Kilts in Aberdeen and Edinburgh?

[kilted scholar]

I did my PhD at Aberdeen, although it was thirty-five years ago. The student world is a little different and at that time it was not unusual to see a kilt on the campus on more or less a daily basis. Notice I say "a kilt" rather than "kilts". I cannot recall seeing a plurality of kilts on any one day. Perhaps I could add that the kilts I saw were not worn by the same person each time; it was not as if there was one kilt-wearer who wore the kilt almost every day and I happened to observe him. Rather, there was a variety of persons wearing the kilt, and on most days I would observe one of them so doing.

At church services it was different. Occasionally in the Church of Scotland one would observe a kilt; when I say occasionally it would be approximately once a month on average in a large congregation of several hundred. In the smaller Free Church of Scotland - a predominantly Highland denomination - it was much more frequent, on most Sundays. In fact, on some days there would be a generous plurality.

However, this was back in the late seventies.