Kilted US expat in Scotland needing advice

[SoulFyre777]

I might have guessed Jock Scot would be first to respond. Your level head and kind encouragement has been a staple to my kilted journey right back to the beginning. Thank you, sir!

Lots of great advice all around. One thing that I think has jaded the way I see wearing the kilt in Scotland are the tourists where I come from in Nashville, Tennessee. While it is the Home of Country Music with images of cowboy boots, Wrangler jeans, and big cowboy hats, the running joke there is that if someone passes by in a cowboy hat in Nashville, the locals turn to each other with a knowing glance, a shake of the head, and mumble “…tourist”.

Every time I’m on the Royal Mile, I see a handful of tourists wearing their newly purchased acrylic wool kilts (a shocking number even wearing them backwards). As someone who is “local” now, I seem even more aware of how they stick out like a sore thumb and I can’t help but feel reticent to add to the image of “out-of-towners” chasing a fantasy of Scotland.

For the record, I say all of that with not a small degree of empathy for these tourists. My first stop in Edinburgh the first time I visited in 2007 was one of the gaudy shops on Princes Street (“Pride of Scotland”, I think it was). I was just as wide-eyed and naive as any I see today — if not more so. So my tendency is to encourage (and maybe gently guide) folks when I can because it’s what I wish someone had done for me.

Anyway, thinking about this, I realise that the cowboy boots of Nashville and the kilts of Scotland are similar in some ways, but there are plenty of ways they are different. I appreciate the suggestions to wear the kilt in non-touristy areas. I think that’s what I will likely do.

For those from Scotland, though, what are your thoughts if you were to encounter someone in Scotland wearing a kilt and then hear them speak in the unmistakeable American accent? I tend to assume there would be some shaking of the head — just as in Nashville with cowboy hats — but maybe that isn’t typically the case. My experience is that the Scots really seem to be much better at avoiding judging people than many US Southerners I’ve known. ;)