Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

Scotia

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

SCOTIA (R8x32) 3C (4C set) John Drewry Brodie Book

1- 8 1s set, cross down RH to 2nd place, cast to right and dance down/up to end with nearer hands joined in centre facing Ladies' side
9-16 1s dance reels of 3 across (Lady LSh to 2L and Man RSh to 3L)
17-24 1s dance reels of 3 on own sides (1s out and up to start) giving hands and end in centre with RH joined in order. 213
25-32 All set twice with Lady turning under Man's arm bars 27-28 (as in "Gay Gordons") and all turn RH (4 bars)

(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)

Dance Information

Scotia was originally a Roman name for Ireland, inhabited by the people they called Scoti or Scotii, the early Gaels.

Use of the name shifted in the Middle Ages to designate the part of the island of Great Britain lying north of the Firth of Forth, the Kingdom of Alba. By the later Middle Ages it had become the fixed Latin term for what in English is called Scotland.

Scotia was never one fixed place in the Middle Ages. It was a way of saying "Land of the Gaels". It originally was used as a name for Ireland, as when Isidore of Seville in 580 CE says "Scotia and Hibernia are the same country", but the connotation is still ethnic.

Scotia Map
Map From 1654 Illustrating The Latter Use Of Scotia For Scotland And Hibernia/Ivverna For Ireland
Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original Scotia article on Wikipedia.
Image copyright Blaeu.

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