Celtic society passes on its archive of Highlands romance to national library

IT helped reverse the centuries old view that the Highlands represented all that was brutish and uncivilised in Scotland, but the story of the Royal Celtic Society may be unknown to many.

It held its first meeting in an Edinburgh pub in 1820, having been founded by Sir Walter Scott and other gentlemen with an interest in the Highlands.

This week the society donated its 200-year-old archive to the National Library of containing documents Scotland, important about this period. Several organisations emerged from the early 19th century romantic movement, but it is one of only two survivors, along with the Highland Society of London.

Dr Ulrike Hogg, the library’s curator of Gaelic, Music and Early Modern Collections, said “We’re extremely grateful to the society for the donation of this archive. It sheds an important light on the support and encouragement of Highland culture and traditions at such an early stage, and we are delighted that the National Library will be able to preserve these papers and make them available to the wider public.”

The society’s first meeting was in Oman’s Tavern, situated near where the Register House now stands in Edinburgh, just off Princes Street.

A spokesman said: “The Royal Celtic Society continues to promote and support the language, music, literature and culture of Scotland.”