By Christopher Scott Thompson

Other than swordsmanship, archery was probably the most highly prized martial skill for a Highlander. Before the widespread adoption of firearms, most Highland soldiers were archers exclusively, and only the gentry used swords or battle-axes.

Gaelic oral tradition usually mentions the sword and the bow as the two primary weapons of the clan period:

"…(A)n uair a bha e suas agus a thànaig e gu ionad ionnsachadh fhaotainn, fhuair iad fear gu ionnsachadh da mar bu chòir da ann bogh-saighead oibreachadh agus claidheamharachd…

Archery seems to have become prominent during the Viking period, as early Gaelic literature does not emphasize it before this, and the Gaelic word for bow (bogha) is a Norse loanword. Medieval artwork such as Sueno’s Stone (dating between 850 and 950 AD) shows Pictish warriors using short bows, but by the fourteenth century the Highlanders favored yew longbows and recurve bows.

Highland archers were skirmishers and sharpshooters, and massed volley fire was never favored in the Highlands. The role of archery was largely harassment, with archers sniping at an enemy force while the gentry challenged them on foot with battle-axes and two-handed swords. This combination was capable of defeating even fully armored knights, as in the battle between the MacDonalds and the Earl of Mar at Inverlochy in 1431.

Much like the early Samurai, Highland warriors engaged in archery duels during clan battles, exchanging impromptu Gaelic poetry before shooting at each other:

"When the Grahams came close to Tobar na Rèil, one of them shouted:

You dark Stewart of Appin!

Just as Appin is our homeland

Highlanders were highly prized as mercenaries in medieval and Renaissance Europe. In the earlier period, these mercenaries were called galloglassses, and they were largely made up of the warrior elite, armed with axes, two-handers and bows. The galloglassses were able to directly challenge Anglo-Norman heavy cavalry, and they are credited with keeping Ireland from being entirely overrun by the English invaders for several centuries. Galloglassses were armored in mail coats or long padded gambesons known as cotuns. They fought in exchange for grants of land, so they tended to settle down wherever they were employed. Some clans, such as the MacSweeney’s, emigrated from Scotland to Ireland as a result. Other clans, such as the MacDonalds, became powerful in both countries. The Antrim branch of the MacDonalds were Scots Gaelic mercenaries who settled in Ireland for generations, eventually returning to fight for Montrose in the Civil Wars, though by this point they were generally perceived as being Irish.

Later Highland mercenaries were known as redshanks, due to their habit of going barelegged. They were less heavily armored than the galloglasss, and may have concentrated more on archery. The redshanks were seasonal fighters, returning to the Highlands when the campaigning season ended. Some of our evidence for Highland archery comes from illustrations of these mercenary soldiers, such as Albrecht Durer’s drawing of galloglassses, including a man with a two-handed sword and a bow, or the Stettin print of Highland archers in the Thirty Year’s War.

In clan raids and skirmishes, archery was used to single out and target enemy leaders. There was a tradition that if an arrow missed its target, it could be picked up and shot back at the original archer, and such an arrow would unfailingly find its mark.

The Highlanders retained the bow in warfare until a very late date. It was used at the battle between the MacIntoshes and the MacDonalds in 1688.

Young Highlanders studied archery at the same schools where they learned swordsmanship, though many of them must have learned at home through hunting. When hunting, the arrow barb was set straight up and down in order to pass between animal ribs. In war the barb was set horizontally to pass between human ribs.

Although there is no surviving manual on Highland archery, much is known about traditional European archery in general. Thanks to historic artwork, we know crucial details about the stance used by Highland archers, and most of their shooting method can be deduced from these details.

The Gaelic language preserves much of the technical terminology of Highland archery:

Bogha- bow

Taifeid- the bowstring

Tàrr- the belly of the bow, the part that faces in towards the archer, made of red heartwood

Cùl- the back of the bow, the part that faces away from the archer, made of white sapwood

Saighead- arrow

Briogadh- the nock throat, the slot where the string fits

Smeòirn- the nock, the fitting for the nock throat

Ite- the feather

Sìoda- the silk used to bind the arrow together

Calpa- the "calf" or rear part of the arrow

Crann- the shaft of the arrow

Gàinne- the dart or forepart of the arrow

Sgiath- the wing or flaring barb of the arrowhead

Ceann- the arrowhead

Corran- the tip

The ideal choice would be a longbow (a yew bow about six feet in length) or a traditional recurve bow, but any traditional bow would be fine for practice. Compound bows and bows with sighting equipment would not be suitable.

It’s important to select a bow appropriate to your own strength. In modern archery, young archers usually begin with 15-20 lb bows, while adults use 20-25 lbs, and strong archers use bows with a 25-30 lb pull. In competitive archery, archers use a formula to select the precise bow weight and size, but there’s no need for you to be so specific.

Learning archery is primarily a matter of trial and error- shooting until you can hit the target consistently. For our purposes, this target can be almost anything- a standard archery target, a tree stump, a figure of an imaginary enemy on the battlefield, or even a deer or other animal in hunting season.

One method you can use is to make a life-sized cutout of a human figure such as an enemy warrior, with the 12 Doors of the Soul marked in red. In Gaelic lore, the 12 Doors were thought to be the twelve spots on the human body where an injury was most likely to be fatal. When shooting at this target, a hit to one of the 12 Doors counts as three points, a hit to the torso or head (but not to one of the Doors) counts as two points, and a hit to any other part of the figure is a single point. Here is a list of the 12 Doors of the Soul:

1-the crown of the head

2- the hollow of the occiput

3- the hollow of the temple (temporal fossa)

4- the apple of the throat (Adam’s Apple)

5- the hollow of the breast (cavity of the throat)

6- the armpit

7- the breast-bone (sternum)

8- the navel (umbilicus)

9- the bend of the elbow (antecubital fossa)

10- the hollow of the ham (hamstring, or crook of the hough)

11- the bulge of the groin (femoral triangle)

12- the sole of the foot

Highland archers usually carried only six arrows at one time.

The number of shots in a round of archery is known as an "end." Using an end of six arrows and the 12 Doors target, try to get a score of at least 12 points. When you can do this consistently, increase the distance.

If you come to find shooting at your usual target monotonous, you might want to try roving or "stump-shooting," wandering around looking for interesting targets. Just remember to be conscientious about safety.

- A nocked arrow should always be aimed at the ground until it is time to shoot.

- Never point an arrow at another person for any reason.

- Before you shoot your arrow, check to make sure that the target area is clear.

- If the arrow falls off the shelf, start over rather than just replacing it and completing the draw.

- If you’re shooting with other people, shoot from the same distance and don’t come forward of the shooting line till you’re certain that the shooting is done. Use your bow to rake a fallen arrow toward you if needed.

• Don’t draw the arrow past the shelf or arrow rest- this can cause an accident.

Modern archers use a method known as "T-Form," where the body imitates a letter T. The archer keeps a straight back and straight shoulders, with the bow-arm toward the target, the feet placed apart at shoulder-width, and the weight distributed evenly between the legs. An imaginary straight line runs between the toes to the target. The shoulders are square above the feet, and the trunk of the body is not twisted. The bow is held straight up and down.

There are three stances in modern archery:

Square Stance: This is the basic T-form as described above, with both feet at right angles to the target.

Open Stance: The front foot is turned outward 45 degrees and the rear foot is moved forward six inches, so that the line to the target runs through the middle of the rear foot and the toes of the front foot.

Closed Stance: The front foot is turned outward 45 degrees and moved forward six inches, so that the line to the target runs through the middle of the front foot and the toes of the rear foot.

From historical pictures of Highland archers, we know that the Highland stance was somewhat different from any of these:

Highland Stance: The front foot is at a right angle to the line to target, and the rear foot is pulled back behind the line and balanced on the ball of the foot. The rear leg is bent, and the front leg is relatively straight. Otherwise, perfect T-Form is observed, with the back and shoulders straight and the bow held straight up and down. Highland archers seem to have frequently shot on the run, in which case T-Form was still observed, though the feet would not have been in a fixed stance.

Highland warriors probably used the so-called Mediterranean or English grip, in which the arrow is gripped with the forefinger above it and the next two fingers underneath it. The pinkie and thumb are held back out of the way. The bowstring rests either on the pads of the fingers or in the grooves of the first joint.

Different archers use different methods for drawing the bow.

Rigid Arm- Raise the bow arm and extend it fully at the height of your shoulder. Look at the target over your shoulder and pull the rear elbow back in order to draw, rotating your bow elbow downward and outward and your drawing shoulder back.

Push-Pull- Push the bow away from you into position as you pull the arrow toward you.

Double-Clutching- Draw the bow almost all the way, then pause a few inches short of full draw and complete the draw with a second pull.

The anchor point is the point at which you complete your draw before releasing. A consistent anchor point is essential for most archers, and only a few can use a so-called floating anchor successfully. For modern archers, the anchor point is usually under the chin, with the top finger and string touching the tip of your nose and chin. Highland archers were said to anchor below the ear. Gaelic lore suggests that power and distance were highly praised, as in the saying "The bowman-ship of the MacGregors, in it or past it." This may be the reason for using such a difficult anchor point, but you probably won’t be able to do so easily without practice. The Stettin print of Highland archers actually shows an anchor point more like the modern one.

Highlanders probably didn’t aim at their targets in the same way modern archers do. Target shooting allows the archer the luxury of gauging distance and compensating for it consciously, then taking careful aim and counting to three before finally taking the shot. Military archery has different priorities. Most styles of traditional archery around the world use a method some people call Instinctive Shooting, in which the archer does not consciously aim at the target.

Instead, he simply draws while looking directly at the target with both eyes open, "boring a hole into the target" with the eyes, in the words of one author. Then he releases without consciously aiming. In order for this method to work, both focus and concentration are essential. In this context, focus means fixing the eyes on the target alone, to the exclusion of everything else in the world. Concentration means closing the mind off to everything except the target. The theory is that the mind is much better at gauging the distance and aiming correctly subconsciously (as it does when you throw a ball, for instance,) and that using the conscious mind for this process is therefore less efficient.

With practice, the instinctive shooter internalizes this method, and learns to hit without ever thinking about hitting the target. This method allows for both accuracy and speed, and is much more suited to battlefield conditions than the more time-consuming method of modern archery.

In instinctive shooting, the bow hand is held close below the shelf or arrow rest, so that you seem to point your fist at the target to direct your shot.

As with so many other aspects of archery, there is more than one way to release your arrow. Some archers simply draw the string to the anchor point and then pull through as a continuation of this motion. Others draw to the anchor point and then pop their fingers open to release the string.

After the arrow has been released, you must follow through by holding the same stance you used when you made the shot until after the arrow strikes the target. It is considered bad form to break your stance early. It is also important to prevent your bow arm from dropping at the end of the shot. Allowing the bow arm to drop can interfere with your aim.

For a history of archers in Highland warfare, see the article "Archery in the Highlands" by David Adams, in the August 1997 issue of Military Illustrated. For anecdotes of the use of archery in clan battles, see Michael Newton’s "Bho Chluaidh gu Calasraid," especially his description of the Battle of Glen Fruin, from which quotes in this article were drawn. For information on the modern sport of archery, I consulted "Archery: Steps to Success" by Haywood and Lewis, Human Kinetics Publishers, 1999. For a description of the Instinctive Shooting method, I used "Traditional Archery" by Sam Fadala, Stackpole Books, 1999.

For details on the Highland archery stance, I studied period illustrations of Highland archers, including the Holinshed print of a Highland hunter pictured on the cover of Michael Newton’s "Handbook of the Scottish Gaelic World," and the background figures in the Stettin print of Highland mercenaries.