DC Dalgliesh

[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/