link to this article at http://www.albanach.org/old_sources.html
originally published in The Scottish Banner, February 2010
For many, the origins of the Scottish National Dress are shrouded in mystery. The kilt is seen as the ancient garment of the Gael from time immemorial, its origins lost in misty ages past. Arguments about whether the kilt actually originated in Scotland or rather in Ireland, Norway, Eastern Europe or some other location generally end with one party or the other shrugging their shoulders and insisting that “we cannot really know how or when the kilt originated.”
While the story of the kilt’s beginnings is perhaps not as precisely documented as one might desire, the truth is we do know quite a bit about how the early Gaelic people clothed themselves, and the body of evidence we have tells us that the earliest form of the kilt (the belted plaid or feilidh-mór) originated in the Highlands of Scotland at the end of the sixteenth century.
If we look at the written accounts of Highland dress during the 1500s, one of the first things that strikes us is the remarkable similarity between the clothing of the Scottish and Irish Gaels. The common dress of the Irish at the time was a large, often pleated shirt called a leine, generally dyed saffron, over which a large mantle was worn, called a brat in Irish.
John Major describes this basic costume in his History of Greater Britain, published in 1521. Describing the men of the Highlands, he writes, “From the middle of the thigh to the foot they have no covering for the leg, clothing themselves with a mantle instead of an upper garment and a shirt dyed with saffron.”
Jean de Beaugue describes the same sort of clothing in his 1556 account of the campaign of the French auxiliaries in Scotland during the siege of Haddington (1548-9). In describing the Highland men, he writes, “They wear no clothes except their dyed shirts and a sort of light woolen rug of several colors.” The “light woolen rug” undoubtedly refers to a mantle of some sort, and the description of it being “several colors” puts one in mind of tartan, though the colors certainly could have been arranged in some other pattern.
Moving forward in the century, we see a detailed description of Highland clothing in the 1578 account of Bishop Lesley, De origine, moribus et rebus gestis Scotorum. It is well worth quoting. “All, both nobles and common people, wore mantles of one sort (except that the nobles preferred those of several colors). These were long and flowing, but capable of being neatly gathered up at pleasure into folds.”
Let us pause here for a moment. Like the previous account, he mentions mantles of several colors, which again we can possibly imagine as a tartan design. But these mantles were worn “gathered up… into folds.” Up until this point in the historic record, there is nothing that would indicate any kind of kilt-like garment being worn in Scotland. The Scottish Gaels are consistently described as dressing like their Irish contemporaries – a leine and brat (a tunic and mantle). But here we read for the first time that the mantle was sometimes gathered up and worn in folds. Remember that the earliest form of the kilt, the feilidh-mór, was essentially a length of cloth that was gathered up into folds and belted about the waist to keep the whole arrangement in place. It was the lower portion of this garment that would eventually become the kilt as we know it today. Bishop Lesley does not mention this mantle ever being belted, so it would be too much to claim that he is describing an early kilt. Yet the description of the mantles being worn gathered in folds is a development worthy of note.
He continues his description. “Wrapped up in these [mantles] for their only covering, they would sleep comfortably. They had also shaggy rugs, such as the Irish use at present day, some fitted for a journey, others to be placed on a bed. The rest of their garments consisted of a short woolen jacket, with the sleeves open below for the convenience of throwing their darts… They made also of linen very large shirts, with numerous folds and wide sleeves, which flowed abroad loosely to their knees. These, the rich coloured with saffron and others smeared with some grease to preserve them longer clean among the toils and exercises of a camp…”
Here in his description we once more see the typical Irish style saffron shirt. But the “shaggy rugs such as the Irish use” is undoubtedly a description of the brat, meaning the mantles previously described must be something distinctive enough that Bishop Lesley classifies them separately. It would seem that a stylistic divergence is beginning to emerge between the Irish brat and the Scottish plaide around this time.
Another curious detail is found in the history of Scotland written by George Buchanan in 1581. In his account of the Western Isles, he writes, “They delight in variegated garments, especially stripes, and their favourite colors are purple and blue. Their ancestors wore plaids of many colors, and numbers still retain this custom but the majority now in their dress prefer a dark brown, imitating very nearly the leaves of the heather, that when lying upon the heath in the day, they may not be discovered by the appearance of their clothes; in these wrapped rather than covered, they brave the severest storms in the open air, and sometimes lay themselves down to sleep even in the midst of snow.”
Aside from learning of the plaid’s use both as bedding and camouflage, we read in this passage that the wearers were “wrapped rather than covered.” It is tempting to believe this curious phrase might indicate the feilidh-mór, a mantle worn gathered at the waist. But again, this would be going beyond what the evidence supports.
To find the first hard evidence of the belted plaid being worn, we must look to an Irish source, The Life of Red Hugh O’Donnell, written by Lughaidh O’Clery. Describing Scottish mercenaries from the Hebrides, engaged in O’Donnell’s service in 1594, he writes, “These were recognized among the Irish by the difference of their arms and clothing, their habits and language, for their exterior dress was mottled cloaks to the calf of the leg with ties and fastenings. Their girdles were over the loins outside the cloaks.” This is the first time we read of the belts being worn outside of the mantle, which is the chief characteristic of the belted plaid, the earliest form of the kilt. Note, too, that this Irish source mentions this as characteristic of the Scots, distinct from the Irish fashion.
This style is confirmed in other sources. Sometime around 1641, Robert Gordon of Straloch described the Highlanders at the Battle of Glenlivet, fought in 1594 (the same year as the O’Donnell account). “As for their Apparel; next the Skin they wear a short linnen Shirt, which the great men among them sometime dye of saffron colour… Their uppermost Garment is a loose Cloke of several Ells, striped and party colour’d, which they gird breadth-wise with a leather Belt, so as it scarce covers the knees… Far the greatest part of the Plaid covers the uppermost parts of the Body. Sometimes it is all folded round the Body about the Region of the Belt, for disengaging and leaving the hands free; and sometimes ‘tis wrapped round all that is above the Flank… When they compose themselves to Rest and Sleep, they loose the Belt and roll themselves in the Plaid, lying down on the bare ground or putting Heather under them nicely set together after their manner.”
During the sixteenth century we see almost universal agreement in the written descriptions of Scottish Highland clothing that the Scottish and Irish Gaels dressed much alike. But when we come to the very end of that century we first read accounts of the Scots wearing their plaids gathered and belted at the waist. This was different enough to be worthy of comment by the writers, who mention it as something quite distinct from the usual Irish way of dress.
It was the belted plaid that would become the standard mode of dress for Highland men during the seventeenth century. As time marched on, this garment would transform from the feilidh-mór to the feilidh-beag and ultimately into the modern kilt, a universally recognized symbol of the Scottish people.
(All quotes above documented in Old Irish and Highland Dress by H. F. McClintock, 1943).
For many, the origins of the Scottish National Dress are shrouded in mystery. The kilt is seen as the ancient garment of the Gael from time immemorial, its origins lost in misty ages past. Arguments about whether the kilt actually originated in Scotland or rather in Ireland, Norway, Eastern Europe or some other location generally end with one party or the other shrugging their shoulders and insisting that “we cannot really know how or when the kilt originated.”
While the story of the kilt’s beginnings is perhaps not as precisely documented as one might desire, the truth is we do know quite a bit about how the early Gaelic people clothed themselves, and the body of evidence we have tells us that the earliest form of the kilt (the belted plaid or feilidh-mór) originated in the Highlands of Scotland at the end of the sixteenth century.
If we look at the written accounts of Highland dress during the 1500s, one of the first things that strikes us is the remarkable similarity between the clothing of the Scottish and Irish Gaels. The common dress of the Irish at the time was a large, often pleated shirt called a leine, generally dyed saffron, over which a large mantle was worn, called a brat in Irish.
John Major describes this basic costume in his History of Greater Britain, published in 1521. Describing the men of the Highlands, he writes, “From the middle of the thigh to the foot they have no covering for the leg, clothing themselves with a mantle instead of an upper garment and a shirt dyed with saffron.”
Jean de Beaugue describes the same sort of clothing in his 1556 account of the campaign of the French auxiliaries in Scotland during the siege of Haddington (1548-9). In describing the Highland men, he writes, “They wear no clothes except their dyed shirts and a sort of light woolen rug of several colors.” The “light woolen rug” undoubtedly refers to a mantle of some sort, and the description of it being “several colors” puts one in mind of tartan, though the colors certainly could have been arranged in some other pattern.
Moving forward in the century, we see a detailed description of Highland clothing in the 1578 account of Bishop Lesley, De origine, moribus et rebus gestis Scotorum. It is well worth quoting. “All, both nobles and common people, wore mantles of one sort (except that the nobles preferred those of several colors). These were long and flowing, but capable of being neatly gathered up at pleasure into folds.”
Let us pause here for a moment. Like the previous account, he mentions mantles of several colors, which again we can possibly imagine as a tartan design. But these mantles were worn “gathered up… into folds.” Up until this point in the historic record, there is nothing that would indicate any kind of kilt-like garment being worn in Scotland. The Scottish Gaels are consistently described as dressing like their Irish contemporaries – a leine and brat (a tunic and mantle). But here we read for the first time that the mantle was sometimes gathered up and worn in folds. Remember that the earliest form of the kilt, the feilidh-mór, was essentially a length of cloth that was gathered up into folds and belted about the waist to keep the whole arrangement in place. It was the lower portion of this garment that would eventually become the kilt as we know it today. Bishop Lesley does not mention this mantle ever being belted, so it would be too much to claim that he is describing an early kilt. Yet the description of the mantles being worn gathered in folds is a development worthy of note.
He continues his description. “Wrapped up in these [mantles] for their only covering, they would sleep comfortably. They had also shaggy rugs, such as the Irish use at present day, some fitted for a journey, others to be placed on a bed. The rest of their garments consisted of a short woolen jacket, with the sleeves open below for the convenience of throwing their darts… They made also of linen very large shirts, with numerous folds and wide sleeves, which flowed abroad loosely to their knees. These, the rich coloured with saffron and others smeared with some grease to preserve them longer clean among the toils and exercises of a camp…”
Here in his description we once more see the typical Irish style saffron shirt. But the “shaggy rugs such as the Irish use” is undoubtedly a description of the brat, meaning the mantles previously described must be something distinctive enough that Bishop Lesley classifies them separately. It would seem that a stylistic divergence is beginning to emerge between the Irish brat and the Scottish plaide around this time.
Another curious detail is found in the history of Scotland written by George Buchanan in 1581. In his account of the Western Isles, he writes, “They delight in variegated garments, especially stripes, and their favourite colors are purple and blue. Their ancestors wore plaids of many colors, and numbers still retain this custom but the majority now in their dress prefer a dark brown, imitating very nearly the leaves of the heather, that when lying upon the heath in the day, they may not be discovered by the appearance of their clothes; in these wrapped rather than covered, they brave the severest storms in the open air, and sometimes lay themselves down to sleep even in the midst of snow.”
Aside from learning of the plaid’s use both as bedding and camouflage, we read in this passage that the wearers were “wrapped rather than covered.” It is tempting to believe this curious phrase might indicate the feilidh-mór, a mantle worn gathered at the waist. But again, this would be going beyond what the evidence supports.
To find the first hard evidence of the belted plaid being worn, we must look to an Irish source, The Life of Red Hugh O’Donnell, written by Lughaidh O’Clery. Describing Scottish mercenaries from the Hebrides, engaged in O’Donnell’s service in 1594, he writes, “These were recognized among the Irish by the difference of their arms and clothing, their habits and language, for their exterior dress was mottled cloaks to the calf of the leg with ties and fastenings. Their girdles were over the loins outside the cloaks.” This is the first time we read of the belts being worn outside of the mantle, which is the chief characteristic of the belted plaid, the earliest form of the kilt. Note, too, that this Irish source mentions this as characteristic of the Scots, distinct from the Irish fashion.
This style is confirmed in other sources. Sometime around 1641, Robert Gordon of Straloch described the Highlanders at the Battle of Glenlivet, fought in 1594 (the same year as the O’Donnell account). “As for their Apparel; next the Skin they wear a short linnen Shirt, which the great men among them sometime dye of saffron colour… Their uppermost Garment is a loose Cloke of several Ells, striped and party colour’d, which they gird breadth-wise with a leather Belt, so as it scarce covers the knees… Far the greatest part of the Plaid covers the uppermost parts of the Body. Sometimes it is all folded round the Body about the Region of the Belt, for disengaging and leaving the hands free; and sometimes ‘tis wrapped round all that is above the Flank… When they compose themselves to Rest and Sleep, they loose the Belt and roll themselves in the Plaid, lying down on the bare ground or putting Heather under them nicely set together after their manner.”
During the sixteenth century we see almost universal agreement in the written descriptions of Scottish Highland clothing that the Scottish and Irish Gaels dressed much alike. But when we come to the very end of that century we first read accounts of the Scots wearing their plaids gathered and belted at the waist. This was different enough to be worthy of comment by the writers, who mention it as something quite distinct from the usual Irish way of dress.
It was the belted plaid that would become the standard mode of dress for Highland men during the seventeenth century. As time marched on, this garment would transform from the feilidh-mór to the feilidh-beag and ultimately into the modern kilt, a universally recognized symbol of the Scottish people.
(All quotes above documented in Old Irish and Highland Dress by H. F. McClintock, 1943).
by Matthew Newsome ©2010
