How to fight like a Highlander

clowns in the Highlands and Islands were often in conflict with each other fighting over land or livestock they were fearsome warriors and I'm about to be the man who knows all about their fighting skills but before I can learn to fight like a Highlander I'm going to have to dress like one storyteller ray Owens is folding the traditional Highland plaid the pleats he puts in are to help the plaid hang and are actually called kill ting where the word kilt comes from I have to lie down on the plaid and have it belted around me to keep it on the extra bit of cloth cleverly created by the folding could be used as pockets at the side or at the back for carrying supplies the spare material was good protection from the harsh Highland weather and one useful aspect of the plaid was that it could be removed very quickly to allow the Highlander to charge into battle unencumbered by wet heavy cloth a screaming half naked Highlander charging towards you would have been quite a sight I think I'll keep my kilt on while ray shows me some of the other weapons the clans would have used sorry can you ere you tell me what weapons you got there certainly let me just put this down here first of all this is a lowland cross sword mm-hmm stick it in the ground there and this is a musket mostly used by the British Army at the time Bertie we would use them as well whenever we want got a chance there wasn't their preferred weapon of the Highlanders no no no it wasn't the preferred weapon of the Highlanders was the great sword that you have there the Claymore Claymore simply means great great sword they were used in many of the early battles the last battle of what any number of these were used was at Killiecrankie with Bonnie Dundee in the Year 1689 but after that the Highlanders wanted to have shields to protect themselves against the musket fire so they had these targes instead and of course you can't carry a charge and a double handed sword so let me just show you how you might use these weapons you want to lift that up move over your head now so it's a simple Hocking sword great cleaving sword there's no nests involved at all and fighting with it I have a as I said a targe which also turns into a weapon nice spike clips in the front here mm-hmm I hold my Dirk in the same hand protruding here and of course my broadsword so so your Dirk is you can just see it's just poking out the block no I can I to my shadow wash yourself it's very sharp supposed to be sharp so I would come charging in towards you unit charge hit me without Grich this is a slashing movement as an absolutely Daddy like that well I would drop down I could remove your left leg here yeah because you're totally disarmed now I push that aside try it again and I'll show you a different method this one I stay up and I head for your shoulder here you're acting right from your collarbone and right to your heart a single blue hmm so deadly weapons all of course that's a much heavier sword than mine and if you can get in fast you might even be able to shutter my charge with it yeah so if I mean I'm right-handed I'm a right-handed Highlander right sure if I can see your charge there so I'm gonna come across this way and why not absolutely love you slash you that or if you could that would be a great we do though I've got I've got a way to fight back there to if I can cut your sword in here look at the ears or lag as I have in these catches your sword and took that right I can take any of your disarming but this is a very heavy so I assume that's the read it's so heavy that once the the momentum of this thing crashing down it's gonna be between a break right through the collar bone and cut you right down to the heart yeah or or if you if you if you story with your sword I mean the weight of this thing I can feel it's like I don't keep going absolutely a much stronger than me right we'll try but you could try hard to fight it back but these this is how these weapons would be used individual man-to-man fighting Highlanders could never be trained as disciplined as soldiers Highland clan warfare was always man against man and as we said earlier the played of course itself plays a very important role in battles because when you're charging without that played on what a fright insight that must have been 2000 semi-naked heavy Highlanders charging down the hill directly towards you screaming the top of their voices no wonder most of the enemy's just turned and run away whilst the people lived in fast homes their chieftains were housed in magnificent castles these ultimate symbols of power were the battleships of their day used for defense and to show just how powerful each clan was I'm traveling south now to one of the most famous castles

Channel: glasgow1234

Views: 334,502

Keywords: scotland, scottish, fight, highlander, clan, music, fighting, battle, war

Id: -fxkITT07iI

Length: 5min 3sec (303 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 26 2011