till later in the afternoon.