WELCOME TO AN ENTERTAINMENT SITE FOR SCOTTISH COUNTRY DANCERS!
Enjoy this curated selection of theme-related dances for celebrations and holidays, or find a dance associated with a special calendar day, or EVEN your own birthday!
The Scottish Wildcat
Aug 8
International Cat Day
Loch A' Chait
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
"Och, beware the Scottish Wildcat!
He fairly chills the soul!
Just give him room, don't pause to chat,
Such beasties lose control!"
~ Denis Martindale, 2014
Meow and Hiss! 🐯🐈🏴
This progressive round-the-room 32 bar jig by Maggie & Duncan Keppie will have dancers circling and stalking around its namesake loch in the style of the Scottish Wildcat — also known as the “Highland Tiger,” Scotland’s only native wild cat!
The dance features parallel reels, a “Skye Hold” — an outside-hand lead taking a couple anticlockwise — followed by a “Wee Corrie,” a rounded figure that cleverly unwinds them again.
Loch a’ Chait — “Lake of the Cat” — is a small upland loch on the edge of the Cairngorms, and it is far from the only Scottish landscape with a feline name. There are three mountains called Beinn a’ Chait, around half a dozen crags or hills called Creag a’ Chait, as well as burns, waterfalls and other features bearing similar names — many likely echoing the historic presence of Scotland’s native wildcat.
Today, Scottish wildcats are associated particularly with parts of the Highlands, including the Cairngorms, and their critically endangered status has inspired major conservation and reintroduction efforts. There is even a namesake Scottish Wildcat tartan, woven in rich, warm colours, with proceeds supporting wildcat conservation.
But if all that talk of cats has dancers tempted to go looking for one, be careful! Scottish wildcats have been celebrated for centuries for their fierce and decidedly untameable nature.
Just ask Clan Chattan! 🕺 💃 🤎 🖤 🤎 😜 🐯 🐯 🐯 🐈 🏴
Loch A' Chait
International Cat Day is a full 24 hours of recognition and veneration of one of humanity’s oldest and most beloved pets (and their larger and wilder cousins). There are more than 37 species of cats, including the big cats (lion, tiger, leopards, jaguar), the smaller indigenous cats (Canada lynx, ocelot, jaguarundi, Scottish wildcat and many more), and the domesticated cat. Indigenous cats feature strongly in historical names for many geographic features of landscapes, particularly in Scotland, including the title of this dance, Loch A' Chait (Lake of the Cats), referring to a small upland lake on the edge of the Cairngorms.
The Gaelic for cat almost always appears in the altered forms a’ chait (of the cat) or nan cat (of the cats).
There are three mountains called Beinn a’ Chait, half a dozen crags or hills called Creag a’ Chait, and other higher landscapes called Meall a’ Chait, Cnoc a’ Chait and Tom a’ Chait.
Sometimes cat names crop up in relation to water bodies, such as Eas nan Cat (the waterfall of the wildcats) in Kintyre and Allt a’ Chait (the burn of the wildcat) in Caithness.
Place names indicate a significant presence of this species in Perthshire in earlier times – there are no less than five lochans in the county named after the wildcat.
The earliest Gaelic name for the Shetland Isles was Insi Catt, meaning either the cat islands, or referring to a tribe whose totem was the wild cat. The name survives in Caithness and in the Gaelic name for Sutherland (Cataibh, meaning among the Cats).
For a fun look at domesticated cats with peculiar coat markings, click the photograph of Scottish Wildcat kittens, from the British Wildlife Centre.
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
