Wearing a Kilt while Touring Scotland?

[hector]

To enlarge on this topic: I'm just back from two weeks in Wales. I drove some 2.200 km (1350 miles) throughout the whole country. Kilts? Not one!

[cessna152towser]

Go for it, bring your kilt and wear it while you are in Scotland. You may be taken for a tourist but your kilt will be a good conversation starter. I often wear a kilt here in Scotland. Some days I don't see any other kilt wearers, other days, particularly Saturdays when there are weddings or sporting fixtures taking place there are lots of kilts being worn.

[Steve Ashton]

I say wear your kilt!!

I spent two weeks driving around the country. Other than for other X Marks members I saw a total of 1 other kilt. (On another kiltmaker!)

It seems that the prevalent reaction you will get, spoken or not, is what I ran into when I walked into one of the largest and most respected kilt shops. The only sales person was in a suit and in the far back of the shop as the door chime sounded. I was able to walk the entire length of the shop before he even turned around to see who had entered.

The first, and only, words out of his mouth were "Oh, I see another American came to Scotland and bought himself a kilt." My response was "Well sir, I'm a kiltmaker. In my shop the staff are proud to show off our product. I wear the kilt every single day. And you just lost a sale."

On the other hand, if in Edinburgh, go to the castle and stand just at the entrance in your kilt. Put a hat on the ground in front of you. You will just about be able to pay for the trip by posing for tourist photos. Everyone seems to expect and want to see kilts on their Scottish holiday. You will be photographed and hugged and kissed by more women than you have ever seen before.

Wear your kilt. You won't regret it. Sure you will stand out as a tourist and you will meet some locals who will stare and/or laugh, but you didn't start wearing the kilt because you wanted to blend into the sidewalk now did you?

[cck]

In the past year I have made 2 trips to Scotland. If I exclude the people who were performing or wearing a kilt as part of their job, I could count only 2 occasions seeing a kilt worn. (That is twice more than I would see one worn in this country.) On one of the trips I was traveling with a group, wore my kilt, and influenced at least one other man in the group to buy one. So I feel rather good about having taken the trouble to bring the kilt. Now I must admit that the times I was kilted, were both at Scottish themed events and I had expected to see more kilt wearers. If the locals were laughing at me, they were polite enough not to show it. Go ahead. Take your kilt and wear it. It is always an opportunity to start a conversation.

[Mael Coluim]

Looking forward to a third kilted vacation in Scotland!

Kilted fortnight holiday in scotland & france

Kilted Fortnight Scotland Holiday – 2011

[Liam]

Go for it, bring your kilt and wear it while you are in Scotland. You may be taken for a tourist but your kilt will be a good conversation starter. I often wear a kilt here in Scotland. Some days I don't see any other kilt wearers, other days, particularly Saturdays when there are weddings or sporting fixtures taking place there are lots of kilts being worn.

Good advice! Wear it with pride and confidence.

[guardsman]

Take it or regret it , you will mwant to wear the kilt at some point ,

[adempsey10]

A Scottish female friend of my wife once saw a picture of me on Facebook wearing my kilt and complimented me for how handsome I looked. I now feel confident wearing my kilt pretty much anywhere.

If the girls dig it, nothing else matters, especially if they're red headed Scottish girls.

[Baldybrown]

I had a great time wearing my Xmarks kilt on the Royal Mile during the 'Fringe'. Also wore it to the 'Tattoo' and more formally to a wonderful dinner at the Witchery. On each occasion, I had nothing but positive feedback, and a great deal of that. I will do it again on the next trip.

[imrichmond]

Touring Scotland for three weeks as a member of a pipe band last summer, I was kilted most of the time, along with my bandmates (mostly from Canada, but with some from the U.S.). Since the band performed every day but five, and often in a couple of venues some distance apart, it was not feasible to change on performance days. We were generally very well received by the locals, but the band's presence and performances were well advertised and it was obvious that we were pipers and drummers, even when we roamed around the various towns before or after our performances. I received many compliments on my appearance from locals. Outside of our band members and a couple of other pipe bands that we ran into or performed with, I didn't see many kilted men, though. There were some, of course, in wedding parties, of which I saw three or four. About half of these were wearing those horrible, but apparently popular, saltire kilts. For those unfamiliar with them, these are a blue fashion tartan kilt with a huge, white saltire visible on the pleats. One local fellow, who represented the Dunfermline tourist office, was wearing a very smart tweed kilt with matching jacket and vest. Otherwise, the only kilts I saw were on busking pipers and on a few Italian kids staying at the University of Edinburgh residences who had bought "kilts" from the tartan tat shops on the Royal Mile and wore them mid-calf length with no sporran. The sight of these latter in the cafeteria every morning was almost enough to put me off my full Scottish breakfasts... but not quite.