The Gaelic version of the title is no longer officially used by the RSCDS.
##RSCDS-DI:omit-ta
The dance description in older editions of Book 7 has several errors, one is making a BH turn 1 1/2 on [21-24] instead of once only. Use a new edition or the Pocket Books. Eric.
The Menzies Rant
(or “Reel Duine na Marachan”)
The early Menzies were real estate tycoons.
Sir Alexander Menzies, an early supporter of Robert Bruce,
held charters to the lands of Weem and Aberfeldy in Perthshire from the Celtic Strabogie Earl of Atholl.
Bruce rewarded the Menzies
with the baronies of Glendochart in Perthshire and Durisdeer in Dumfries-shire,
where they also had the barony of Enoch.
By the time that Bruce died in 1329,
Sir Robert Menzies held lands in Perthshire that stretched from Aberfeldy to Rannoch
and almost to the very banks of Loch Lomond.
Originally, the actual body of the Clan Menzies – Am Meinnearach – were Gaelic-speaking Celts,
the indigenous population of the Highland baronies bestowed upon the Menzies chiefs
naturally staying on the land.
The family name of the chiefs was Norman, Mesnieres, which was anglicised to Manners.
The family moved north from England into Lowland Scotland
and in 1249 when Alexander III succeeded to the throne
the seven-year old boy king’s Great Chamberlain was Sir Robert de Meygners,
the pronounciation of which was an early step to the modern Menzies.
The stronghold of the Menzies chiefs was the old Place of Weem
which was changed by charter from James IV in 1510 to Castle Menzies.
The castle with its “Z” shape was not begun until 1571.
So numerous were the members of the Clan Menzies
that they were to be found on both sides of the political and military actions
of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Many of them were Jacobites, especially Menzies of Culdares, Pitfodels and Shian,
and they were either out in the Risings of 1715 and 1745 or they gave support to the cause.
From “Scotland Dances”, by Eugenia (Jeannie) Callander Sharp
(Used by permission.)