Wearing the kilt in Scotland

[S Mitchell]

...But it does help the visitor, I think, to be aware of local feelings and temper their undoubted enthusiasm just a tad, or to be prepared to shift position when prudent. This is where these realistic discussions are so helpful, I think.

Well, not for nothing, kilted or not, Americans generally might do well to tamper their enthusiasm a tad when abroad. I've never been to Scotland, but I've been to Greece and England and I've seen Americans get the arch eye just for being American.

Enthusiasm is sort of a part of our national character!

I don't know whether I'd wear my kilt in Scotland. Maybe - I don't mind looking the tourist. But, I'd want to wear it well, so I'd at least look like a courteous, thoughtful tourist wearing a kilt for no discernible reason.

I really do appreciate these discussions.

[MacCathmhaoil]

Interesting, a significant amount of the advertising for Scottish tourism is based upon the notion of the far flung Scot's returning to their home land. Wonder how the diaspora would find the mind set regarding who is and who isn't Scottish and whether it would have an impact on tourism?

[CeilidhDoc]

How I almost got my @$$ handed to me on a plate and my jaw wired shut wearing the kilt in St. Andrews


or


Why I will never wear my kilt any way other than regimental


by CeilidhDoc


Warning: This post is a bit long-winded by necessity.


Since it relates to the discussion at hand and since I also said I would, I am going to use a personal anecdote to highlight potential pitfalls of wearing the kilt in Scotland. I actually would encourage those on this forum to do so if they have the opportunity but they should do so with full disclosure so here goes.


I have been following this thread for a while but only recently really joined in the discussion and I hesitated to include this story because it is a bit dated. However, it may have renewed relevance due to the upcoming vote (which we won’t discuss at all but I think many will see parallels between the upcoming vote and the scenario I am about to describe… which is what tipped me over to including this story for people to discuss).


At this point it is something I can look back on and laugh, but on the night this occurred I very narrowly escaped a really bad situation so let me start by setting the scene.


I attended St. Andrews University in the Fall-Winter of 1995-1996 as a semester abroad while I was in what Americans would call college. I cant believe this was almost 20 years ago but the facts are the facts.


Those who are extreme movie buffs may realize that this coincides exactly with not only the Mad Cow disease outbreak, but also with the premiere of the movie Braveheart in Scotland. While it was there already, the movie Braveheart had the effect of feeding a lot of anti-English sentiment amongst what I could only describe as disaffected youth in the university town of St. Andrews.


Even before the release of the movie the semester I was there I was aware of two American students who had been sent back to the states early with their jaws wired shut after having the $h!T kicked out of them by none other than roving bands of bored and angry drunk high school students. When we went out at night to pub crawl the foreign students at St. Andrews had to be a bit careful of the routes we took or else we risked falling victim to the same fate. While I can’t pretend to understand the motivation for these acts, my impression was that some of the locals felt disenfranchised by the system in that they themselves were not going to make it to St. Andrews and why on Earth should some foreigner be able to wen I can’t myself here in my homeland… or something similar to that effect.


Then enter Braveheart. Now these same roving bands of drunk high school kids had fuel for the fire and it worked something like this: If they were a little drunk, then they wanted to kick anyone’s @$$ who was English. If they were a lot drunk, then they just wanted to kick the @$$ of anybody who was not Scottish. Often these groups of kids numbered 10-20, so 1 or 2 uni students didn’t stand a chance against them even though the high school kids were younger.


And what was worse, these dunk kids were by no means stupid. In fact, they were rather crafty. When they were looking for a fight, they had a brilliant way of finding one. The setup went like this: 2 of the 10-20 kids would hang out on a street corner and pretend to be doing nothing passing the time, having a cigarette or something. All of their mates would be around the corner and either hidden or apparently unrelated to the 2 guys on the corner, but of course this was the intended illusion. When somebody walked by, they would nonchalantly ask them what time it was. And then they could assess if they were going to send them to (the) hospital or not. Because when they asked you the time, they did not care about the time. They cared about your accent. And if they were a little drunk they would beat you up if that accent was English. And if they were a lot drunk they would beat you up if you were anything other than Scottish.


So this was one of the more negative parts of the atmosphere in St. Andrews at the time I attended. In general it was not a common occurrence, but it was known to happen. An the unlucky people they beat up were hurt really bad. Broken jaws with surgery, missing an entire semester of uni as a result, etc.


Well, when you attend St. Andrews, there are a lot of ceilidh dances. And going to one in a saxon tuxedo was sort of frowned upon, so most who did not own a kilt would rent one for the events. And these were big events, so when the occurred sometimes hundreds of kilted men would be walking the streets to the event and then back home afterwards. This would have been a dead giveaway to these groups of angry local high school kids that there were many foreigners wearing the kilt out and about, which of course would mean from there perspective it was a perfect night to find someone to rough up.


Now enter me. My first kilt from Kirkwynd Highland House in St. Andrews is still on order and I am still renting kilts for these events. I attended every one I possibly could and had a great time. It is for this reason that my screen name here at XMTS is CeilidhDoc.


But on one fateful night I was on my way to a ceilidh dance with one of my American friends of MacDonald Scottish ancestry (in other words, if you are American, he was Scottish, and if you are Scottish, then he was American, lol). We had each rented our clan tartans (in my case, Lamont—which as an aside is the first tartan ever registered, but I digress) and were looking quite smart. We had a few drinks before leaving New Hall to walk into town and spent the entire walk talking about what lasses we hoped would be there. Typical guy stuff.


Anyway, about 5 blocks from the ceilidh, we were on the street and it was a bit foggy out, and pitch black dark except for the street lights. And we just so happened to have been walking down one of the streets in town at a time where we were essentially the only ones on the street because we were arriving to the ceilidh a bit late… that is, until we saw the two guys on the corner across the street leaning against the lamp post. At about the time I saw them and hoped that they would ignore us, one of them yelled across the street in his drunken Scottish accent and said:


“Are you true Scotsmen?!!”


The word that crossed my mind at that moment starts with the same letter as fudge and rhymes with duck. Visions of how I would explain to my friends at home how I got my @$$ kicked in by high school kids floated through my mind.


I knew I could not answer them out loud. I cannot fake a Scottish accent to a Scot. And this guy sounded drunk and angry. His question was clearly indicating that were I not to have been born on Scottish soil, then I had no business wearing the kilt in his view. I had to think fast. I looked at my friend and neither of us dared to speak for fear of our American accents being heard. And then I decided to gamble with the only option I had to attempt to prove myself to be Scottish but also to not utter a word which would have clearly given me away. But it was risky, because I mght just offend him and give him another reason to beat me up.


I turned around, pulled up my kilt, and mooned the guy, showing that I wore it like a “true Scotsman.”


Luckily for me, this satisfied him, and we were on our way, with my ghillie shoe metal heel caps clicking all the way down the cobblestone streets in St. Andrews, now somewhat more rapid than I had previously been walking.


So that is why I now always wear the kilt regimental without exception. If I had worn anything under my kilt that night it would not have been an option and I am 100% positive that my friend and I would have ended up in (the) hospital.


The lesson I am trying to impart here is that it pays to understand the political climate into which one is venturing when wearing the kilt in Scotland. I have not been back since that semester at St. Andrews, but in truth I miss it every day. However, given the election coming up in September, I would imagine that the same thing could be happening in some places and I would leave this tale as a small word of caution to be smart about how one presents themselves and to whom.


But despite this, I would recommend wearing the kilt in Scotland to anyone on the XMTS forum. It was satisfying to the core of my soul.


Slàinte

[Jordan]

Thanks for that post. That's very interesting if not plesent reading about my fellow countrymen, St Andrews is not that far from me and I've never heard of anything like that happening before. I don't think we had problems like that when Braveheart came out (although 96 was before my time in the Secondary school) and I thankfully haven't heard anything like that with regards to the vote which we must not discuss.

[kilttrip]

As I think I have said somewhere here before, I have only ever seen one of that style(I don't know if it was a utilikilt though) in the wild and in all honesty whilst I did not laugh in front of the owner, I did however, when driving home. Let just say that I was not impressed. Others in Scotland may take a different view of course, but actions appear to speak louder than words by the very fact and to say the very least they are not a common sight here.

One needs to also bear in mind that until very recently(in my lifetime) the kilt-----of any kind----was ridiculed by many in the lowlands and there are still parts of Scotland where I would not venture when wearing the kilt, even now, so goodness only knows what they would think of a utilikilt!

Thank you very much, Jock Scot == the Utilikilt will Definitely stay home!!

[kilttrip]

I've worn a kilt a number of times in Iowa -- Cedar Falls and Wright County (Clarion & Dows, where my family is from) -- and I never had any problems with it. ;-)

Kilttrip, you mentioned you're south of Mason City -- whereabouts? My fiancée and I were just through Mason City on our way back to her hometown in MN, just west of the Cities.

T.

I live in Hampton, about 25 miles south of MC. I have worn my kilt many times to Mason City and usually get positive comments if any at all. I am thinking of attending an "Irish Pub" called Jamesons Public House in Waterloo, and yes, I will of course be kilted.

I am also going to go to the Irish Fest in St. Paul and volunteer at the Utlilikilt booth - a nice way to get a kilt in exchange for labor.
And, of course, will be going to the MN Renaissance Faire in Shakopee.

[Jock Scot]

I am simply appalled at KD's story and more than a little ashamed that this sort of loutish behaviour happens in Scotland. This sort of behaviour is not acceptable in Scotland and its not acceptable anywhere in a civilised world. I can huff and puff as much as I like about it, but the truth is, it happens here in Scotland as it does elsewhere in the world and that is reality. If nothing else this thread does tip off the visitor to the possibilty, a slim one it has to be said, that the fairytale world that the tourist industry paints of Scotland is not perfect.

It would help the visitor---its not fair to just single out Americans here either----- tremendously when in Scotland to understand and accept that in Scotland, whilst some of us may well be Scots-Poles, Scots-French, Scots-Chinese, Scots-English, Scots -whatevers, we cut out the "hyphen whatever" bit, so a Scot we are, full stop. No, we do not forget the other bits, if we choose and most certainly most of us are not in the least bit ashamed of our roots, but that is a private matter----well, more of a non issue really. It may not be your way of thinking, but it is ours and it may be helpful to the visitor to remember it.

[MacRobert's Reply]

Nathan asked when I would wear the kilt in Scotland.

As I write this I am in the south of England and next week will be in France ... I did not pack a kilt.

For me the kilt is celebratory clothing so I wear it for celebrations such as weddings, formal dinners, family dinners, dinner dances, Burns suppers, St Andrew's celebrations and highland games. I was kilted last month for Pipefest in Stirling and for the Bannockburn event on the following day. The first because it was a clan event and the second because it was a cultural celebration. I suppose I need a reason to wear the kilt. Simply wearing it as everyday clothing would not be sufficient.

Outside of Scotland I have only worn the kilt at family weddings and where I am a representative of Scotland.

A fascinating discussion chaps! What strikes me is the fundamental question of identity which for some is primarily about 'demos' but for others about 'ethos'.

[kilttrip]

I think if I went to Texas and got togged up in Texas kit(sorry I don't know the propper name for it!) but let me try "cow poke attire"? I would stand out like a sore thumb?OK I don't have the"roots aspect" with this example. What would the locals think? How about, "Oh b****y H***!!! who does he think he is? And " What the H*** is he doing?" And then, I hope that they thought I was harmless enough to let me get on with kidding myself!!! Except I hope that I would not make too much of an exhibition of myself. Does that make any sense?

With all due respect, Jock Scot, if you wanted to dress the part in Texas - and did some homework about what is [I]really worn[I] then you would not stand out. It is only if you would wear a ten gallon hat, a false mustache, wild shirt, two toy six shooters in holsters around some cheap chaps and outlandish boots, that you would receive the comments you describe. If on the other hand you would wear a nice Western shirt with jeans and decent boots you would blend right in and not be seen as a 'foreigner' until you spoke revealing your accent. Even then, I doubt you would be criticized or thought less of because you Did want to 'blend in'.

I do not deny that other indigenous Scots had family history with the Clearances and your ancestors would have returned to the 'old country' as soon as could reasonably be expected. But that is no reason to disenfranchise those that made a life in the new world and produced a lineage of people proud of that heritage.

I always heard that indigenous Scots would welcome their distant 'relations' as cousins, if not brothers. I hope that this would be the reception I would receive if someday I am able to visit my ancestral home.

[Jock Scot]

Kilttrip.

With the greatest of respect, you are not my cousin, or my brother and never will be, but if you were, then you would be my American cousin---yes I have those---however I hope and expect that any visitor to Scotland should be treated with the utmost respect and courtesy.