Scotland in North Carolina

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Scotland in North Carolina

Friday, November 21st, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

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Most people would expect to find that Scotland had the largest number of Scots but they would be wrong. In reality the state of North Carolina USA has more people of Scottish descent than does Scotland.

Not a surprising piece of news to those who know their Scottish History. Large numbers of people left Scotland for the New World of America following the Scottish highland clearances. If you visit the Laird of Jura website you will read about how nearly 2,000 people left the Isle of Jura in Argyll and the surrounding areas on a fleet of boats on an expedition that settled in North Carolina.

Some parts of North Carolina even today could still be confused with parts of Scotland. Here are some of the similarities:

The town of Laurinberg is situated in the state county of “Scotland”.

The town high school is of course called “Scotland High School”. And to go with that the School song is the national anthem of Scotland “Scotland the Brave”.

Apart from their traditional marching band who wear the Royal Stewart Tartan as a uniform they also have a prize winning Scottish bagpipe team.

The school Football, Baseball and the Basketball teams are called the “Fighting Scots”. (Did you know that the game of Basketball was invented by a Scottish American who was charged with finding some sports activity for youths to play indoors during bad weather? Its true!)

Visit St Andrews Presbyterian College (named after the patron saint of Scotland) and you will be challenged by a large Scottish Highlander with his Claymore Sword defending the college or at least a bronze statue of a highland warrior.

The College is also home to the Scottish Heritage Centre.

The main local fast food company called Scottish Foods has a Highland Piper as its logo.

“Scotland Crossing” is the main shopping center for people in the town. The centre uses a red lion on a yellow background as its main central feature. Officially this is a breach of Scottish law as only the Scottish monarch can use this Rampart Lion but we do normally turn a blind eye to it even here in the real Scotland.

The Square Dance Club is the Scottish Twirlers.

Remember the large two handed sword on the highlander statue at the college well there is also a local soccer team called the Scottish Claymores.

As we might expect there are a large number of local streets named after places such as Argyllshire, Kintyre and Skye where the first Scottish settlers lived before coming to North Carolina.

Do you know any other place which is more Scottish than this town in North Carolina?

Want to become a Scottish Lord or Lady? Its easy enough and can be the ideal unique gift idea for anyone whether they have a Scottish connection or not.

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