During the era of the Clan system in the Highlands it was the custom of the chiefs to summon their clansmen to periodical gatherings for hunting, the practice of military exercises and the transaction of clan business generally.
In 1703 the Laird of Grant sent a summons to 600 of his people to be ready to go to a gathering in August, and the matter was considered of sufficient importance for a report to be made by the intelligence officer at Inverness to the Governor of Fort William. The records of the summons are preserved in the Court books of the regality of Grant, and among other details it is recorded that those so summond to attend the Laird of Grant for his "hosting and hunting" shall provide themselves with "Highland coates, trewes and short hose of tartane of red and greine sett broad springed, and also with gun, sword, pistoll and dirk."
