Highlanders v. Lowlanders

[Malcolm MacWilliam]

So, help me out with the knowledge you folks have. Cause, since I have been doing the 18th century Highlander for 15 years (Jacobite, F and I and Rev Wars) we get the questions all the time. I continually try to make sure my lads and I are giving the correct info. Please correct or modify the info I have below so I can get a better timeline of "kilt history".

1. Kilts first appear in the 1400s, I believe "they" trace it to that time period because there is a gravestone someplace that shows a Highlander in a kilt.... this supposedly the earliest indication of kilt wearing? Any good research before that. AND, before that it was all English clothing??
2. So, kilts were worn and were the fashion in the Highlands (I had read anything north of the river Tay was Highland). Then, we have the '45. After Culloden, Kilts (Scottish dress) was outlawed....they quickly went out of fashion unless you could get awa' with it, so far north the English didn't care??
3. However, if you joined the military (42nd, 78th, 77th, etc.) you could wear your "native dress", the kilt. This was done to entice young Scots to join the British army?
4. George IV and Sir Walter Scott make it vogue to wear the kilt, 1820s??
5. Sobieski brothers (cousins to the BP Charlie) do their hoax with "the book" of tartans and clans begin to register clan tartans....is this the time that Lord Lyon gets involved?
6. Brings us to today!!

Sorry this is long, but I'd like good, hard info to be able to share with the folks ask the questions at reenactments. I feel we do a good job with this, but it can always be better with XMarks info.

Your servant and MANY THANKS. Malcolm

[Chas]

Hi Malcolm,

Point 5 - This is what Wikipedia has to say: The claims by two nineteenth century charlatans, Charles and John Allen alias John Sobieski Stuart and Charles Edward Stuart, that their father Thomas Allen was a legitimate son of Charles and Louise, are without foundation.

Regards

Chas

[ixoyedeg]

Malcolm,

Though I am new to the forum and to kilt wearing, I have looked into it a little and it seems that going back many centuries the lowlanders tended to be more easily connected both culturally and fashionably with the English, while the Highlanders were more heavily tied to their Celtic or Gaelic roots, both culturally and fashionably. Though the kilt, which originally was not much more than a large blanket wrapped around the person, may be somewhat new (1400s is earlier than I had heard of before, my previous early timing was late 1500s) the rest of the dress has perhaps always been considered more primitive to the English, and thus indicative of poverty, as has been mentioned earlier in the thread.

I have even heard it suggested that the lowlanders were not of the same Gaelic descendency as were the Highlanders, though I am not certain of that. A much closer connection seems to exist historically with the Highlanders and the Irish, and the Lowlanders and the English, and thus the fashions were also connected.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

So, help me out with the knowledge you folks have. Cause, since I have been doing the 18th century Highlander for 15 years (Jacobite, F and I and Rev Wars) we get the questions all the time. I continually try to make sure my lads and I are giving the correct info. Please correct or modify the info I have below so I can get a better timeline of "kilt history".

1. Kilts first appear in the 1400s, I believe "they" trace it to that time period because there is a gravestone someplace that shows a Highlander in a kilt.... this supposedly the earliest indication of kilt wearing? Any good research before that. AND, before that it was all English clothing??

Although the use of a simple length of material as a garment is as old as the hills, reliable sources indicate that the Highland Scots most likely wore the "leine croich", a long, pleated, coat-like affair that hung to past the knees. This is very similar to the garment worn under chain mail at the time of William the Conqueror and so may be assumed to be the common garb of men in Ireland and Scotland in the 11th century. From tomb effigies and drawings in early manuscripts it would appear that this form of dress, or something very much like it, was probably worn through the end of the 16th century, at which time (about 1600) the belted plaid (or great kilt) seems to have become commonly worn.

The great kilt was cumbersome and in short order the "little kilt", similar to that worn today, made its appearance. As far as I am aware the first accurate picture we have of the little kilt appears on what is known as "Gordon's Map of Aberdeen", dated 1661. This map shows a young man in a little kilt marking something with a compass. In 1672 the registers of the Lyon Court show a depiction of the arms of Skene, in which one of the supporters is clearly wearing a little kilt. David Morier's picture, "An Episode of the Rebellion", painted in 1746, shows a mob of Highlanders throwing themselves against the Hanoverian army-- but none can be described with any certainty as being clothed in great kilts.

Based on the graphic evidence of engravers, illustrators, and painters, I am led to believe that the great kilt lasted for a mere half century or so, before being slowly replaced by the more convenient small kilt in the second half of the seventeenth century.

2. So, kilts were worn and were the fashion in the Highlands (I had read anything north of the river Tay was Highland). Then, we have the '45. After Culloden, Kilts (Scottish dress) was outlawed....they quickly went out of fashion unless you could get awa' with it, so far north the English didn't care??

From 1746 until 1782 the wearing of tartan and of kilts was banned in Scotland, although the ban proved difficult to enforce. From many accounts, by the 1750's tartan, at least among the fashionable ladies of Edinburgh, was back in favour in Scotland. While the Act of Proscription was enacted in London, its execution fell largely to Scots who had little reason, and no real desire, to enforce the law. On the part of Parliament, once the Seven Years War had begun in 1756 they had far more important things to worry about than persecuting a few tartan clad Scots.

3. However, if you joined the military (42nd, 78th, 77th, etc.) you could wear your "native dress", the kilt. This was done to entice young Scots to join the British army?

While much is made about the Black Watch et al "saving the tartan" its popularity in Scotland was also due, in no small part, to those aristocratic land owners who encouraged-- or at lest did nothing to discourage-- the wearing of "native garb" on their estates. Certainly no slacker when it came to promoting tartan on his estates was His Grace, the Duke of Atholl.

Such was Atholl's enthusiasm for all things tartan (and patriotism) that he raised a private regiment in 1778, drawn almost exclusively from the tenants on his land. In 1780, two years before the ban on tartan was lifted, David Allan painted a picture of the Duke and his family out shooting in the hills above Blailr Atholl. In the painting, the Duke, as well as the servant behind him, can clearly be seen wearing the little kilt.

4. George IV and Sir Walter Scott make it vogue to wear the kilt, 1820s??
5. Sobieski brothers (cousins to the BP Charlie) do their hoax with "the book" of tartans and clans begin to register clan tartans....is this the time that Lord Lyon gets involved?

I think a lot of people underestimate the importance of the Sobieski-Stuart brothers in keeping the "Tartan Revival" alive. While their scholarship wobbled across the border between fact and fantasy, and while their own stated antecedents could probably best be described as a genealogical confection, at the peak of their popularity they provided the bridge between the "King's Jaunt" in 1822 and Queen Victoria embracing all things Scottish during her lifetime. Their Vestiarium Scotorum published in 1842 led directly to McIan and Logan publishing their book, The Clans of the Scottish Highlands in 1845, and marks the beginning of serious "popular" scholarship regarding everything from Highland dress to a revival of interest in the Gaelic language.

6. Brings us to today!!

Sorry this is long, but I'd like good, hard info to be able to share with the folks ask the questions at reenactments. I feel we do a good job with this, but it can always be better with XMarks info.

Your servant and MANY THANKS. Malcolm

[macwilkin]

While much is made about the Black Watch et al "saving the tartan" its popularity in Scotland was also due, in no small part, to those aristocratic land owners who encouraged-- or at lest did nothing to discourage-- the wearing of "native garb" on their estates.

Scott,

The Highland Regiments did do quite a bit to preserve some elements of Highland dress, but also helped create the clan tartan, according to Jamie Scarlett and other tartan scholars. In fact, I've always maintained that the British Army was indirectly responsible for Lowlanders adopted tartan, as a number of the Lowland regiments began to adopt tartans in the late 19th century (first the Government Sett, and then others) as their regimental symbols.

Such was Atholl's enthusiasm for all things tartan (and patriotism) that he raised a private regiment in 1778, drawn almost exclusively from the tenants on his land. In 1780, two years before the ban on tartan was lifted, David Allan painted a picture of the Duke and his family out shooting in the hills above Blailr Atholl. In the painting, the Duke, as well as the servant behind him, can clearly be seen wearing the little kilt.

There was also a fairly strong connection between Atholl and Robert Burns when he visited the Duke's lands in 1787 with his friend William Nicol.

Regards,

Todd

[O'Callaghan]

So, help me out with the knowledge you folks have. Cause, since I have been doing the 18th century Highlander for 15 years (Jacobite, F and I and Rev Wars) we get the questions all the time. I continually try to make sure my lads and I are giving the correct info. Please correct or modify the info I have below so I can get a better timeline of "kilt history".

1. Kilts first appear in the 1400s, I believe "they" trace it to that time period because there is a gravestone someplace that shows a Highlander in a kilt.... this supposedly the earliest indication of kilt wearing? Any good research before that. AND, before that it was all English clothing??
2. So, kilts were worn and were the fashion in the Highlands (I had read anything north of the river Tay was Highland). Then, we have the '45. After Culloden, Kilts (Scottish dress) was outlawed....they quickly went out of fashion unless you could get awa' with it, so far north the English didn't care??
3. However, if you joined the military (42nd, 78th, 77th, etc.) you could wear your "native dress", the kilt. This was done to entice young Scots to join the British army?
4. George IV and Sir Walter Scott make it vogue to wear the kilt, 1820s??
5. Sobieski brothers (cousins to the BP Charlie) do their hoax with "the book" of tartans and clans begin to register clan tartans....is this the time that Lord Lyon gets involved?
6. Brings us to today!!

Sorry this is long, but I'd like good, hard info to be able to share with the folks ask the questions at reenactments. I feel we do a good job with this, but it can always be better with XMarks info.

Your servant and MANY THANKS. Malcolm

Kilts didn't simply appear from nowhere. You should probably add a number zero, where the Scottish kilt evolved from the Irish brat.

The immediate predecessor of the 'great kilt' (aka Féileadh Mor, etc.) was the Irish brat (cloak). The Irish of the time wore the brat over the leine (tunic), and the great kilt continued to be worn over the leine for a long time after. 'Kilting' as a verb referred originally to gathering into pleats, invariably with a belt. The Irish did this with the leine itself, and the 'big' innovation (he says with tongue firmly in cheek) was to wear the belt on the outside of the cloak and 'kilt' (remember that's a verb here, meaning gather) the cloak instead of the leine (tunic). This was probably done because the Scottish highlands are windier than Ireland! Then, 'hey presto', the cloak magically changes from an Irish brat into a Scottish great kilt, even though both are the same piece of cloth, the same woolen blanket (or plaid, in Gaelic), and both are used as blankets for sleeping too.

Modern kilt vendors tend to call those sashes that mimic the top half of the great kilt a 'shoulder plaid' if Scottish but a 'brat' if intended to be Irish, but this is marketing. The Irish have worn kilts as far back as the lowland Scots, but never wore the great kilt.

So why am I even talking about Ireland? The leine and brat were brought to the highlands of Scotland with the Irish Gaelic tribe called the Dal Riada, who the Romans called the Scotii, from which the name 'Scots' comes. They certainly colonised the area around Argyll, and exercised control over a much wider area than that. Without the Irish Dal Riada settling in Scotland there would be no kilt, no Scots Gaelic language and no bagpipes.

The Gaels were not the only Celts in the British Isles, the Britons were Celts too, and the Picts who lived in the Scottish highlands before the Gaels came from Ireland may or may not have been Britons. What's more, many highlanders (and indeed people of certain other specific areas of the British Isles) descend from vikings. However, the Briton language seems to have left no trace in either Scots or Scots Gaelic or English, and the Dal Riada never held sway in the lowlands, so Gaelic blood in the lowlands is due to migration following the clearances. If you said Celtic rather than Gaelic that would include Britons, and that's a more difficult question to answer, as Briton DNA is probably far more widespread than Briton culture or language.

The lowland Scots are indeed a similar ethnic mix to adjacent parts of England, and adopted the kilt about as recently as the Irish, to turn things around a little.

FWIW, the O'Callaghans are of the Eoganacht or Eugenian tribe, not the Dal Riada, although all the tribes of Irish Gaels are considered to be branches of the Milesians.

[Mac y]

As your question was answered before historic lowlanders did not wear the kilt. Now after saying that I can only guess at what you may be thinking so I will relate my own story. I was somewhat disapointed to begin tracing my Scottish heritage and the first name I looked up, Cordiner, has no clan affiliation. I thought growing up that scotland was the land of kilts and clans and after learning a little history all my boyhood fantasies seemed to go up in smoke.

Yet, once I began doing furhter family research I found that the lowlands are just as rich in culture and history as the highlands, my own family having come from the Peterhead area and a rich fishing history.

A few more generations down the line and names with gealic origins popped up.

I guess what I am getting at is a little research and a little patience and you may just find some highlanders in your tree. Although we like to speak about these seemingly long dead historical divisions between highlanders and lowlanders, there has also been alot of mingling between the two, especially in the 250 years since culloden.

The kilt at one time may have been the symbol of the Highlander, but today-at least here in the US, its a uiversal symbol for Scottishness.

[Mike S]

I've got both bases covered, I have both Highland/Isles AND Lowland ancestors.
Highland dress shares quite a bit with modern Native American tribal dress. Modern Indian Pow Wow attire has taken over among the various tribes regardless of their original, tribal/regional clothing and decoration.

Scottish Highland attire has become THE national dress of Scotland, and is shared equally by both Highlander and Lowlander. Why even the Irish and Welsh have adopted it as their national dress now.

As much as we like to remain true to tradition, what is being worn today is far different that what was worn during the clan system anyway.

[skauwt]

here ya go jock you can just make out the hills that are on the fault line i took this image about a year or two ago i think i have a few more on my profile images

[David Dalglish]

Scot's are Scot's & Kilts are kilts--Be thankful for both.