Oh dear, I seem to have upset Bear slightly by challenging one of his long-held perceptions that the kilt is a direct descendant of the leine, and for someone who claims he doesn’t really care where the kilt originated he’s sure bloomin’ argumentative about it!

Whilst I’m sure that most of you are totally bored to tears with this, nevertheless to use an old Scots phrase “facts are chiels that winnae ding” and I am compelled to set the record straight on this (no you’re not – yes I am – no you’re not – yes I am -oh all right then).

There is no dispute amongst any authority that when the Gaels first came to Scotland they wore the leine and the brat. What were these garments? There is unanimous agreement that the leine was a long shirt/tunic/smock type one piece shaped garment, generally made of linen, which reached from the neck to anywhere between mid-thigh and ankle length although widely worn at the shorter length, was put on by pulling over the head, had arm holes/short sleeves/long sleeves, could be straight, full or pleated (pleating had been known for centuries), was often padded or quilted and usually worn with a belt. The brat was simply a mantle or cloak which could be made of any material but most commonly wool, sometimes hooded, worn over the leine. Additionally, a short jacket, which could also be pleated, was sometimes also worn over the leine.

There is also unanimous agreement amongst all authoritative writers that around the 1500s, and in Scotland only, the woollen belted plaid aka the great kilt appeared, and it is this garment and not the leine which was the forerunner of the kilt as we know it today. Whilst Bear claims that the book foreworded by the Executive President of the Scottish Tartans Society agrees with his theory that the kilt developed from the leine I’m afraid it says no such thing. What the extract on the Internet actually says is “By the end of the sixteenth century, or perhaps before that time, a further garment, the Belted Plaid, was certainly being worn by many Highlanders.” The key words here are “further garment” ie the Belted Plaid was being worn in addition to (or on top of) the leine, and this is in total agreement with all the other available documentary evidence, which also indicate that in turn the leine simply developed into a form of shorter shirt worn under the Belted Plaid or, for the poorest Highlanders, simply vanished altogether.