Burning Cross

A burning cross is a popular icon used by the Klu Klux Klan and random, freelancing bigots for both ceremony and as a warning to potential victims. I read that Scottish clans once used a burning cross to summon clan members to battle. Is there any connection between the ancient and contempory use of a burning cross as an icon of or summons to action?

Such a connection has been claimed: apparently the man who introduced cross-burning into the KKK cited the Scottish custom as a precedent.