Highlander Survival Equipment, 17th Century- Tried and Tested. Full Rundown- Clothing, Tools, Pack

our highland ancestors were masters of the land and warriors and cattle drovers often had to travel for many days in remote areas on foot with only the basic survival essentials they could carry over the past two years i've been piecing together the clues left in the historical records and experimenting with historical equipment in the field on multi-day expeditions and overnight camps in the wild in order to experience first-hand the rugged scottish landscape and harsh weather conditions the way our ancestors did in this video i'll share what i've discovered so far and do a complete rundown of the clothing equipment food and tools a typical highlander traveller may have carried around the 17th century so stay tuned hi folks tom from fandaby dozie and tomlinhorn.com thanks for tuning in so some of the information i'm going to cover in this video is new to the channel but some of the items i've discussed in more detail in past videos so i'll put a link to all those past videos in the video description or i'll put banners up and so go check that out also put the names of the main books that i found useful in my research that being said researching this topic has not actually been that easy and i've had to fill the holes in the historical records by looking at similar cultures at the same sort of time period seeing what sort of materials or things are being traded in scotland and then just sort of going out into the field and testing my theories seeing if they work or not also all the kit has been put together on a relatively small budget some things i've had to make and some things i've just had to accept is close enough so i'm going to be running through the kit through the lens of wilderness survival skills i'll touch upon some different weapons that someone might have carried but this kit isn't really of someone who would have been on a war campaign the first a priority in survival is maintaining your core body temperature and your clothing is your first line of defense for that so what sort of clothing was the average highlander wearing now it would have differed depending on the wealth of the person but generally let's start from the top we have the highland bonnet or bonnage in gaelic and this was made out of a dense wool sometimes like almost felted or boiled will and it was typically worn in the 17th century in this sort of cap configuration and i finally managed to get mine into this shape after i've had to felt it a few times so it stays in the shape and but you can wear it in different configurations depending on the temperature and the weather next typically people had some sort of linen scarf and now this obviously helps regulate your temperature even on a hot day you can you know moisten it in a stream wrap it around your neck and it's going to help cool you down but it's got many other uses you can use it as a makeshift bag and pre-filter your water you can use it to bundle up food and you can use it as a makeshift bandage next we have a linen shirt potentially some sort of wool undergarment then typically either a wool leather or sheepskin waistcoat and this is really good for keeping that that core warm and then on top of that some sort of dense wool jacket to keep you warm now the fantastic thing about wool is that it maintains 80 percent of its insulative value even when it's soaking wet and so this is actually a jacket from a modern kilt dress and and i've just changed the collar and things like that to make it a bit more historical looking and also a more effective jacket at keeping you warm from the legs down people were often going completely bare-legged and barefooted but also of sort of wool trousers called trues were common people also wore wool stockings wool holes things like that the shoes were often made from rawhide or leather usually just very very simple shoes wealthier people could have afforded nicer ones with buckles and things like that and finally the garment of many uses and many names you can call it the plate the plaid brick iron and neely the philly more or just the great kilt so this was not only their main outer garment it could also be used as their sleeping bag it could be used as an anorek to make a makeshift shelter and in some configurations you can have large pockets that you can use to carry equipment so it had so many different uses it was usually made from a fairly dense heavy wool fabric that often still contained many of the natural oils so it was fairly waterproof as well and in terms of the tartan pattern there would have been variations between different regions of scotland and clans but there wasn't specific clan tartans until later on there probably would have been a simpler pattern than the one i'm wearing now and they would have used local plants to dye the wool so potentially the they would have been fairly camouflaged and they would have been specific to the plants of the surrounding area of where they were made now some great stories of highland mercenaries fighting alongside soldiers from other areas of europe and the highlanders being specifically noted for their ability to withstand the cold and bad weather due to wearing their their mighty blades so it's been really fun experimenting with this garment and i keep on finding new ways to use it and wear it every time i go out so speaking of celtic history i'm currently doing a fascinating course with the great courses plus called the celtic world which looks at the history of the celtic people right from the first observations made by the romans and greeks all the way to when many scots and irish emigrated to america the great courses plus is a subscription-based on-demand video learning service and through your subscription you get access to a huge library of over 11 000 video lectures about pretty much anything that interests you from science history literature or even cooking both modern and historical or learning a musical instrument lectures are given by experts in their field from ivy league universities or organizations like national geographic and new content is released monthly what i really like about it is you can download the audio of the lecturers onto your device so you can learn while you're doing other things you know cooking the dinner or washing the dishes driving your car so it frees up a lot of learning time i'm also doing a course called surviving any disasters it looks at learning the fundamentals of preparation reaction recovery in emergency situations i'm also doing a course called the meaning of life which looks like cultures throughout the world and ages have tried to answer the ultimate question so in the short period of time i've been on it i'm already learning about my celtic ancestors how to survive the apocalypse and the meaning of life all in one subscription that's pretty good so you can try it out for free by going to www.thegreatcoursesplus.com forward slash fandabydoci or click the link in the video description and start learning today so now onto the belt kit and knives now a good knife is going to be your most important tool in a survival situation is it allows you to manipulate the environment around you and create some order in the chaos now highlander could have typically carried at least one or all three of these knives at any given time and simply put you've got a small medium and large the smallest we've got the famous scottish ski and dew and we've got the ski in aclays and then finally the dirk or btec and gaelic so the skin dew is the famous scottish knife and it's still worn in the sock as part of the modern kilt dress and this was the highlander's typical small everyday knife for eating food small whittling tasks and it could be used as a last resort weapon next we have a skiing athleise or the medium-sized knife and this was often associated as an armpit knife so worn either in a sort of holster that was close to your armpit are actually attached to your um to your waistcoat this one looks pretty different to the historical examples historical examples look more like a medieval hunting knife you could use for different tasks as well as butchering animals and things like that finally we have the biggest one we have the dirk or btec i've done a couple of videos on the dirk already and but just generally this was mainly a weapon this was mainly a stabbing weapon used by itself or with other weapons in battle and but you know it could be used as a cutting tool for preparing firewood and butchering animals but as i said it's mainly designed for for fighting the dirk also had great cultural significance and warriors would swear oaths upon them and this was actually considered more powerful than swearing upon a bible after cutting tools your main priority is some sort of method of getting a fire going so this is my fire pouch on my belt kit open it up now the most common method of lighting fire during this time period was flint and steel there's a couple different designs of steel strikers left in museums one of them is a simple one with a slight sort of snail shaped tail on the end or a more sort of classical shape with these more decorative spirally bits and now flint is not that easy to find in the highlands but it was being traded and but you can also use something like quartz which does work just doesn't last as long as a good bit of flint and the tinder people were most likely using was amidu made from the horseshoe fungus which is sponging and gallic i've been using a chart in most of the time which admittedly is probably not that historically accurate for this time period in scotland but other cultures were using it and it's got the advantage that i can make charred material from multiple kind of waste products or dead woods the way i have my chart in has got charred material at the bottom so it's separated with a waterproofed bit of of leather and then on top i can fit bits of cordage and beeswax candle things that are going to help extend my flame and then i can also fit my my flint and this smaller steel inside so it's all just one little package so this is a really nice way of having my fire kit that i've got used to also in my fire pouch i've got some birch bark helps extend my flame and then at the bottom i've also got some cattail fluff the cattail seed heads and this is really good for making tinder bundles so this all fits into a single pouch with a drawstring and i treated all my leather work with a mixture of rendered animal fat and beeswax so this hopefully waterproofs all that kit inside there now in bert's letters he does talk about highlanders lighting fires by rubbing sticks together but he doesn't say whether that's bull drill or hand drill but uh here's a part of a bull drill set i sometimes carry i can make the ball quite easily out in the field if i just carry some good cordage on me and but sometimes i carry the spindle the hearth board and a bearing block made from some limpet shells this works really well so now onto my sparring now sparring just means purse and gallic and that's all it really was a simple leather pouch i made both these pouches just from an old leather jacket and i'll show you what i've got in here so i've got a red deer antler little buckle there and a drawstring this keeps everything nice and dry most of the time i've got some natural cordage things binding stuff together natural cordage can also be used to make a tinder bundle to help get my fire going very important i've got a wee cloth bag filled with oatmeal so oatmeal was the main carbohydrate for the highlanders and this could be you know just mixed with cold water for a quick snack people often would bleed their cattle and mix the oats with blood to make a sort of black pudding obviously you can make porridge you can mix it with butter and water to make oat cakes which i've done a video on it's a really multi-functional carbohydrate and just with a bag that size full of oatmeal i've done a three-day expedition obviously i was quite hungry but it does keep you going also got a little spoon i carved to eat my porridge and finally i've got a blanket pin sometimes i use this to put my plate on but it does over time damage the fabric but uh i can use this to make a tripod to put over my fire and the spike i can use as a makeshift all so i can use this to to make a new pair of shoes or you know repair my equipment something else i've occasionally been carrying on my belt is a small wooden cup which is kirk and gaelic it's where we get the word quake sometimes i carry this sometimes i don't but if i'm not carrying a backpack this is useful for me to quickly eat my oats a good staff or walking stick was also an important tool for traveling on foot to help walk on rough terrain aid and crossing rivers herding your cattle but also as a self-defense weapon so now let's go over the historical pack i've been working on now there is plenty of stories of highlanders going out with just their belt kit and what they can fit in their plays and this is certainly doable and i've tried it out before but when you're talking about going into the colder months or longer trips you definitely do need to be carrying some extra supplies i've already done a video discussing different historical methods of it but the main one i've been using is called a blanket roll which simply put it's just you bundle your belongings inside your sleeping system and tie it together with a strap or a rope another advantage to this is that it's pretty lightweight and everything is multifunctional all the way to the to the top line or strap i've done a video that i used the actual strap as a ridgeline for my shelter and sleeping system so everything is multifunctional in it so it's got a beautiful simplicity to it but the disadvantage to it is that it takes quite a bit of practice to pack it properly without things falling out or coming unraveled and you know it's quite difficult to just get things in and out of your pack and i found that once it gets to a certain size and weight and then it starts becoming a bit awkward the thing i've been trying out recently is a woven basket or basket pack and now these were being used in the highlands and they were called creels and they were made from willow now although you're adding some extra weight of the actual pack itself the advantage to this is that you know you have a rigid structure that you can pack things in so it's much much easier to get things in and out to pack things and also stop things getting crushed in the bedroll if you're putting oat cakes or something and rolling it up it's likely things are going to get crushed so that's quite a big advantage also these straps i can wear it like a normal backpack and it's um it's much easier to distribute the weight on your shoulders so this is my tamp line that's holding my skin in place and this is made from a natural cordage so this is held place on top i've got my sheepskin this is from a hebridean sheep from my cousin's craft and i've been mainly using this as my sleeping mat so it's fairly thick wool i've waterproofed the skin side of it and so generally i've been making a mattress from vegetation and then putting this on top and it really does help maintain your core body temperature stop the the earth from sucking away all your body heat this is a rabbit skin i recently cured i'm going to find some uses for that in the future this is my water bottle it's made from leather soaked in beeswax it holds about half a liter to 75 cl it's been working really well also got some natural cordage this is made from the leaves of cattail [Applause] and then this is my cooking kit cook kit is all bundled up in some linen cloth this again is multi-functional i have my trusty whiskey flask made from a sheepsworn we've got a video on how i made that obviously whiskey was very important for our ancestors for many reasons now i've also been experimenting carrying this so this is a shell from a scallop now this was the original quake you could say which is a ceremonial cup for shearing whiskey you know the word quakers from comes from kuik which means cup and so i've been experimenting carrying this obviously it's fairly fragile but you can use it to um to eat your porridge in uh you can use it to melt butter gently on the fire for when making oak cakes and things like that i don't carry it all the time just because it's fragile but it's really pretty and it's got some history to it now the book the drill roads of scotland it describes some general food that a drover might carry so other than oatmeal what they might carry is some basic root veg things like carrots turnips onions and often their butter was wrapped in duck leaves this just you know helped keep it all together kept it clean and dock leaf is also multifunctional it can be used as a medicine for upset stomachs i've also got a wee homemade leather bag of salt that can be used for curing meats and flavoring my food a small metal pots that someone could use while camping is that's been quite hard to find in my in my research uh obviously people had bigger pots but because metal was expensive you tend to just have a few pots that was used for the for the whole family and so small ones like this were not all that common just for ease of camping you managed to find this smaller cooking pot and finally i've got a little wooden bowl for eating my porridge let's see what else i've got in here i've also got the lid of my pot which you know that could be used to make oak cakes and now in my research if someone wasn't carrying a pot then sometimes they carried a flat stone or just a metal plate that you could use to make oat cakes simple bannock breads and stuff like that so i've been experimenting just using this thick bit of slate to cook my oat cakes on and it has been working it's not as useful as a pot here i've got a little kit that i call my maintain and repair kit i've got some spare natural cordage obviously this is stuff that i bought but uh you could make this from locally available natural fibers and then here it's just another wee cloth bag that's got some things to help repair and maintain my kit so i've got a small knife and you could also add an awl and something that missing is a needle probably a bone needle or a small iron needle for repairing my kit drop some cordage i made from metal fibers i've also got some beeswax and some pine resin now these are both very very useful materials for making glues waterproofing kit fire extenders i've also got a small bundle of hemp cord so hemp and linen was being traded in the highlands uh obviously it's a very good cord and all this stuff just a few extra tools bits and bobs if i added a needle to that then that's a good sort of extra bits of kit to help repair and maintain the my rest of my equipment finally what i've got is just an extra wool blanket and what i've been doing when i'm camping out is basically just a very simple layering system so i'll just add extra wool blankets i need to get some more animal skins but i want to get a deer skin so you can basically add extra wool blankets extra animal skins depending on the weather conditions and the time of year that you're going to go out so i hope you enjoyed this video folks all this kit is a product of two years of pretty constant research and testing in the field but it's it's constantly changing and evolving as i learn new things and as i practice and test these out and so it will probably be different this time next year a few things i want to add to this kit and i'm working on i'm working on a historical fishing kit and i'm also working on how to carry weapons with all this so i can experiment and how a warrior might have traveled on a war expedition how he could attach his weapons in the most efficient way in terms of weight distribution but also ease of access to that weapon choose thanks all my patrons for help support the channel i release extra content on that patreon page for anyone's interested huge thanks to the great courses plus for sponsoring this video please go check out that link guys i generally think it's a really good learning resource i hope you enjoy this i'll be back with another video as soon as i can cheers folks

Channel: Fandabi Dozi

Views: 919,432

Rating: 4.9500108 out of 5

Keywords: Highlander, Survival, Equipment, 17th century, Tried and tested, Historical clothing, Sgian Dubh, Dirk, Historical equipment, Bushcraft, Scotland, History, Camping, trekking, plaid, kilt, great kilt, blanket roll, Fandabi Dozi, Highlander survival equipment, jacobite, celtic, tartan, Gaelic, overnight survival, basketpack, creel, primitive, The Great Courses Plus, Historical cooking, oatcakes, wilderness, Wilderness survival, 18th century, warrior, drover, wool blanket, Feileadh-mhor, fire

Id: HCFS2amNPA8

Length: 20min 51sec (1251 seconds)

Published: Fri May 15 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/peloquindmidian]

Weird, I just discovered this guy yesterday. I've never wanted to go to Scotland before. All I knew about it before was Irvine Welsh novels and Braveheart. Didn't realize they had such wilderness.

[u/Roccom22]

Just watched this yesterday. He has some other really cool videos on carrying a walking stick as well. Love watching videos about how even with high tech stuff it always comes down to skill.

[u/Ugitsome]

Absolutely incredible amount of interest and knowledge here. I look forward to seeing all his videos

[u/meatballmassacre]

I’ve gotta come back later and watch this in full when I have some more time. I would love to see how these guys survived year round in the Highlands. Coming from 15 years of experience, it can be harsh. And, that’s with modern equipment and the ability to go home if it gets too bad. Thanks for the video!

[u/grimnar85]

Glad to see fandabidozie here. He has some great vids on the traditional Highland way of life.

[u/SkaUrMom]

I sent it to my former instructor and current colleague: we both just said: yeah this guy has gotten his dirt time.

[u/[deleted]]

I’ve been reading The Outlander series which takes place in mid-18th C. Scotland, so it was really cool to see the things mentioned in the book and even things never mentioned.

[u/thefalsecognate]

This guy is great! He has a ton of videos out there demonstrating different old-timey bushcraft and wilderness techniques, all very informative.

[u/VWOLF1978]

I was expecting some Gung-Ho Yank with a MAGA avatar to comment on the YT site about an AR-14 or some other dumbness, I Have Ancestors from the Highlands (I'm Icelandic BTW) and I feel proud every time I see anything about the Wilderness of my Second Homeland, and mostly of the people and their tough and honest lives.