Soaking kilt at Dumbarton

**Jimmy** · 23rd May 11, 01:30 AM

I went to the Scottish Pipe Band Championship at Dumbarton last Saturday.
Unfortunately I and friends did only stay for a few short minutes.
The rain was relentless, it did not stop all day and continued into Sunday morning.
What can be a beautiful setting became a mud bath and certainly was not a day for the kilt.
We had booked bed and breakfast at an hotel in Arrochar, about 20 odd miles from Dumbarton, so shortly after 3pm we headed there.
In all my years in wearing a kilt, I have never been so wet as I was last Saturday, we were drenched again as we made 15 minute walk from our hotel to the restaurant we had booked for a evening meal.
Can I say hear that I do not own a cape or coat that is suitable to cover the kilt.
So Saturday afternoon,evening and Sunday was not very pleasant with only a damp and wet kilt to wear.

Sunday evening was spent carefully restoring the pleats in my kilt.
One thing is for certain, the kilt is not for everyday wear in Scotland when we have a climate like ours

**robbiethepiper** · 23rd May 11, 01:48 AM

The"Bandspec" capes are standard issue for pipebands for exactly this reason. They are cheap, reliable and practical. 1000 pipers can't all be wrong!....Robbie

**Jock Scot** · 23rd May 11, 02:16 AM

Originally Posted by robbiethepiper

The"Bandspec" capes are standard issue for pipebands for exactly this reason. They are cheap, reliable and practical. 1000 pipers can't all be wrong!....Robbie

I agree and I am not a piper.

**cessna152towser** · 23rd May 11, 03:32 AM

Since my friend whom I had planned to meet at Dumbarton had to call off, and there had been no response on xmarks to my suggestion of a kilt meet at the Pipe Band Championships in Dumbarton I decided to give it a miss this year and went to Carlisle instead on Saturday to see a couple of steam hauled excursion trains.
I am so glad I didn't go to Dumbarton, it would have been disappointing to travel over 100 miles each way only to get soaked and set off for home soon after arriving.

**Horwood & Shaw** · 23rd May 11, 03:43 AM

Yes it was a cold and wet day but the piping was fantastic and really worth staying for. If you were there you will have noticed that almost everyone had capes on. You can't beat the Bandspec capes form Mr Anthony they are excellent. I stood in the rain from 10am to 6pm and my tweed kilt and jacket were completely dry. The right garments will always make the weather irrelevant!

**Jimmy** · 23rd May 11, 04:19 AM

Alex, you would have been disappointed, the attendance was as miserable as the weather, how they could make good judgement on the bands in weather like that, beats me, everything was against any band performing at their best.
As you know, Levengrove Park, like last year when the sun shone is a great scenic venue due to its position beside the castle and on the Clyde but on Saturday it was anything but.
I don't know anything about the winners as we left to watch the Scottish Cup Final up in Arrochar ( Watching sitting down on a drookit kilt is not to be recommended). There seems to be little or no reporting in most of the Sunday newspapers which is quite shocking for such a major event

**Zardoz** · 23rd May 11, 07:36 AM

It's things like that that make me glad we have the Houston games at a location where everthing can be moved under cover if nessesary!
Also why I keep an umbrella and a couple of Dollar Store plastic 'rain ponchos' in my car all the time.

**Burly Brute** · 23rd May 11, 09:53 AM

Originally Posted by Zardoz

It's things like that that make me glad we have the Houston games at a location where everthing can be moved under cover if nessesary!
Also why I keep an umbrella and a couple of Dollar Store plastic 'rain ponchos' in my car all the time.

Over here we dont have to worry because it rains maybe once every 283 days, and a sprinkle at that!!! HA!

**MacRobert's Reply** · 23rd May 11, 10:11 AM

The rain is lashing down and winds are currently gusting to 100 miles per hour but there is no bad weather in Scotland, just bad waterproofs.

Pipers' waterproof Inverness capes are to be recommended. They are cheep and really waterproof but, given the wind, have many of the same characteristics as a square-rigged clipper ship in full sail.

**Jimmy** · 24th May 11, 01:06 AM

Originally Posted by Horwood & Shaw

Yes it was a cold and wet day but the piping was fantastic and really worth staying for. If you were there you will have noticed that almost everyone had capes on. You can't beat the Bandspec capes form Mr Anthony they are excellent. I stood in the rain from 10am to 6pm and my tweed kilt and jacket were completely dry. The right garments will always make the weather irrelevant!

I think the attraction of the Scottish Cup Final in a pub with a pint of lager won me over, I really was annoyed that the weather was so bad as so much work and effort goes in to make this a successful day, the organisers always deserve good weather.
I still have not found out who the winners were, there is really bad newspaper reporting on this event!