Some people think of fretted instruments as newcomers to traditional music in Scotland and Ireland.
The tenor banjo and mandolin started to appear around the beginning of the 20th century. The Greek bouzouki appeared in the 1960s, and quickly metamorphized into various types of citterns, blarges, octave mandolins, etc. Dr. Mick Moloney, noted Irish banjo player and musicologist, tells the history of the Irish banjo . Interestingly, one such instrument is found in the earliest records of Scottish music . Check out the contents of the Scottish lute MSS .