----- Original Message -----
From: Allan Paul
To: ingridh(a)iprimus.com.au
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 12:28 AM
Subject: Cats
Hi Ingrid
Thanks for your email regarding wildcats.
I have often wondered myself just how many place names derive from wildcats
being present. Wildcats were present in nearly all parts of the UK until
around the time of the industrial revolution.
Until a year ago I lived near a place called 'The hill of the Wangie', near
Kellas, Scotland. Wangie (or more correctly Wangye) is old Scots for
wildcat, and they are in fact still present on the hill, and have given
rise to a large black variety called the 'Kellas cat'. Another hill locally
is called 'Carn Kitty'.
As I understand it, the 'Catti' people were Celtic, and came from around
Saxony, Germany, and migrated to northern Scotland to mix with the
indigenous iron-age Pictish people there. Cat clans were common throughout
Europe, and the cult of the cat seems to have been adopted by the northern
Scottish Picts around Caithness (Catness!), who became the 'Cat' clan
there. I haven't been able to find out if the Picts worshipped the wildcat,
as I've never seen any stone carvings depicting a wildcat. They did plenty
of lions, though, and the lynx was still around at the same time as the
Picts in Scotland, even post Roman. One of the last strongholds of the
wildcat in Scotland, after being exterminated elsewhere, was in Caithness
and Sutherland, perhaps because the local landowners still had some sort of
ancestral reverence to the species.
After the Pictish line came to an end, around 1000 AD, the remains of the
Cat people became the 'Cat Clans' or Chattan Clans, including MacKintosh,
and my own clan, MacPhail. My surname is Paul, and MacPhail means 'son of
Paul'. These Chattan clans still have the wildcat as a clan badge, with the
motto 'Touch not the cat bot a glove'. My mother's side included the
surname Cattenach which must also have had roots in Pictish cat worship.
I'm sorry I can't be of more help, but please let me know how you get on
with your endeavours.
Regards
Allan Paul