Cateran


The term cateran historically referred to a band of fighting men of a Scotland Highland clan; hence the term applied to the Highland, and later to any, marauders or cattle-lifters. An individual member is a ceithernach or catanach. According to Randy Lee Eichoff it derives from Old Celtic 'cat' and 'nach' 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 the Dunkeld Litany:
A cateranis et latronibus,
a lupis, et omnia mala bestia,
Domine libra 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
Problems arose when the third royal son of King Robert II, Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan 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.