Claymore and armour from Dunvegan Castle (engraving, sometime before 1890)

A claymore (; from gd, claidheamh- mòr, "great sword") is either the Scottish variant of the

late medieval The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...

two-handed sword The English language terminology used in the classification of swords is imprecise and has varied widely over time. There is no historical dictionary for the universal names, classification or terminology of swords; a sword was simply a double e ...

or the Scottish variant of the

basket-hilted sword The basket-hilted sword is a sword type of the early modern era characterised by a basket-shaped guard that protects the hand. The basket hilt is a development of the quillons added to swords' crossguards since the Late Middle Ages. In mo ...

. The former is characterised as having a cross hilt of forward-sloping quillons with quatrefoil terminations and was in use from the 15th to 17th centuries. The weapon was also employed by the Irish and favoured by the mercenary

Gallowglass The Gallowglass (also spelled galloglass, gallowglas or galloglas; from ga, gallóglaigh meaning foreign warriors) were a class of elite mercenary warriors who were principally members of the Norse-Gaelic clans of Ireland between the mid 13t ...

in battle. The word ''claymore'' was first used in reference to

s during the 18th century in Scotland and parts of England. This description was maybe not used during the 17th century, when basket-hilted swords were the primary military swords across Europe, but these basket-hilted, broad-bladed, swords remained in service with officers of Scottish regiments into the 21st century. After the Acts of Union in 1707 when Scottish and English regiments were integrated together, the swords were seen as a mark of distinction by Scottish officers over the more slender sabres used by their English contemporaries: a symbol of physical strength and prowess, and a link to the historic Highland way of life.

Terminology

The term ''claymore'' is an anglicisation of the Gaelic ''claidheamh mór'' "big/great sword", attested in 1772 (as ''Cly-more'') with the gloss "great two-handed sword". The sense "

" is contemporaneous, attested in 1773 as "the broad-sword now used ... called the Claymore, (i.e., the great sword)", although

OED The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...

observes that this usage is "inexact, but very common". The 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' likewise judged that the term is "wrongly" applied to the basket-hilted sword. Countering this view, Paul Wagner and Christopher Thompson argue that the term "claymore" was applied first to the basket-hilted broadsword, and then to all Scottish swords. They provide quotations that are earlier than those given above in support of its use to refer to a basket-hilted broadsword and

targe Targe (from Old Franconian ' 'shield', Proto-Germanic ' 'border') was a general word for shield in late Old English. Its diminutive, ''target'', came to mean an object to be aimed at in the 18th century. The term refers to various types of shi ...

: "a strong handsome target, with a sharp pointed steel, of above half an ell in length, screw'd into the navel of it, on his left arm, a sturdy claymore by his side" (1715 pamphlet). They also note its use as a battle-cry as early as 1678. Some authors suggest that '' claybeg'' should be used instead, from a purported Gaelic ''claidheamh beag'' "small sword". This does not parallel

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well ...

usage. According to the ''Gaelic Dictionary'' by R. A. Armstrong (1825), ''claidheamh mòr'' "big/great sword" translates to "broadsword", and ''claidheamh dà làimh'' to "two-handed sword", while ''claidheamh beag'' "small sword" is given as a translation of " Bilbo".

Two-handed (Highland) claymore

The two-handed claymore was a large sword used in the late

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

and early modern periods. It was used in the constant clan warfare and border fights with the English from circa 1400 to 1700. Although claymores existed as far back as the

Wars of Scottish Independence The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The First War (1296–1328) began with the English invasion of ...

they were smaller, and few had the typical quatrefoil design (as can be seen on the Great Seal of

John Balliol John Balliol ( – late 1314), known derisively as ''Toom Tabard'' (meaning "empty coat" – coat of arms), was King of Scots from 1292 to 1296. Little is known of his early life. After the death of Margaret, Maid of Norway, Scotland entered an ...

King of Scots The monarch of Scotland was the head of state of the Kingdom of Scotland. According to tradition, the first King of Scots was Kenneth I MacAlpin (), who founded the state in 843. Historically, the Kingdom of Scotland is thought to have grown ...

). The last known battle in which it is considered to have been used in a significant number was the

Battle of Killiecrankie The Battle of Killiecrankie ( gd, Blàr Choille Chnagaidh), also referred to as the Battle of Rinrory, took place on 27 July 1689 during the 1689 Scottish Jacobite rising. An outnumbered Jacobite force under John Graham, Viscount Dundee and ...

in 1689. It was somewhat longer than other two-handed swords of the era. The English did use swords similar to the Claymore during the renaissance called a greatsword. The two-handed claymore seems to be an offshoot of early Scottish medieval longswords (similar to the espee de guerre or grete war sword) which had developed a distinctive style of a cross-hilt with forward-angled arms that ended in spatulate swellings. The lobed pommels on earlier swords were inspired by the Viking style. The spatulate swellings were later frequently made in a quatrefoil design. The average claymore ran about 140 cm (55 in) in overall length, with a 33 cm (13 in) grip, 107 cm (42 in) blade, and a weight of approximately 5.5 lb (2.5 kg). For instance, in 1772 Thomas Pennant described a sword seen on his visit to Raasay as: "an unwieldy weapon, two inches broad, doubly edged; the length of the blade three feet seven inches; of the handle, fourteen inches; of a plain transverse guard, one foot; the weight six pounds and a half."Wagner, Paul & Thompson, Christopher, "The words claymore and broadsword" in Hand, Stephen, ''Spada II: Anthology of Swordsmanship'' (Chivalry Bookshelf, 2005) Fairly uniform in style, the sword was set with a wheel pommel often capped by a crescent-shaped nut and a guard with straight, forward-sloping arms ending in quatrefoils, and langets running down the centre of the blade from the guard. Another common style of two-handed claymore (though lesser known today) was the "clamshell hilted" claymore. It had a crossguard that consisted of two downward-curving arms and two large, round, concave plates that protected the foregrip. It was so named because the round guards resembled an open clam.

Notes

References and further reading

* Claude Blair, "Claymore" in David H. Caldwell (ed.), ''Scottish Weapons and Fortifications'' (Edinburgh 1981), 378–387 * David H. Caldwell, ''The Scottish Armoury'' (Edinburgh 1979), 24–26 * Fergus Cannan, ''Scottish Arms and Armour'' (Oxford 2009), 29–31, 79, 82 *

Tobias Capwell Tobias Emanuel ("Toby") Capwell FSA (born ) is an American historian who lives and works in London. His principal interest is in European arms and armour of the medieval and Renaissance periods (roughly, the 12th century to the 16th). He is Cur ...

, ''The Real Fighting Stuff: Arms and Armour at Glasgow Museums'' (Glasgow 2007), 84 * Ross Cowan, ''Halflang and Tua-Handit: Late Medieval Scottish Hand-and-a-Half and Two-Handed Swords''. Updated version of two articles originally published in ''Medieval Warfare'' 1.2 & 1.3 (2011). * Ross Cowan, 'Lairds of Battle', ''Military History Monthly'' 32 (2013), 47–48 * G. A. Hayes-McCoy
'Sixteenth Century Swords Found in Ireland'
''Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland'' 78 (1948), 38–54 *

J. G. Mann Sir James Gow Mann (23 September 1897 – 5 December 1962) was an eminent figure in the art world in the mid twentieth century, specialising in the study of armour. Early life and education James Gow Mann was born in Norwood, London, the only ...

, 'A Late Medieval Sword from Ireland', ''Antiquaries Journal'' 24 (1944), 94–99 * John Wallace, ''Scottish Swords and Dirks: An Illustrated Reference to Scottish Edged Weapons'' (London 1970), 10–17 * ''Dwelly's Illustrated Gaelic to English Dictionary'' (Gairm Publications, Glasgow, 1988, p. 202)

External links

* Two-handed Highland swords in the collections o
Glasgow Museums
th
National Museum of Scotland
and th
British Museum
* Scottish two-handed swords with clam shell guards i
Kelvingrove
th
National Museum of Scotland
an
Dean Castle
(Kilmarnock). {{Swords by region Medieval European swords Early Modern European swords Military history of Scotland Scotland in the Late Middle Ages Early Modern Scotland Weapons of Scotland

Terminology

Two-handed (Highland) claymore

See also

Notes

References and further reading

External links