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The termcateran (from theGaelicceathairne, a collective word meaning "peasantry") historically referred to a band of fighting men of aScotlandHighland clan; hence the term applied to the Highland, and later to any,marauders orcattle-lifters.[1] An individual member is a ceithernach or catanach, but Walter Scott calls an individual a cateran (e.g. inRob Roy,Chronicles of the Canongate). According to Randy Lee Eichoff it derives from Old Celtic 'cat' (battle, war) and 'nach' (man, fellow) Catanach means war-man, warrior. Its plural is ceithern or ceithrenn or caithereine or kettering or kettenring and several other spellings.
They are mentioned in theDunkeld Litany:
A cateranis et latronibus,
a lupis, et omni mala bestia,
Domine, libera nos.
From caterans and robbers,
from wolves, and all evil creatures,
Lord, deliver us.
Magnus Magnusson states that some Highland chieftains retained substantial private armies of professional soldiers, known as 'ceatharn', to be used against their neighbours[2]
Problems arose when the third royal son of KingRobert II,Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan (the King's Lieutenant for areas of Scotland north of theMoray Firth) began using a force of 'caterans' himself. Subsequently, the word 'cateran' came to refer to those Highland bandits or malefactors.
Caterans feature in many Scottish novels and short stories, notably Hamish MacTavish Mhor in Walter Scott's 'The Highland Widow'.
Stories of the Cateran cattle-raiding tradition of the Scottish clans can be found in 'School of the Moon' by Stuart McHardy.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cateran".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 512.  | ThisScottish history-related article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byadding missing information. |