St. Patrick, the legendary Patron Saint of Ireland, wasn't the least bit Irish. He was actually born in 387 AD in the area known as Kilpatrick in Dunbartonshire, Scotland! Born to what seems to have been a wealthy family, Maewyn Succat was captured and taken to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16. He escaped 6 years later, returned to his family and followed his desire to pursue religious studies. He eventually became a priest in the Christian faith and, when made bishop, changed his name to Patrick. He returned to Ireland and lived out his life there as Christian missionary. He died on March 17, 461 AD.

Ok so a couple of weeks ago I was playing school with my grand-daughter Morrigan, who is eight. She has grown up around clan activities and is a proud member of Clan Colquhoun. She was happily being the teacher and instructing me in the mysterious ways of biology.

'Do you know the three stages of a butterfly?'

'No Morrigan, what are they?'

First, it's a caterpiller, then a Cahoon, then a butterfly!!'

Who can disagree with that??

By 1500 the bagpipe had displaced the harp as the instrument of choice in the Scottish highlands. The use of the bagpipes as a military instrument inspired the Highlanders in their fight so much that after the 1746 Battle of Culloden, the English banned them. During this period carrying a bagpipe was considered to be as much a crime as carrying arms as it was classifed an 'instument of war.' Amazing Grace

After being connected with the murder of King James III, James felt so guilty about his role in his father's death that for the rest of his life he wore an iron chain around his waist next to his skin.

During a discussion among the club's membership board at St. Andrews in 1858, a senior member pointed out that it takes exactly 18 shots to polish off a fifth of Scotch. By limiting himself to only one shot of Scotch per hole, the Scot figured a round of golf was finished when the whisky ran out!

Almost impossible to avoid or prevent, smoke is a good deterrent - Queen Victoria is reputed to have smoked cigarettes on her Highland jaunts for that reason!

Drew promised the painter that he¹d work on an adhesive which would leave a clean demarcation line. In time he produced a 2 inch wide masking tape with adhesive on each edge which he delivered to the auto painter. To quote the article:

While testing Mr. Drew¹s first product. . . the painter watched it fall off as he was preparing to apply the second color of a two-tone car. The tape came loose because it was not fully coated with adhesive. It had only a 1/2" wide strip of adhesive along each edge, a money saving measure. The painter angrily told Mr. Drew, "Take this back to your stingy Scotch bosses and tell them to put more adhesive on it." This ethnic slur regarding Scottish thrift may have been unjustified, but it eventually got him the stickier tape he wanted. The name "Scotch" has "stuck" ever since.

According to the "Scotichronicon" - one of the earliest histories of Scotland written in the 1440s, there was a legend that a Greek prince called Gaythelos was banished, with his wife Scota, the daughter of an Egyptian Pharoah. He sailed westwards and landed in Spain. From there, he and his followers explored further and one of his sons, named Hiber, found an island (later called Ireland) which he named Scotia, after his mother. So Gaythelos' name gave rise to "Gaelic", Hiber gave rise to Hibernia and Scota gave rise to Scotia and then Scotland. The Scotichronicon does not explain, however, why Ireland is no longer called Scotia and why the Scoti came to Argyll.

Another variation on this legend suggests that an Egyptian princess married the King of Portugal in the 4th century. She brought the Stone of Destiny (Jacob's pillow in the Bible) as a dowry. Her daughter, named Scota, married the King of Ireland's son and her descendants called themselves the Children of Scota.

Unfortunately, while the connection between the Scoti of Dàl Riata and Ireland is undoubted, there is no documentary evidence for the earlier parts of the legend.

Loch Lomond is the third deepest loch in Scotland (after Lochs Morar and Loch Ness) and there are 30 islands, three of them inhabited.

The song "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" was written in 1746 by a homesick Jacobite incarcerated in Carlisle jail.

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A chief of the Colquhoun was issued a command by the King to seize the well-fortified Dumbarton Castle. He wrote the King back in French, the accepted universal language of the time, "Si Je Puis" (If I can). The chief gathered a group of men close to him and hid them in the woods outside of Dumbartons gates then he lured a red stag by the gates chased by two greyhounds. The starving garrison in the castle opened the gates to chase the stag, whereupon the clansmen rushed the castle and captured it for the King. This was the only time in the history of Dumbarton Castle that it was taken, and without bloodshed.

It is not sure exactly which Colquhoun chief accomplished this task. Some sources say John Colquhoun 10th of Luss under King James I who wanted the castle taken from the too powerful Lennox family in 1424. Other sources say it was Sir Robert 2nd de Colquhoun, who lived 1220 -1280 A.D.