IT IS the most identifiable item of Scottish clothing and yet, to the ignominy of its wearers, the modern kilt is commonly held to have been invented by an Englishman.

Now a historian claims to have uncovered evidence which, he believes, will allow Scots to claim their national dress as their own.

Clifford Smyth, who is writing a history of the kilt, has unearthed a German engraving in the British Museum dating back to before 1690 which appears to depict Scots wearing the kilt. If true, it would challenge the commonly held view of many historians — including the eminent writer Sir Hugh Trevor-Roper — that a military tailor from London called Parkinson, and a fellow Englishman called Rawlinson were the first to create the small kilt, known as the philabeg.

It is claimed that in 1727 Parkinson, who supplied uniforms to General Wade’s troops, was caught out in a downpour near Inverness and sought shelter in the home of Rawlinson, the manager of an iron ore smelting works near the Bridge of Garey. One of Rawlinson’s labourers was sitting by an open fire attempting to dry himself. Parkinson wanted to know why the Highlander did not throw off his brechan, the old-style blanket kilt, and dry off properly. Rawlinson explained that the labourer could not dispense with his giant wrap because, without it, he was naked.

According to this version of events Parkinson accepted the challenge of his host to come up with a wearable alternative for his workforce and the philabeg was born. Another version of the story gives Tyndrum in Perthshire as the location.

Challenging this are a number of myths and anecdotal claims. Gaelic oral tradition holds that the short kilt’s origins are lost in history. The Irish claim that in stone carvings on crosses and monuments in Ireland, which date before the 11th century, the figures are wearing kilts. What is actually pictured is a leine, or Irish tunic.

Smyth, a development officer with the Ulster Scots Language Society, claims that he now has the earliest documented evidence of the kilt’s existence.

“We have all swallowed hook, line and sinker the tale that an Englishman invented the Scots’ national dress,” he said. “This is nonsense and an attempt to play down a country’s Gaelic history by incomers.”

During his research Smyth came across a German cartoon depicting a Scottish warrior. “I tracked down the original (engraving at the British Museum) in London and had the opportunity to examine it in close detail and talk it through with curatorial staff,” he said.

“Dated around 1690, it was credited to E Back of Hamburg, one of a family of distinguished engravers. The engraving is a political cartoon published at the time of the Williamite wars.

“It shows a Scottish warrior in a short kilt. It predates the Lochaber episode by around 37 years, establishing the earlier existence of a short kilt.”

He added: “Earlier in the century, Protestant soldiers from Scotland had fought in Germany during the thirty years’ war. Could the engraver in Germany have been drawing from real life?

“I think the short kilt was regularly worn by Highlanders during the summer for reasons of practicality — the heavy blankets kilt was just too bulky.

“I believe that Parkinson, a military tailor, was already familiar with some form of Highland uniform which included a short kilt and just produced a more elegant version. He did not invent it.”

Smyth, a biographer and cultural commentator for the BBC in Northern Ireland, has now put his research into practice by having a theatrical costumier make him up a version of the kilt, which he now wears.

“It is almost identical to the engraving in its lines and is very practical,” he said.

Smyth began his research after becoming enthusiastic for Scottish country dancing.

“I became interested in the history of the kilt and found in authorative books that the kilt had been invented by two Englishmen in 1727 and that the kilt had more or less evolved from this great big blanket that the Highlanders used to wear.

“To my shame I used to tell this story.

“It gained further credence because Sir Hugh Trevor-Roper wrote a very famous essay in a book on cultural traditions in which he promoted this story as well.”

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