The Royal Arch degree is not native to Scotland, but seems to have been  introduced from both Irish and English sources, often Military Lodges,  towards the middle of the eighteenth century. The earliest reference to  the degree is at Stirling in 1743.  These Military Lodges introduced many other degrees beyond the  Craft, and when the regiments moved on, Lodges in the vicinity  sometimes continued to work them. This situation continued until the end  of the eighteenth century.  However, the early Secret Societies Acts caused the Grand  Lodge of Scotland, in 1800, to issue a warning to its Lodges against the  working of any degrees other than those of Entered Apprentice, Fellow  Craft and Master Mason.