Hi, my name is Victoria Clow and I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome aka EDS. It is an inherited condition that causes abnormal collagen function and can affect all the soft tissues in the body. One of the main symptoms of classical EDS is hypermobility and while I have a good few other challenging symptoms, in this blog I’m going to focus on hypermobility. Hypermobility is very individual. It can affect just the fingers and feet, only the arms or all over the body. Due to this, it’s hard to come up with one fool proof way to help people with hypermobility in HEMA but I’m going to try give some advi ..read more

As we’re wrapping up our classes for Christmas and New Year, we are absolutely delighted that our students are asking the question; “What can I do at home by myself?” Well, after lockdown, we’re pretty much experts at how to broadsword at home and in this blog we’re going to give you some exercises and tips to keep your sword skills sharp over the holidays. So without further ado, here are some good home exercises to tide you over until classes start in the New Year. Footwork Our skillful footwork and good measure of distance are the main things that keep us safe in a fight so it’s very import ..read more

There's nowhere like Scotland to celebrate the New Year! But what do we do at Hogmanay? It's believed many of our Hogmanay celebrations were brought over by the Vikings in the 8th or 9th Century. Some of these Pagan traditions have been absorbed into our Christian celebrations, such as our Christmas Trees, but some are still celebrated. Fire ceremonies are celebrated around Hogmanay and New Year, most notably Stonehaven's Fireball Festival. Giant fireballs are swung around on long metal poles and paraded up and down the Hight Street before throwing them into the harbour. The idea behind the ce ..read more

In the New Year of 1746, the Jacobite army consisted of around 8,000 – 9,000 men. It was the greatest strength the Jacobite army would ever achieve and with this much power behind them, the obvious course of action was to consolidate power in Scotland. So on the 4th of January 1746, the Jacobite army set off from Glasgow to assist in the siege of Stirling Castle. Enter Lieutenant General Henry “Hangman” Hawley. Remember that commander we mentioned in A Very Jacobite Christmas? The one who’s own men thought him incompetent? This is the guy. If the nickname wasn’t enough of a clue, Hawley was so ..read more

The Basket-hilted Broadsword is the main weapon we study at Saorsa. So what is it? Here is a brief introduction of the Broadsword. The Basket-hilted Broadsword is a classically Scottish weapon, used extensively by the Highlanders in the 17th and 18th centuries. It has a broadsword blade, which means it is sharp on both sides, and has a point. This makes it a cutting and thrusting weapon, although it’s primarily used for cutting. The sword also has a large steel basket around the hand, hence its name. This provides a fantastic amount of hand protection and it changes the way the sword is used ..read more

Saint Andrews Day in Scotland is celebrated on the 30th of November, honouring the day he was crucified. Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland ... and Russia, Barbados, Romania, Ukraine alongside several towns including a few in Italy and one in Portugal! Who was St Andrew? Simply put, he was a fisherman with the gift of the gab. He was charismatic and hard working and he brought the first foreign people to meet Jesus. He died by crucifixion on an X shaped cross and is often depicted with this cross. The flag of Scotland, with it's X shaped cross, is directly linked to St Andrew. There ..read more

This weekend was the coronation of King Charles III, the first coronation many of this generation will have seen and the first King Charles we have had since 1685. So what was the coronation of the last Charles like? And how does it compare? There were many differences between the coronations of the two Kings. We watched King Charles III be crowned in Westminster Abbey like many Kings and Queens before him. King Charles II was crowned, at first, in Scotland. He was the last monarch crowned in Scotland and it happened in one of the most ancient of coronation paces – Moot Hill in Scone. Moot Hil ..read more

Scotland Forever! As the climactic battle of a quarter century of near constant warfare that plagued Europe and spilled out around the world, Waterloo lives up entirely to its billing. Long and bloody, with the outcome hanging in the balance throughout the day, it would take a blog a day for the rest of June to do it justice! But unfortunately, we don't have the time to do that so instead, we'll look at a few incidents involving the Scots at Waterloo that show how it was, in the words of Wellington himself, “the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life”. First of all, a little background: T ..read more

In Broadsword, good hand, wrist and forearm strength is vital. When we cut with the broadsword, we should be using our fingers to do most of the work. What this means is that the muscles of the forearm that support and move the wrist take on a lot of the stress and strain that I’m sure every Broadsworder has felt! However, if the muscles are strained or overused, this can lead to some very painful conditions like Tennis Elbow. In order to prevent this, we have to make efforts to keep our muscles strong and flexible! So how do we do this? Broadsword masters of the past also understood exactly h ..read more

276 years ago, in the early afternoon of Saturday the 16th of April 1746, the Jacobite army under Prince Charles Edward Stuart stood upon Culloden Moor facing a British army sent to destroy it. In the space of about 40 minutes, the Duke of Cumberland had succeeded. The years that followed transformed the way of life of the Highlands; ending forever the ancient clan system, depopulating the land and all but erasing their culture. For that reason, the battle of Culloden is imbued with myth and legend in a way that few others are. So who was actually involved? What really happened? We’ll start wi ..read more