SCOTTISH TRADITIONS

From Highland dress to Hogmanay, the Scots have some unique customs that have stood the test of time. But what were their origins?

- HELEN OCHYRA

1. The kilt

There is much dispute in the history of Highland dress, and its best-known garment, the kilt. Some say it was invented by an Englishman, others that it has a long and noble history as the uniform of the clans.

Its modern history began with the Act of Proscription, drafted into British law in 1747 in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden. This aimed to eradicate Highland culture (and with it any opposition to the Hanoverian state) and made wearing Highland dress illegal with one notable exception: the army.

This allowed the elite of British society to define the Highlands as a military region par excellence, an idea which persists to this day, with many units still wearing Highland dress for ceremonial occasions.

The kilt began to denote status and, through its association with the elite, it became fashionable – and expensive. It also became leaner, generally losing its plaid (the long section which winds up and over the shoulder), and becoming the “little kilt” or “feileadh beag”.

This is where Englishman Thomas Rawlinson, an industrialist seeking to make Highland dress more practical for his workers, comes in.

But the kilt we see today almost certainly developed in many places throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, making its exact origin unknown, and much disputed.

The Act of Proscription was revoked in 1782, and in 1822 King George III wore a kilt on his visit to Edinburgh, a tartan-drenched affair orchestrated by Sir Walter Scott. This secured the kilt’s place as Scotland’s national dress, which it retains to this day.

2. Burns Night