Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 5, 1897

14
THE CELTIC MONTHLY.
^^JiighlAnb
by ^.Orunimond-norie
Illustrate<l by tfie Author.
(Cotithitiedfrom pagfi 239).
^A^ N interesting relic of Bannockburn is the
(\^M formidable sword now in the possession
Se^£ of Sir Robert Menzies, which is said
to have been used on that glorious field by
the then chief of Clan Menzies. The length of
blade is fifty inches and its width at the hilt
nearly two inches, the total length including
handle is five feet eight inches Only half of
the quillon remains, the other portion having
been broken oft' during the fight. The writer
had an opportunity recently, by the courtesy of
Mr. D. P. Menzies, F.S A., Scot, of inspecting
this historic claymore and of making the sketch
(fig 9) which is here shown.
Lindsay of Pitscottie writing in 1573 and
John Lesly, Bishop of Ross, in 1578 both allude
to the sword used by the Highlanders of their
time, the latter says '-They used also a two-
edged sword which, with the foot soldiers was
pretty long, and short for the horse ; both had
it broad and with an edge so exceeding sharp
that at one blow it would easily cut a man in
two."
In 1594 O'Clery, an Irishman, describes the
Highland allies of Red Hugh O'Donnell, Lord
of Tirconuel, as being armed with "horn hafted
swor<ls, large and military, over their shoulders
A man when he had to strike with them had to
ajjply both his hands to the haft."
Puring the wars of Montrose we still find
the Highlanders fighting with their ancient
ckinllieamli mor and their great leader himself
is said to have been armed with this weapon.
There is a fine portrait of Montrose in
Sobieski Stuart's " Costumes of the Clans "
(whether authentic or not, the writer is unable
to say), in which he is represented in Highland
dress with trews and feather bonnet; and
holding a magnificent double handed sword in
embossed leather scabbard. This sword will
be shown in fig 9a.
As late as the year 1678 Lieutenant Colonel
Cleland of the Earl of Angus's regiment, in a
satirical poem descriptive of the Highland host
expedition, says his adversaries carried "along
two handed sword, as good's the country can
afford." This was in all probability the last
military gathering of Highlanders at which
the great ancestral Celtic weapon was univer-
sally employed, for at the Battle of Killiecrankie,
in 1G89, a new sword had found its way into
the Highlands, and in a short time not only
displaced the daidheamh mbr, but usurped its
name, and became from that period the weapon
par excel Ic no: of the Highland race.
Dr. Anderson says, "The origin of the
basket-hilted sword in the Highlands is
unknown and probably did not come into use
much before the end of the 17th century,
although used in Italy before that period by
the sc/daroiii, or guards of the Doges of Venice."
Substantially, this statement is probably
correct, for previous to Killiecrankie, the
writer, after much research, has been unable
to trace any authentic reference to the basket-
hilted sword, now commonly known as the
claymore. There is a portrait of doubtful
authenticity in the " Costumes of the Clans "
supposed to be of the "Bonnie" Earl of Moray,
iempu^ Charles II. (1618-1685), in which the