Discovering America's Celtic Heart
Getting to understand how I fit in with all of my American viewers
It’s said that around 25 million Americans have Scottish ancestry.
Remarkable, and the moment I started traveling to the US and creating content as a Scottish guy in the States, these people started to find me.
No doubt, many of you on my newsletter list are among them. This led me down a path of discovery and friendship with many people throughout the States.
In turn, this led me to USA Kilts (a retailer of Scottish/Celtic goods) and its brilliant owner Rocky. That’s Rocky and I below, in Philadelphia - and me on the right wearing USA Kilts’ ‘American Dream’ tartan kilt:
Rocky, his wife Kelly and son Liam were just in Edinburgh this weekend and we had a chance to tour some of the city sites and reminisce over the trip I made to USA headquarters in Spring City, Pennsylvania, and all of the YouTube videos we did together.
What’s great about Rocky and USA Kilts is they uniquely care about the Scottish/American community. They create a stack of interesting and useful content to help people discover and celebrate their Scottish roots, and are also enthusiastic participants in this culture.
One of the great learnings for me has been the many Celtic festivals that operate throughout the States every year, which bring together the Scottish and Irish diaspora with Highland Games, food, music and more.
What’s shameful, however, is that I haven’t yet been to one!
Rocky reckons I should come out to the Celtic Classic Highland Games & Festival in Bethlehem, PA, in September - and I might just to that.
I’d love to know your thoughts on the Scottish festivals, if you’ve been to any, and which ones I should go to. I think it would be an awesome opportunity to create some documentary style content. If you are involved in the organizing of any of these events and would like me to cover it in a documentary vlog series, let me know!
With that, I want to share USA Kilts’ latest creation - Celtic Heart: a documentary exploring some of these festivals in the States (down below).
I am blown away by how big and popular these events are and I would love to experience it for myself.
Cheers for now,
Shaun
Thank you for your videos, gives us Americans of Scots/Irish ancestry to see and about our family history. My 3rd Great Grandfather William Duncan is from Edinburgh Scotland and would like to see where he lived. You must definitely get to a highland game here in the States a lot of fun. I have been to a few in Glendale Arizona and in Portland Oregon at MT Hood college. Great times..
Thanks for posting the video, Shaun. I'm a big Albannach fan for many years. I've met Jamesie and Jacquie many times. Jamesie also has a motorcycle business in Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire, one of my favorite places in the world.