What this Page is About

Since the time of Sir Walter Scott, tartan, kilts and highland bagpipes have come to represent the image of Scotland to the world. The 'tartanization' of Scottish popular culture seems here to stay. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with the kind of Scottish image presented at highland games. However, it is not the whole story of Scotland or Scottish heritage.

Prior to 1822, most lowland Scots thought of highlanders as aboriginal savages, and did not even consider them to be fellow countrymen -- often referring to highlanders as 'Irish.' At an earlier time, the lowland Scots did not consider Scottish borderers to be fellow countrymen, either. An Act of 1587, c. 96, actually expelled borderers from the inland counties of Scotland, unless they could find security for their quiet deportment. The borderers reciprocated this feeling of derision. Since the experience of the borderers with their Kings was more frequently as avenging judge than as protecting sovereign, the boderers often referred to the Scottish monarchs as 'Kings of Fife and Lothian' -- provinces the borderers were not legally entitled to inhabit.

This page concerns border Scots, who, as stated above, were not typical 'lowlanders.' In fact, the borderers were really from the Southern Uplands, which lie below the central lowland belt. Until the early seventeenth century, they maintained a very distinctive society of their own.

The opinions and 'slant' expressed in these materials are my own.

Jeffrey M. Johnstone, FSA Scot

Materials on Johnstones from South-West Scotland

History of Clan Johnstone

• Same Text - The Great Hall of the Clans
  
• Same Text - Almac's Electric Scotland
  
Clan or Family?
Tartan, Clan Badge, Motto and Slogan
Photographs of Johnstone Territory

• The Devil's Beeftub
  
• Ruins of Lochwood Tower
  
• Site of the Battle of Dryfe Sands, 1593
  
• North Annandale - photo by Rich Johnston
• Lochhouse Tower
  
• Elsieshields Tower
  
• The Grey Mare's Tail
  
• Moffat Dale
  
• Raehills House - photo by Roger Marjoribanks
  
• Hartfell - photo by Mark Traverse
  
Arms of Various Branches of Johnstones
Three Border Ballads
The Lochwood Tower Page
That Old Gang of Mine
Respite of James VI to Dryfe Sands Combatants, 1594
Swashbuckling in Edinburgh, 1596
The Murder of the Laird of Johnstone, 1608
Ben Jonson's Ancestry and Arms
Johnston of Warriston and the National Covenant of 1638
The Chevalier de Johnstone and the 'Forty Five

Clan Johnston/e in America

Sites of Related Interest

PLEASE NOTE:

I CANNOT ANSWER INDIVIDUAL GENEALOGICAL INQUIRIES

AND WILL NOT REPLY TO SUCH INQUIRIES