Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 20 on 10/04/2005.

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Famous across the world

In our continuing series on the great Scottish regiments, Mark Nicholls looks at the origins of the Black Watch and the part of Scotland it calls its own

The very name provokes so many questions... Why the Black Watch, what were its origins, its history and how did this gathering of clansmen come to be known across the world as one of the most famous of the Scottish regiments?

As a regiment, the Black Watch has an intriguing history, one that is linked with that of Scotland, the whole of Britain and beyond. The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) traditionally recruits from Perth and Perthshire, Dundee, Angus and Fife, drawing men from this eastern aspect of Scotland with its fair cities, wonderful countryside, golf courses, fishing villages and a magnificent coastline.

But its ancestry is rooted in the ancient clans that remained loyal to the Hanovarian King George I during the Jacobite uprisings of 1715 and 1745, which were attempts to restore the Stuart descendants of King James II of Scotland, VII of England to the British throne.

Six independent companies of Highlanders were raised in 1725 from clans Campbell, Grant, Fraser and Munro and charged with keeping peace and order in the Highlands. They adopted as their uniform a 12-yard-long plaid of dark tartan.

It is from the darkness of the tartan and the role of ‘watching’ the Highlands, that the name is derived, the forces thus becoming the Black Watch. Soldiers of the regiment also proudly wear the feathered red hackle in their headgear. Throughout the various amalgamations of the companies, battalions and regiments the name the Black Watch stayed, although it was o.....

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By Mark Nicholls

Section : Scottish Regiments

Page number : 56