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Comment by hassy | Hacker News Reader

You cannot mention the ban on Highland dress without mentioning Bonnie Prince Charlie and his attempt to overthrow the legitimate government specifically (which ended at Culloden, with several Scottish regiments fighting on the side of the government), and the vast divide between the Lowlands and the Highlands in culture, language, religion, economy and industry, and attitudes to Union with England in general. Scottish history is very complex.

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There's probably a whole other book to be cited on this subject, yes. And that arguably the Highland Line is more significant a border than the one at Berwick.

As for "legitimate": well, you can see how people might have thought that the son and grandson of James II of England might be the legitimate line of monarchs. Again there's a book, or at least an undergraduate history exam question, on "Explain the legitimacy of the House of Orange as monarchs of England". The short answer which has street legitimacy still is "they're not Catholics". Which is a whole other line of argument about how Unionism is inherently Protestant.

There are so many different ways of delineating the "Highlands" that I'm not sure how you would draw a single boundary that includes the political, cultural, historical and geographical boundaries.

NB When you say "Highland Line" I think of the rail line, then maybe the Highland Boundary Fault....

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