Claymore

The claymore (Scottish Gaelic claidheamh mòr "great sword") is a Scottish variant of the medieval long sword: a two-handed sword with a long, straight, double-edged blade and cross hilt. It was in common use from about 1400 until the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689.

Characteristics of the usual hilt style include a wheel pommel often capped by a crescent-shaped nut and a guard with straight, down-sloping arms ending in quatrefoils and langets running down the center of the blade from the guard. Another common style of two-handed claymore was the "clamshell hilted" claymore, which had a crossguard consisting of two downward-curving arms and two large, round, concave plates that protected the foregrip. It was so named because the round guards resembled an open clam.

Some of these blades would later be cut down and reused as the basis for the basket-hilted claymore, a single-handed broadsword of the Scottish Highlands.

This venerable weapon ultimately lent its name to the M18 Claymore mine.

Names in other languages

 * Scottish Gaelic: claidheamh mór, claidheamh da lamh
 * Czech: šaršoun
 * Russian: кле́ймор klе́jmor, клэймор kläjmor
 * Ukrainian: кле́ймор klе́jmor
 * Serbian: клејмор kleymor
 * Lithuanian: kleimoras
 * Hebrew: קלאימור klaymur
 * Thai: เคลย์มอร์ khleymor
 * Chinese: 蘇格蘭闊刃大劍 Sūgélán kuòrèndàjiàn "Scotland broad blade great sword"
 * Japanese: クレイモア kureimoa
 * Korean: 클레이모어 (MCR) keulleyimoe (Yale) keulleimoeo