Behind the tales of cateran raiding in the Scottish Highlands was an age-old practice beloved of the clan warriors. Trained in the ways of the School of the Moon, they liked little better than raiding other clans to lift their cattle and disappear into the wild mountains under the cover of darkness. This traditional practice of the Scottish Highland warriors, originating at least as far back as the Iron Age, has left us many grand stories, apocryphal and historical.
In this informative and entertaining book, acclaimed storyteller Stuart McHardy presents some of the best stories, many of which appear in print for the first time, and offers a startling new interpretation of what was going on in the Scottish Highlands in the years after Culloden. The British government called it cattle thieving, but the men who returned to the ways of the School of the Moon were in fact the last Jacobites, fighting on in a doomed guerrilla campaign against an army that had a garrison in every glen and town in Scotland.
Combining exciting traditional tales that illustrate the background of the practice of Highland cattle-raiding with extensive historical research, School of the Moon shows that there is much yet to be understood about Scotland’s history, even of the last few hundred years.
Stuart McHardy is a writer, storyteller and lecturer. His interest in Scotland’s past has led him to re-evaluate the role of the oral tradition in gaining a clearer picture of our history. He believes that while history is written by winners, story flourishes amongst history’s survivors. He was director of the Scots Language Resource Centre from 1993 to 1998 and is a founder member and past president of the Pictish Arts Society. An experienced broadcaster, Stuart McHardy has long been interested in Scotland’s musical traditions, playing music professionally since his teens. He lives in Edinburgh.
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