Caledonia Place

Caledonia Place in Highlands Park was formed and named by 1979, the same year the new suburb started to appear on city maps. Development had begun five years earlier, by Auckland-based Parkdale Development Limited, but the suburb’s original name, Tableland, was soon changed to Highlands Park. This opened the way for most of the streets in the area to be named after places in Scotland.

Caledonia was a Latin name used during the time of the Roman Empire to refer to Scotland itself. It comes from an even older Celtic word “Caledones” meaning “hard feet”, a reference to the local tribes’ reputation for toughness and endurance. When the country’s name eventually changed to Scotland, derived from the Latin “Scoti” referring to Gaelic-speaking pirates, Caledonia remained in use as a romantic or poetic term for the nation.

Although the majority of Scottish migrants to Aotearoa settled in the South Island rather than the North, by 1878 nearly 8% of the population of Taranaki County had been born in Scotland, a number which rose to more than 16% in Pātea. This explains why Taranaki’s first Caledonian Society was formed in Pātea (then known as Carlyle) in January 1878. Its inaugural meeting was even held at the Albion Hotel, which took its name from the Scottish Gaelic word for Scotland.

Caledonian Societies were established across the British Empire and beyond by Scottish emigrants to celebrate cultural imports like Highland dancing and piping. They also held so-called Caledonian games which combined traditional athletic competitions like running and cycling with more rural pursuits like wood chopping and specifically Scottish activities such as tossing the caber. Before long New Plymouth, Hāwera, Stratford, Waitara, Opunake, Eltham, Inglewood and even Kaponga all had their own Caledonian Societies.

None of Taranaki’s Caledonian Societies remain active, and these days less than half a per cent of the region’s population were born in Scotland, but the Taranaki Caledonian Pipe Band and Highland Dancing Association are still going strong.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.