DC Dalgliesh

[Troglodyte]

I found most shops near/around the Royal Mile were just tourist traps. There are some gems though.

There was a time when the Highland dress outfitters on the Royal Mile and around about were as good as anywhere, but those who like to prey on tourists' eagerness soon moved in with their 'tartan tat' and spoiled it all.

Princes Street was home to the large department stores selling superb quality goods, like Jenners, but these too have have lost out to cheap imports and changing ways. Edinburgh is no longer the city it once was.

For 'real' Highand dress and 'proper' outfitters, the visitor needs to get out into the wilds - like Stirling for Hendersons, or Pitlochry where Macnaughtans (shopping as it should be - since 1835 is their claim) still gives the buyer an experience of the good old days.

Maccalls and Alex Scott in Aberdeen, or Houstons in Paisley (not to mention all the others spread across Scotland) are genuine outfitters in the old style, with on-site tailoring, but none of these are really convenient for those basing themselves in Edinburgh. The kiltmakers in Grantown-on-Spey or Tarland and other remote or rural locations need the trade much more than those on the Royal Mile.

Perhaps we need to organise a coach-tour holiday for keen kilties, doing the 'tartan trail' like people do with the whisky trail. Any takers..?

[Jock Scot]

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For 'real' Higland dress and 'proper' outfitters, the visitor needs to get out into the wilds ----------

Perhaps we need to organise a coach-tour holiday for keen kilties, doing the 'tartan trail' like people do with the whisky trail. Any takers..?

Oh no! Perish the thought! I spend far too much of my time talking tartans and kilts already! The thought of being trapped in a bus for mile after mile after .......... talking about even more tartans and kilts, really does not appeal!!

[AustinDiver]

I just finished a Rick Steves tour in France. I am tired of being trapped in a bus being forced to listen to never
ending talks. Rick Steves is better than most.

The worst was a Holland American excursion out of Invengordon.
She was just making stuff up.

[spr0k3t]

Oh no! Perish the thought! I spend far too much of my time talking tartans and kilts already! The thought of being trapped in a bus for mile after mile after .......... talking about even more tartans and kilts, really does not appeal!!

You're right Jock... I'd be on that bus as well.

[Troglodyte]

Oh no! Perish the thought! I spend far too much of my time talking tartans and kilts already! The thought of being trapped in a bus for mile after mile after .......... talking about even more tartans and kilts, really does not appeal!!

I don't think we'd qualify to be part of the coach-tour party anyway. Too close to home and all that.

But we could wave and cheer them on their way as they passed by.

[Jock Scot]

They might be wanting a brace of interpreters? Well....speaking for one posibility, basic rustic English AND, there is a local tartan expert who might have a spare second or two available?

[OC Richard]

There was a time when the Highland dress outfitters on the Royal Mile and around about were as good as anywhere...

My first visit to Edinburgh was in 1986 and there were a number of legit Highland Dress shops at that time.

Each subsequent visit has seen the tatting-down of the Royal Mile. Last August the only legit shop was Geoffrey Tailor, a couple people on computer and phone doing online sales and phoned-in hires in a first-storey storage-closet sort of place, not like a normal retail establishment.

For 'real' Highand dress and 'proper' outfitters, the visitor needs to get out into the wilds - like Stirling for Hendersons, or Pitlochry where MacNaughtons (shopping as it should be - since 1835 is their claim) still gives the buyer an experience of the good old days.

Maccalls and Alex Scott in Aberdeen, or Houstons in Paisley (not to mention all the others spread across Scotland) are genuine outfitters in the old style, with on-site tailoring, but none of these are really convenient for those basing themselves in Edinburgh. The kiltmakers in Grantown-on-Spey or Tarland and other remote or rural locations need the trade much more than those on the Royal Mile.

Thanks for that list of must-see shops!

My wife and I did visit MacNaughtons in Pitlochry in 1986 and had a lovely tea with Blair MacNaughton and his wife.

Our other attempts failed- we arrived in Inverness only to discover the city shut down for a Bank Holiday, and found Blairgowrie also shuttered, except for the pub, due to us arriving at 5pm.

I had wanted to visit Piob Mhor but that was not to be. (They had acquired Nicoll Brothers three years earlier, and were at the height of their pipemaking era.)

Perhaps we need to organise a coach-tour holiday for keen kilties, doing the 'tartan trail' like people do with the whisky trail. Any takers..?

Yes! Count me in! A kilt-centric Rabbie's Tours!

(BTW here's my kilt-shop experiences in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Kilmarnock August 2024)

https://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/...-2024-a-98897/

[jsrnephdoc]

My first visit to Edinburgh was in 1986 and there were a number of legit Highland Dress shops at that time.

Each subsequent visit has seen the tatting-down of the Royal Mile. Last August the only legit shop was Geoffrey Tailor, a couple people on computer and phone doing online sales and phoned-in hires in a first-storey storage-closet sort of place, not like a normal retail establishment.

Perhaps I'm very lucky. Just about 2 months ago I received my "Lunar" (Barb Tewksbury's approved modification, with no brown stripe because "there's no brown on the moon") tartan kilt made with fabric woven by DC Dalgliesh. I'm sufficiently new at all this that I can't judge the fabric myself nor even attest to the nature or quality of the selvage (or even spell that word without help), but I really LIKE the garment.

But more on topic, when one lists tourist trap retailers on the Royal Mile, where would Gordon Nicoloson sit on that spectrum? I ask because my wife is infatuated with "The Nursing Tartan" (woven as a restricted tartan by Lochcarron, with completed products sole ONLY by Nicolson, and NONE of those permitted to be kilts. The notion is that every product sold by Nicolson from the fabric includes an (unspecified, I think) contribution to the Scottish National Health Service). When I first saw the fabric in summer 2023 at Lochcarron, I was able to communicate by email with the listed registrant of the tartan (a NHS nurse) who told me that kilts were "not yet" permitted. Indeed, NO garments other than sashes and scarves were, but a few months ago I found a pair of "ex hire" Trews on the Gordon Nicolson website, which seemed to flaunt those restrictions. Now, I'm waiting for a new weaving, after which Dr. Tewksbury will supposedly have access to fabric to make a kilt for my spouse, but Nicolson seems to have been rather uncommunicative about just when the fabric will be available. I'm told they maintain a "kilt making academy," but now I'm wondering whether perhaps they should be treated with the same suspicion as other tourist trap establishments. When we visited Edinburgh in 2023 I did not set foot in their store although we walked by it several times.

Comments?

[User]

I'm sorry to hear they've closed down. I never purchased from them. But I heard they were the best if you wanted a short custom run of tartan.

[OC Richard]

Gordon Nicoloson Royal Mile

My bad! I just forgot.