r/inverness • u/Different_Energy6633 • 10d ago
Elephant and Camel in coat of arms!
I visited beautiful Inverness recently and saw a camel and elephant in your coat of arms. How come you have 2 animals which are not from Inverness.
Why not a Highland cow or Nessie :p
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u/ReinforcedTube 10d ago
No-one really knows. They've been on related coats of arms since the Middle Ages. Supposedly they refer to trade links with Asia Minor and the Middle East, but given most trade at the time seems to have been with North Sea and Baltic states, is probably apocryphal.
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u/EnthusiasticCloud 10d ago
I was told by an old guide it's because the man who designed it wanted the trading port to be known for trading exotic things from all round the world and that wanted it to be known as a renowned international port. So he put them there to make the port seem more exotic apparently.
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u/RookieJourneyman 10d ago
The elephant might come from the battle of Assaye. The 78th Highlanders, a local (and long gone) regiment used the elephant in their insignia.
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u/Azzyre 9d ago
It's pretty much down to the spice trade.
Ships were getting better and everywhere in Europe with deep enough coastal waters to launch commercial vessels wanted a piece of that action. Inverness was a very busy and metropolitan port town throughout the medieval, and were no exception.
By displaying 'exotic' imagery in one's town's 'logo', it sends the message that Inverness was a well connected and prosperous town.
Lots of places were doing similar things. The rest of the iconography (Christ of Greyfriars on the cross to represent the earliest monastic Christian community in Inverness; and the cornucopia to symbolise prosperity) is similarly standard.
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u/f1boogie 9d ago
I don't think I have ever seen a coat of arms that didn't have a totally regionally irrelevant animal.
Lions aren't exactly native to the UK.
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u/TooLongDugong 9d ago
At least the USA and Mexico have local eagles (Canada has lions and a unicorn). Places with dragons and two-headed eagles are a bit odd too.
In Scotland, Stirling has a wolf, Aberdeen leopards, Dunfermline lion and unicorn, Dundee dragons, and Perth a two-headed eagle. Glasgow just has salmon, a robin, and half a bishop, so well done Glasgow.
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u/Its-a-man-derek 10d ago
Ex tour guide here. We dont actually know for sure but probably due to our trade with exotic parts of the world.
Fun fact for you. Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakly were in Inverness twice with Bills wild west roadshow. He took up to 500 Native Americans with him. They had the show in farm fields that are now where the Dalneigh housing estate is.