DESPITE SUGGESTIONS TO the contrary in Braveheart, the kilt is not the timeless, ancestral dress of all Scotsmen. Before it was enshrined as part of Scottish national dress in the 19th century, it divided opinion across the country. The majority Lowland population tended to think of it as barbaric, calling its bare-legged wearers ‘redshanks’, while Highlanders in turn saw trousers as ‘unmanly’.
PHOTOGRAPH: ALEX CATEDRAL
The wearing of kilts in Scotland was banned after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745; until the ban was lifted later that century, the penalty was six months’ imprisonment if caught, while repeat offenders would get seven years’ transportation to the colonies. The kilt’s return to official favour came in 1822, when King George IV paid the first visit to Scotland by a reigning British monarch in almost two centuries. The much-caricatured king was encouraged by the Romantic writer Sir Walter Scott to wear a kilt – although the skin-coloured tights he paired it with were a departure from Highland custom.