kilt in 1396?!

[SergeantFirstClass]

Thanks!!

[beloitpiper]

So I wrote an E-mail to the author, asking for the source, and here's the response I received:

Hi Gregory,

In "The Story of Scotland" Nigel Tranter writes on page 91: "the sixty stalwarts set to, before discarding all clothing save for the short kilt of philabeg". So, it wasn't normal dress; it was underwear. Alas, Tranter doesn't have sources for his book. May-be I should refrase it stating it's underwear. I didn't know the kilts weren't worn until much later. Interesting question, though.

Greetings,
Joan

Does anybody know about Tranter and his works?

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Reference my previous post on the first page of this thread regarding Tranter and his "knowledge" of historic clothing.

Consider that this is not an academic article, and nothing he writes is footnoted, so one cannot very well go and check his source for saying there were "short kilts" worn in 1396. However, if one does look at his bibliography, what you find are popular histories, not scholarly works. The very first name on the list is Nigel Tranter, who was a fiction writer.

I tried reading his book about Somerled once and couldn't make it through the first few chapters. The reason why is that his description of their clothing was so incredibly inaccurate. He was describing these thirteenth century figures as wearing very modern Highland attire, complete with short kilts, sgian dubh, and the like. I tried telling myself that it was just historical fiction, and there were bound to be inaccuracies, but I just couldn't make myself imagine Somerled or his companions in the clothing that Tranter was describing them in!

So if this was his source for information about this tournament, it could explain a lot.

[Woodsheal]

Tranter wrote a "biography" of Rob Roy some years back. Early in the book he describes Rob lurking before a cattle raid, wearing "the MacGregor tartan." In ca. 1710?! I quit reading it at that point....