Highlanders v. Lowlanders

[Arlen]

As has been stated, the Kilt was a 'Highland' garment and Lowlanders would in some cases make fun of Kilts. However it is most certainly a 'Scottish' garment now.
Don't forget how many Highlanders moved to the Lowlands!
My family were from the Highlands as far back as we could trace until my grandfather moved to Perthshire and then Glasgow while he was a boy. The rest of the family are still in the same area of the Highlands and the old farm still has the same name!

[jrmiller]

Gilmore wrote: "http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/default.aspx shows Scots Millers most heavily in Perthshire and Caithness--- Highlands---though there are quite a few in the lowlands and Borders, as well as in England."

Now I understand my strange attraction to mountains and kilts. This really blindsided my, it must be part of my "race memory".

[EagleJCS]

From what I've read, the kilt began to become accepted in the Borders (the preferred term to Lowlands, again by what I've read/been told) when Sir Walter Scott arranged/orchestrated the visit of King George IV to Scotland. The weavers were telling all of the gentry - especially the clan chiefs - something to the effect of: "you must get your clan colors for the King's visit!", so everyone started registering tartans and having kilts made, even if their clan hadn't ever worn tartan before. The kilt really took off after that during the Victorian era and the Queen became enamored with the Highlands (and Mr. Brown?). It became de riguer for any Scotsman visiting the Royal Court to wear tartan trews, if not the kilt in full regalia.

Again, this is all by what I've read online or heard in conversation.

[Jock Scot]

I am not a lowland Scot so I stand to be corrected here. There is lowland Scotland and then there is the borders region of lowland Scotland they are not the same thing.I am not sure if this helps you non Scots at all, but the Highlands of Scotland(going north)starts at about the city of Perth. From Perth southwards, the lowlands go about 150 miles before reaching the English border.

[Rex_Tremende]

When I looked up the Kerr Shepherd's Plaid on the Scottish Register of Tartans, they had this to say about it:

Designed for the Chief of Clan Kerr the Marquis of Lothian KCVO of Ferniehurst Castle, Jedburgh Scotland. The Clan Kerr (Family) are amongst the few leading Border names. They are entitled to a Border Plaid that makes their standing in the Borders distinctive.

Now what makes one clan entitled to a plaid over another? And what exactly is a border plaid, and why is it different than (I guess) a tartan?

Regards,
Rex.

[Phogfan86]

Rex, you're supposed to be answering questions around here, not asking them!

[Andy HPADC]

Another awesome, funny thread!

Does anyone know when Trews were introduced?

[puffer]

I am not a lowland Scot so I stand to be corrected here. There is lowland Scotland and then there is the borders region of lowland Scotland they are not the same thing.I am not sure if this helps you non Scots at all, but the Highlands of Scotland(going north)starts at about the city of Perth. From Perth southwards, the lowlands go about 150 miles before reaching the English border.

I am of "LOWLAND SCOT" Heritage & also "Border Land Reiver" Think Sir James Douglas ( the Black Douglas)
A. He was a Leader with "the BRUCE" & Wallace ALL THREE WERE LOWLANDERS.

B. All 3 were educated in France & as far as I can find out, DRESSED like the ENGLISH, not "Highlanders.
C. In the mid 1400s the POWER of the "Black Douglas' was destroyed with the murder of the EARLS by the English King & thier Land & Positions were given to the "Red Douglas')

D. They became "powerful REIVERS" & DRESSED as the ENGLISH

E. In 1622 my "branch came to the colonies. Sketch I have seen + English Dress.

F. In the early 1800s a Painting of one of my "relatives, still living in the "lowlands" shows English clothing. BUT another Relitive living in Canada (a Capt. in a Can. Rifle Militia Co.) is shown wearing a Kilt

G. INTERESTING NOTE - My English side were HAYDENS ( ROYAL connections)
They OWNED LOWLAND ESTATES from the 1600s to now (???) a painting (ca late 1800) shows one KILTED

MY conclusion from above + other research (my other "Scots"in my Line were Lowlanders als (from the Glasgow area ) =
1. Lowland Scots Dressed as the English. If associated with the Military or the upper class English adopted the occasional "Highland Dress" as it was the "VOGUE" starting with Geo IV & then the "modern concepts of Highland Attire" by the Victorians.

Puffer

[Kerr the Walker]

When I looked up the Kerr Shepherd's Plaid on the Scottish Register of Tartans, they had this to say about it:



Now what makes one clan entitled to a plaid over another? And what exactly is a border plaid, and why is it different than (I guess) a tartan?

Regards,
Rex.

As luck would have it, I've just received a kilt in Kerr Shepherd. After a bit of reading/research, the Border Plaid (aka: Northumbrian plaid, shepherd plaid) is a black and white "check".


(Kerr Shepherd is the border plaid with an additional bit of red running through it)

Haven't figured out why this particular design is associated specifically with the Borders though....

[Phil]

As has been stated, the Kilt was a 'Highland' garment and Lowlanders would in some cases make fun of Kilts. However it is most certainly a 'Scottish' garment now.
Don't forget how many Highlanders moved to the Lowlands!

"Kiltie, kiltie cauld bum" would have been shouted at kilt-wearers by lowlanders making fun of their dress. I imagine any child would have wanted rid of its kilt as soon as possible to avoid such jibes and they would have been singled out as poorer members of society by their dress. What it is necessary to remember is that it wasn't until King George's visit to Scotland in 1822 that tartan and kilt-wearing by anyone other than soldiers became popular, stage-managed by Walter Scott. Afterwards the then mania to emulate anything done by the Royals (Queen Victoria and the Balmorality rush to buy Highland estates by rich Englishmen fed the same desire to copy). This was then encouraged by Wilsons of Bannockburn and later by the Sobieskis who enriched themselves by cobbling up all manner of spurious tartanalia to satisfy the sudden demand for kilts from the Scottish middle-class and land-owning gentry, many with Scottish names but few, if any with any genuine associations to a clan - pretty much like nowadays really. To say that kilts following their legalisation were a purely highland garb is misleading, however, as those commissioning their post-Georgian tartan-wear came from all parts of Scotland, not just the Highlands. Anyone who was anyone in those days had to have a tartan and there were plenty of tailors and weavers keen to satisfy the demand. It would be more correct to say that kilts as day-to-day wear were more common in the Highlands than elsewhere in Scotland where they were reserved for more formal occasions. Why this should be is probably down to the sheer impracticality of a kilt for many types of heavy industrial work - imagine a kilt trapped in the unguarded machinery of the 19th and early 20th centuries - but also to simple prejudices regarding Highlanders generally as rough peasants, referred to as "teuchters" and mocked by rhymes such as I began this with, whose dress was not considered genteel enough for polite society.