‘It happened at the berry-time when Travellers came to Blair’: Traveller voices in Tobar an Dualchais / Kist o Riches

Drawing on underutilised sources, this article introduces the reader to one of Scotland’s most marginalised and underrepresented ethnic minority communities, the Travellers. Many Travellers throughout Scotland have expressed having a shared sense of cultural identity, an identity that is borne out through a long history of persecution and misunderstanding from much of the Scottish population. The article engages with a selection of Traveller voices contained within the School of Scottish Studies Archives held at the University of Edinburgh. It demonstrates how our archives represent a unique resource when it comes to the study of Scotland’s Traveller communities. Paying close attention to the archive material, the discussion shows how a variety of Traveller tradition-bearers express an acute awareness of cultural legitimacy both within their communities and beyond. It illustrates how considered engagement with our archives can demonstrably assist in preventing the erosion of some of Scotland’s most marginalised cultural identities.