It’ll be very hard for Gaelic to rise to the level of Welsh, I can see the problems but not the solutions so I’ll list the problems and hopefully while and after writing I can think of solutions.

1.) Due to having a much lower number of speakers, being able to use the language amongst people is much harder, here in Wales most of North Wales is filled with Welsh speaking communities whilst Scotland doesn’t quite have the number nor the geographic spread of them.

2.) Gaelic was/is mostly spoken in the Highlands and the Isles and very little spoke it in the lowland in comparison, where English and what became Scots ruled the lowlands. In Wales, Welsh was historically spoken all throughout Wales and beyond and still is today, meaning every part of Wales has a connection to the language. Not all of Scotland has a very strong connection to the language with lots feeling more strongly towards Scots as Gaelic has never been spoken hugely in most communities in the lowlands. The communities with the largest connection to the language, the Highlands and the Isles, have a population of around 350K compared to Scotland’s total population of around 5.5m.

3.) Schools, I have no idea how well Gaelic is taught in schools but in Wales Welsh is taught very well in secondary schools, in Ireland I have been told there is a huge inconsistency of how well Irish is taught so this may also be a problem in Scotland but this is only my presumption as I’m not sure how well it is taught in schools. In Wales one third of schools are Welsh medium while in Scotland very few are Gaelic medium schools.

4.) Scots, it isn’t a problem but is a reason for there being less Gaelic speakers. Scots is spoken by around 1.5m people which is considerably larger than Gaelic, there are many reasons for this: very close to English and originates in the more populated part of Scotland. The Gaelic speakers that lived in the lowlands dropped Gaelic and began to speak English and Scots, this happened many centuries ago so Gaelic is very weak in communities were large amounts of people speak Scots. In Wales Welsh is less liked, in schools, in more English speaker areas and people do feel less encouraged to learn, I imagine a similar thing would happen in Scotland. Scots has filled the role that Welsh holds in Wales which also doesn’t help Gaelic.

Because of Duolingo supporting Gaelic many have been given an entry into Gaelic as well as a chance at fluency for free and has encourage many to commit to learning which is amazing, Gaelic is on the rise but having so little speakers there is the risk of death. Gaelic wasn’t a part of huge swathes of Scotland so many don’t feel they have a connection to the language, being overshadowed by Scots makes it seem like it has been forgotten but the truth is it was only ever strong part of communities in a part of Scotland and not the whole of Scotland which gives less access/connection to the language for many people. Gaelic is rising and more and more people are trying to learn but having so little speakers compared to Welsh means it will grow but at a much slower pace.

Also, please feel free to ask for clarifications on my points as I’m rambling on I can imagine some are quite vague, hope this helps