Wool Kilts and Rain

[Andrew Breecher]

...the author...proclaims blue jeans as "The Trousers Of Death" and tells you that if you're not wearing wool pants out there in the outback, you will most certainly freeze to death and die of exposure.

The hiking community always says, "cotton kills," though if it's the middle of summer and you're not on top of a mountain you'll just be miserable, not dead. Modern fabrics like polypro wick moisture away from your skin, and keep you warm even when they're wet - just as wool does. The advantage to modern materials is that they dry extremely quickly. If I wear my poly/viscose kilt through a thunderstorm (or ford a waist-deep river in it, which I've done many times) it will be dry an hour after the rain ends, just from wearing it. Even when wet it keeps me warm. I'm sure wool would do the same, though I've never been caught out in a downpour while wearing a wool kilt.

Remember that it rains a little bit in Scotland, and the old Scots thought the kilt was a fine garment to wear every day.

Andrew.

[Thunderbolt]

A few years ago, the lightbulb went off in my head.

I was in Scotland, on the isle of Mull doing some hiking. Not in a kilt. When I got back to the B&B, I was soaked from the head down from the rain, and from the feet up from the heather and dew. It was obvious as to why the kilt was made the way it was and that I needed one.

A few years after that, my wife and I were at an opening ceremony in the Pacific Northwest. It was cold, rainy and windy. I choose to wear my great kilt, for whatever reason. Glad I did. After about an hour, most everyone had left. I had the top part of my kilt wrapped around me and my wife, all snug!

I've spent a lot of time in the wet with a kilt. Being a piper, many times moving out of the rain isn't an option.

Most of the time, I get home, lay the kilt out flat, such as a spare bed with towels under it or along an ironing board, and let it dry overnight. It's always been just fine.

YMMV, but this is what I do.

T.