Probably when I was about 6 or 7.

Growing up in the industrial North, about mid way between Manchester and Liverpool about 1/3 of my classmates had obvious Scottish or Irish surnames, including a MacNab, a MacNaughten, a McKershaw, a MacMasters, a Monighan, a Ross, a Baxter and a couple of Websters. Even those without such an obvious connection seamed to have a Scottish or Irish granny (or both) tucked away somewhere. Our class teacher explored some of this heritage, we learned about history, some dialect differences and were encouraged to find out about our own heritage and bring in items from home with some connection with Scotland or Ireland (which in most cases involved begging or borrowing something from granny).

This was reinforced by work trips with my dad to Glasgow (one of his colleagues gave me a clan map of Scotland which was one of my prized possessions as a kid) and family fishing trips to Loch Ken. Of course when Scotland qualified for the 1978 world cup (and England didn't) I was more than happy to join the "...march with Ally's army" and was over the moon when my dad turned up at the school gates with a Scotland shirt for me. I was 10 at time. The rest as they say...

That said we knew a lot about the Scottish connection on my dad's side - but only recently discovered a connection a couple of generations back on my mother's side. Oddly enough this is to the same town as my paternal Gr. Mother is from. Whilst this link clearly had been forgotten it perhaps explains a couple of things like the family tradition on my mum's side for page boys to wear kilts at weddings and that since my uncles were small boys they always went on fishing trips to Loch Ken (close to Castle Douglas were my Gr, Gr Grandparents were from). It might also explain all the red hair on my mum's side!!

I first wore a kilt in 1998 with strong encouragement from my girlfriend at the time. She was studying at the Royal Agricultural College and they had a number of formal balls during the year. Having seen a lot of kilts on show she "leaned on" me to embrace my heritage - her trump card was as I am qualified to play rugby for Scotland (although sadly not good enough), I am Scottish enough to wear a kilt. Fair enough - so I hired one and loved it - never looked back, especially as I look like I should be working the door when I'm in a DJ/Tux. My parents gave me the money for my first kilt (and jacket etc) when I qualified as a lawyer a couple of years later.