Bagpipes and the smells of Scottish food will fill the air in Franklin this weekend as part of the Taste of Scotland and Celtic Festival that celebrates the deep Scot-Irish heritage of Western North Carolina.
Men in kilts, locals and visitors from far away will come together for the 21st annual Taste of Scotland and Celtic Festival Thursday to Sunday with events from a traditional Ceilidhdinner and music to food and crafts.
This will be the first year that the festival, which began in Franklin in 1996, has hosted a Highland Games competition. Tennessee Highland Heavy Athletics group is traveling from Johnson City with a number of local athletes to put on seven traditional events including the crowd-pleasing caber throw - that’s when the athletes spin a heavy log 180 degrees in the air. Brennan Bohannan started the new organization in 2015. The games will take place on Saturday morning at the field next to Ace Hardware at 9:30 am.
One of their athletes, Alexander Armor, is the first person to compete in adaptive Highland games. Bohannan says that Armor competed in the games before he became chair bound and now competes from his wheelchair outfitted tank tracks. These have given him the nickname, “Tank.”
“I feel like we live in a society where warrior practice and warriors themselves don’t have the same amount of respect or even opportunities to be warriors so keeping things like this alive, strength sports and combat sports, is very important,” says Bohannan.
It was previously said that North Carolina had more Scots than Scotland. That myth has been debunked by the curator of the Scottish Tartan Museum in downtown Franklin Daniel Williamson. He explained that if you compare the population of Scotland at over 5 million with the 2.8% of North Carolinian who claim Scot-Irish heritage in the most recent Census data then it would be impossible. Williamson says they are updating their website to reflect his fact.
“Many people don’t really know who they are. So one of the things we want to do is keep that alive and say this is who we were, who our ancestors were - this is who you are,” says Williamson.
The Scot-Irish settled in Western NC after immigrating to Northern states like Pennsylvania because the mountains reminded them of the highlands of their homeland. Williamson believes that about 80% of Franklin is Scot-Irish. BPR spoke with Williansno in the museum and gift shop. The gift shop has its highest day of sales on the Saturday of the Festival. You can hear customers as he explains the organizations mission.
“Many people don’t really know who they are. So one of the things we want to do is keep that alive and say this is who we were, who our ancestors were - this is who you are,” says Williamson.
Most of the athletes in the Highlands games will be wearing a traditional kilt made of tartan, Scottish plaid fabric.
Tartans became popularized in the 19th century and there are now over 4000 tartans available. Anyone can register a new tartan. There are tartan’s for clans, districts (this refers to towns and regions) and even countries like Germany.
The Scottish Tartan Museum is thought to be the only tartan heritage museum in the United States founded in 1988 as a branch of a Scottish museum that has since closed. The museum was originally in Highlands but moved to Franklin in 1994. Exhibits range from the history of the pre-kilt era and Sir William “Braveheart” Wallace to items as old as 1725. Their oldest kilt was brought over from Scotland in the 1800s.
The museum gift shop boasts over 600 tartans and the volunteers at the shop can help you research your specific tartan. They are hoping at least 1,000 people come through their doors for their biggest sales weekend.
Jim Akins, president of the board of directors and manager of the museum gift shop, says that they will sell everything from pencils to complete kilt outfits.
Akins gave up his retirement to work at the museum when he became started volunteering in 2004. He has since become full time and has been president of the board for about 2 years.
“It’s just too important of a service to close. We provide a service to people here in America but we get emails from all over the place asking for information,”says Akins.
“This is the place where I first found out about my heritage so it is an important place for me.”