Wrapping the Braveheart kilt

[Benning Boy]

TRIGGER WARNING: Benning Boy presents ideas that may not be acceptable to those who think themselves traditionalists. If you are offended by ideas at variance with your beliefs, you may want to drop out.


I'm kinda going off on a tangent here, this sorta fits the topic, but is sorta off topic, too, but here goes.

Usually when searching for answers, the simplest answer turns out to be the correct one. The way of wrapping a blanket (plaid) shown at the Wilde Weavery site it the simplest answer to the question: How to wrap a great kilt?


The nine-yard great kilt seems to be a fairly recent invention. The required length, based on what I've learned through my readings, has only been firmly established since the arrival of the Internet. And, on the Internet much of the information about the 9-yard great kilt seems to be produced by people interested more in playing dress-up. I consider these claims specious.

Just as today, the length of tartan used to make the kilt probably was more in proportion to the size of the wearer, just enough to do the job, and no more. My guess is economy and efficiency were primary concerns. At no time has a 9-yard great kilt been either economical of efficient.

Today, nine yards of tartan would make a kilt for a very large fat man. It's almost a certainty that Highlanders of McBeths day were small fit men. Why on earth would they need nine yards of tartan for their great kilts. Even allowing for the use of the thing as a blanket at night, and a double layer of blanket at that, these men could probably have gotten away with four to 4.5 yards total length.

I suspect that a Highlander of McBeth's day wore whatever length he could afford, if indeed they wore anything kilt-ish at all, and most Highlanders of that day being poor, probably only wore a short "great Kilt" more in the fashion shown at the Wilde site.

Just a speculation, but if you spend enough on proper tartan today to construct a 9-yard great kilt, you will have spent quite a lot of money. No let's consider how prices have changed over the centuries. Going back just a little way, in 1873 you could buy a new Colt Single Action Army revolver with a $20 gold piece, containing almost exactly one ounce of gold. Over the years the price of the revolver really hasn't changed. It's always been one ounce of gold. Even today were you to buy a new Colt SAA, the price would be roughly the equivalent of one ounce of gold. Or put another wya, the equivalent of a common man's monthly wages. And today there are a whold lot of common folks in the USA who are doing well to earn a monthly wage matched by the price of one ounce of gold.

So just for argument's sake, let me say that the price of tartan has pretty much paralleled that of a Colt revolver -- and the price of other things, too -- If It's expensive to make a 9-yard great kilt in today's money, it was probably equivalently expensive in "old timey" money, or barter. Which says to me the Great Kilt, was probably only about half-great.

Just my imagination running loose here, but I can see how a great kilt might start out being fairly short, but as the wearer found the need, or acquired more tartan -- either purchased or woven at home -- he might add length to it. The early short wrap would almost certainly be wrapped as shown at the Wilde site, as it grew long the wrapping of it might become more complicated -- maybe.

Being that the great kilt is properly made of two pieces of single width cloth stitched together at the edges, I can even imagine a great kilt made of two different setts. Pieced together a great kilt might have more setts. I can think of no source who states this sort of thing did not happen, but neither are there sources that say it did happen. Conceivably, it could have happened.

It is declared at various online sites that the great kilt requires nine yard of tartan to make, no more, no less. And, it is said at these sites that is from the great kilt from which our expression "the whole nine yards" comes. Consider: linguistic authorities have said the expression comes from the world of tailoring, where nine yards of cloth are what is needed to make an average man's three-piece suit. A customer might tell a tailor he wanted the whole nine yards in his bespoke suite, meaning trousers, jacket and vest. Yet other authorities say that a nine yard long machine gun belt was all that cold be fitted into a World War One aircraft. A returning pilot, having run out of ammunition, would then say he gave them the whole nine yards.

There isn't a one good answer for the origin of the nine yard expression. It cannot conclusively be said to have originated in the Scottish Highlands, where English wasn't the first language anyway. I think a much shorter length of fabric put on as in the Wild site makes he most sense.

Consider what Calgacus says about Scottish mens clothes of McBeth's time probably being more like the Irish liene and brat. Looking at pictures of the day, it looks to me like the brat could have been worn in the style shown at the Wilde site. Just for pretend, let's say tartan is a form of camouflage, and that Scots in Brinam Wood were dressed in liene and brat. Now it is time to sneak up on Dunsinane. Would it have been helpful if they had pulled their brats about them much as shown at the Wilde site to further enhance the natural camouflage they carried before them?