Hailes or clacken is a Scottish ball game which dates to the 18th century and achieved its widest popularity in the nineteenth.

The clacken was used in the game of Hailes, though it had other uses. "All would be armed with clackans, wooden bats suitable for playing shinty, or hails or hitting other boys' heads" (from E. S. Haldane's Scotland of our Fathers, 1933). In recent years it survives only at the Edinburgh Academy, where it is used in an annual Hailes match of ...

Aug 22, 2023 · He said his form teacher would carry out relentless beatings on pupils using a wooden bat known as a clacken without reason. Mr Campbell said the teacher would smirk as he told pupils he would...

Mar 27, 2024 · John Brownlee regularly assaulted children with various implements including a wooden bat called a Clacken, a snooker cue and a golf club while he taught at the capital’s Edinburgh Academy.

All would be armed with “clackans,” wooden bats suitable for playing shinty or “hails,” or hitting other boys' heads. [For etym., see note to Clack, n.1 and v., and cf. Cleckinbrod.]

Sep 30, 2024 · Edinburgh Academy faced criticism earlier this year after posting photographs of some of these pupils carrying wooden “clacken” bats just a day after a former teacher was found in court to have...

Aug 19, 2022 · A former pupil of Edinburgh Academy has told the BBC that the school was "a cesspit of sadism and paedophilia". Kenneth said he was targeted for frequent, vicious beatings "usually with a sporting...

The Clacken The clacken , or "clackan", is described in the Scottish National Dictionary as "a wooden hand-bat or racquet used by boys at the Edinburgh Academy and Royal High School

Hailes or clacken is a Scottish ball game which dates to the 18th century and achieved its widest popularity in the nineteenth. It has now virtually died out, replaced by football, except at The Edinburgh Academy , where an exhibition match is played annually.

Mar 27, 2024 · John Brownlee regularly assaulted children with various implements including a wooden bat called a Clacken, a snooker cue and a golf club while he taught at the capital's Edinburgh Academy.