This site serves residents, visitors and guests of Franklin, North Carolina. The information here will be updated on a regular basis with announcements and other events happening in and around Franklin. Town hall meeting agendas & minutes, town sign & zoning ordinances, the GIS and other useful information can also be found here.

Franklin is a small mountain town surrounded by beautiful streams, waterfalls, mountains, hills and valleys. The people are friendly and organize lots of activities, including festivals and arts & crafts shows. There are plenty of trails for hiking and the views are breathtaking. There is also plenty of fishing, hunting, rafting and kayaking available. The Franklin area is the Gem Capitol of the World, try your hand at mining and you are bound to find many beautiful and sometimes very valuable stones.

Franklin is home to approximately 3,600 citizens, but the population nearly doubles during the spring, summer and fall seasons due to our temperate climate and beautiful scenery. Our geographical position enables us to enjoy cool summer nights and mild winters. With a healthy tourism industry and lots of local people taking an active roll in the community, there is always exciting activities and places to go. Visit the Franklin Main Street Program for more information.
 

Downtown Franklin to Host Two Major Festivals

Historic Downtown Franklin will see two major street festivals this year. The Franklin Folk Festival and a Taste of Scotland will both showcase the heritage of the area through music, demonstrations of mountain living and food.


A Taste of Scotland, 2008

On Fathers’ Day weekend Franklin North Carolina will be awash with the colors of authentic Scottish tartans, the aroma of Scottish food, and the dramatic music of drum and bagpipe bands. Franklin’s 12th annual Taste of Scotland Festival, always on Fathers’ Day weekend, will begin on Friday evening, June 13, with a Ceilidh at the gazebo on the square and live Scottish music and dance.

Saturday the 14th starting at 9am the streets will be alive with free continuous entertainment, including Celtic dance and music groups from Rose Creek Village, Tennessee, a parade led by John Mohr MacKintosh Pipes and Drums, Scottish clans, border collie demonstrations with Bill Coburn of Windy Knoll Farms, children’s games, and youth Highland wrestling with James Greene. Also featured will be sword fighting by the Society for Creative Anachronism, Franklin’s own piper Jean Hayes, Dunham Harps of Westerville, Ohio, the Braemoor Scottish Dancers, the Scottish Highland Dancers of Greenville, Nashville’s favorite Celtic Band Nosey Flynn, the Campbell Folk School’s Rural Felicity and Stix in the Mud music and dance group, and Scottish food and vendors. There will also be seminars on various aspects of Scottish heritage and history.

The Scottish Tartans Museum, the only one in the country, will be open all day for festival-goers to research their Scottish heritage and their clan tartan, tour the museum, and make purchases of authentic Scottish items. Closing ceremonies for the day will start at 4:30pm.

Sunday will feature a Kirkin’ o’ the Tartans ceremony at the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Franklin starting at 11am. During the Kirkin’ there will be a procession of Scottish tartans and a roll call of all clans represented.

At 1:30 on Sunday Walter Taylor and Carl McSween, historians with the Scottish Tartans Museum and Heritage Center in Franklin, will host a bus tour 15 miles south of Franklin to the Little Tennessee River Basin where Colonel Montgomery and his British forces, using Scottish regiments, attempted to rout the Cherokee and burn their villages in the 18th century. The skirmishes are audibly recreated at various points along the march. There will also be demonstrations of powder musket techniques and bag piping. The tour ends at the Nikwasi Indian Mound Historic Site in Franklin, where the Council House of the Middle Towns of the Cherokee stood. The tour will be $5 per person.

To purchase tickets for the Ceilidh or the Montgomery Tour, contact the Scottish Tartans Museum at 828.524.7472.

Come join the revelry and have a wee weekend fling in Franklin!

Further information about the festival and local overnight accommodations can be obtained by calling 888.563.9218 or by signing on to www.tasteofscotlandfestival.org.