Clan Douglas Gathering in 2014?

[William Douglas]

Should there be a Clan Douglas Gathering in 2014?

EventScotland has announced the early details of the funding opportunities to create Scotland's Homecoming celebrations in 2014. This announcement was made at the Scottish Tourism Week conference and included plans to make £3 Million available to support a wide range of Homecoming 2014 events.

The Homecoming Scotland 2014 events program will be themed around ancestry and the Scottish Government's Years of Focus (food and drink, active, creative and natural). Making the announcement, Fergus Ewing, MSP, Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism said "In 2014 Scotland will welcome the world as we stage two of the biggest sporting events - The Commonwealth Games and The Ryder Cup. This momentous year also sees Scotland's next year of Homecoming, giving people even more reason to be in Scotland and to extend their stay".

This is great news for the Scottish diaspora as it makes it more likely that 2014 will again be a year of Homecoming festivities in Scotland.

A call for funding applications to event owners and organisers will be made in the summer, when full criteria and guidelines will be launched.

This is an opportunity for Clan Douglas to have a Scottish Gathering - the first ever. It might be an opportunity to launch a Clan Douglas Heritage Trust, to enable us to promote and advance the education of the public in the history, traditions and music of the Clan Douglas. It would seek to preserve and make widely known the enormous contribution that members of the Clan Douglas have made, and are still making, in politics, medicine, literature, music, sport, exploration and other forms of scientific endeavour, military campaigns and many other fields. It would ensure that their achievements are not forgotten, not only through the printed word but also through the preservation of manuscripts, artefacts, buildings and other tangible links. It also promotes the continuing contribution of Douglases in these areas.

Please let me know your views on a Clan Douglas Gathering, and what you would like to see happening at such an event.

To view the entire press release and other information about 2014 Homecoming, visit the EventScotland.org website.

2014 is also the anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, and the probable date of the referendum on Scottish independece.

[William Douglas]

William,

I do not think that you are correct about the Ulster Irish - but you maybe about the Lowland Scots! Clan Maclean, Clan Macdonald, etc, would certainly dispute that they are not clans because they are Scots.

I explain about clans here: http://www.douglashistory.co.uk/history/clan/what_is_a_clan.htm but I do not debate whether 'The House of Douglas', or 'The Douglas family' is, or is not a clan there, though I have had the debate elsewhere. 

There are those who feel that only Highlanders can be in clans, and this former Lord Lyon certainly refers to The House of Douglas - http://archive.org/stream/scotspeeragefoun04pauluoft#page/392/mode/2up when he 'nominates' Hamilton as the Chief.

However, modern terminology refers to the 'Douglas Clan', or 'Clan Douglas', and I am happy to accede. We are certainly on  list of Official Clans and Families registered by the Court of the Lord Lyon. 

[William Douglas]

 I have always understood that being from the Lowlands Clan Douglas would be wrong and it should be Douglas Family, Clan only applies to those of Ulster Irish descent and there seems no evidence that includes the Douglases.

[William Douglas]

If you want to comment on this topic, please do so in the Forum: http://douglashistory.ning.com/group/clan-douglas-gathering-2014