Preserving and celebrating Scottish (Gaelic) culture in Prince Edward Island since 1835
About Us
the Caledonian Club of PEI
☼ Glenaladale Estate, Tracadie Cross, PEI
Greetings from the President
Jason MacGregor, CD, MA, BA
President, Caledonian Club of Prince Edward Island
The Executive and I are delighted to welcome you to the Caledonian Club of Prince Edward Island. Our mandate is to preserve and celebrate Gaelic — Scottish — culture on PEI, and I believe that work has never been more important.
We live in a remarkable age of connection. We can speak to someone on the other side of the world instantly, yet many young people are experiencing profound loneliness and searching for deeper, more meaningful connections. Our parents and grandparents often found their connection to Scottish culture through family, church, community gatherings, Highland Games, music and local traditions.
Those connections look different today. Young Islanders live in a very different world, and if we want Scottish culture to remain meaningful, we need to evolve how we share it — making space for new voices, new ideas and new ways of participating.
That is the challenge — and the opportunity — for the Caledonian Club. Our goal is not simply to preserve what came before, but to build something that younger generations can make their own. We want to connect people with Scotland, with PEI and with each other through music, dance, history, genealogy, events and shared experiences.
Gaelic culture is more than a connection to Scotland. It is our music and dance, our stories and traditions, our family histories, our sense of place and the ways we come together as a community. It is part of what makes PEI unique, and it deserves to be celebrated as a living culture.
Our past gives us something to be proud of. Our job now is to make sure it has a future. I hope you'll explore the Club, join us at an event, become a member and help us write the next chapter.
A Long Legacy
For over 190 years, the Caledonian Club has been part of the story of Scottish culture on Prince Edward Island. The Club traces its operations back to 1835 when its tartan was registered, but it is believed to predate that date. In 1864, during the tenure as Club President of Colonel John Hamilton Gray, PEI Premier and a Father of Confederation, the Club organized what is believed to be Canada’s first Highland Games. It has continued to bring Islanders together around Celtic music, dance, heritage and community.
From annual gatherings and Highland traditions to concerts and cultural celebrations, we have continually found new ways to share a culture that has been part of PEI since the arrival of our first Scottish settlers.
Sometimes that legacy turns up in unexpected places. If you've ever found a copy of The Prince Edward Island Fiddlers, produced by the Club in 1993, while browsing a thrift shop, you've found a little piece of Island cultural history. Recordings like this helped carry PEI's distinctive fiddle tradition beyond our shores and into the wider Celtic world, showcasing the Island as a place of extraordinary music and performance.
Today, that spirit continues through our Scotland Travel Grant, which gives Islanders aged 18 and over the opportunity to travel to Scotland, explore their heritage and experience contemporary Gaelic culture firsthand.
The Club now has a new home at Glenaladale Estate — a place with its own extraordinary Scottish story.
Glenaladale Estate
In 2026, the Caledonian Club began a new chapter at Glenaladale Estate — a place whose story is deeply woven into the history of Scottish settlement on Prince Edward Island.
In 1772, Captain John MacDonald, 8th Laird of Glenaladale and 7th Laird of Glenfinnan, brought 210 Scottish Catholic settlers to what was then St. John’s Island. Many relatives and friends followed in later years, and the people connected to Glenaladale would go on to shape communities across PEI and, through the Island’s diaspora, far beyond its shores.
For thousands of Islanders — and people around the world — Glenaladale is more than a historic estate. It is a place where family histories, migration stories and connections to Scotland come together. The Estate has been home to generations of MacDonalds and MacKinnons, while its wider story encompasses Scottish, Irish, Acadian and Mi’kmaq histories. Today, its 530 acres are being renewed as a place where people can experience, learn and connect with the past while imagining what comes next.
It is fitting, then, that the Caledonian Club now calls Glenaladale home. We host our monthly member socials and key Club events here, while our Executive maintains an office at the Estate. Our presence is part of Glenaladale’s continuing story — creating a place where it can be shared, experienced and carried forward by new generations.
Glenaladale has always been about people, place and connection. For the Caledonian Club, it offers a home for all three. Our history brought us here. Our future will be shaped here.