There is no doubt that the immigrants from Scotland and Ireland had a huge impact on our culture in Appalachia.

One of my wife Vicki’s favorite television series (mine too) in the last few years is “Outlander.” The show starts in Scotland but the characters end up in the Appalachian region of the United States.

Many of the thousands of immigrants from those two countries, as well as many others, ended up in places like Virginia (later West Virginia), Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina.

Little did they know, when they crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the 1700s and 1800s, what kind of influence they would eventually have on this region.

When they first arrived in the coastal regions, they found that the land was either too expensive or already taken and settled by others. So many of the quarter of a million pioneers from the British Isles would wind up in the hills and valleys of Appalachia.

The rich, fertile terrain probably reminded many of them of their homeland. The green mountains, the beautiful rivers and narrow valleys were like many parts of Scotland.

The mainland of Scotland is broadly divided into three regions: the Highlands, a mountainous region in the north and north-west; the Lowlands, a flatter plain across the center of the country; and the Southern Uplands, a hilly region along the southern border, according to Wikipedia.

So you can see by that description that our region of the U.S. could be inviting to those early settlers.

They followed migration routes such as the Great Wagon Road, establishing homesteads in present-day Appalachian states.

If you trace your family tree back far enough, many of us have a Scots-Irish bloodline. My dad always talked of our Irish ancestry and I am sure I had Scottish lineage on my mother’s side of the family too. I broke down and did the ancestry DNA test a couple of years ago just to make sure. I was not surprised that much of my roots came from those two countries in that region of Europe.

But getting back to the influences those early settlers had on this region of our country, the Scots-Irish’s strong religious beliefs had an influence on Appalachian culture. They established small, independent churches that served as both religious and community centers. This still seems familiar today in small, rural towns throughout the region.

One of the biggest contributions of the Scots-Irish culture is its music. The ballads and fiddle tunes brought from Ireland and Scotland evolved into what is now recognized as Appalachian folk and Bluegrass music. Many old folk songs and ballads come from those early ancestors.

Some towns even have Scottish names. For example, in West Virginia, there are Culloden, Aberdeen and Glasgow and in Kentucky, there are Aberdeen, Glasgow and Glencoe.

The early settlers who farmed brought those techniques and knowledge from their homeland in the early years. Even with the challenging landscape of the hilly terrain, they farmed and raised livestock such as cows and hogs to survive and feed their families.

Some of our food, like cornbread and other things, we still enjoy today. Scottish settlers also introduced methods of food preservation such as smoking and curing meats, which were essential for survival in the rural mountainous areas.

Many of the women often became accomplished herbalists, which helped with many home cures for sickness. They could also spice up food with some of the plants.

I always felt that people in our part of the country were clannish and independent. That kind of thinking was also handed down from those early settlers. The Scots-Irish were very independent. They had fought England for freedom and to own their own land before they sailed to this country. They played a major role in American military history. Many of the Scots fought in the Revolutionary War.

Of course, many of your surnames and first names come from these countries – way too many to mention.

Those early settlers from Scotland, Ireland and other areas of Europe became the dominant members of the population.

Even now, many towns in the Appalachian region have festivals dedicated to this heritage.

The legacy of the Scots-Irish in Appalachia is evident in the region’s values, traditions and social structure.

(Kyle Lovern is a longtime journalist in the Tug Valley. He is now a retired freelance writer and columnist for the Mountain Citizen.)