It’s eight o’clock, the candles are flickering merrily and Roxanne is putting the finishing touches to tonight’s meal. Her husband, Richard, is entertaining the guests, the sound of Michael Bublé humming soothingly in the background. Conversation is polite — it’s the first time the couples have met — yet brimful with anticipation. Everyone is waiting for the party to begin.Finally the signal comes: “Dinner’s ready. If you’d like to get changed we can start the meal.” Disappearing into separate bedrooms, the couples re-emerge minutes later. Naked.

Nude dining may not be everybody’s ideal way to spend a Saturday night, particularly in the company of strangers. But in a surprising number of Scottish dining rooms, people are willing to bare all before the breadsticks arrive and only cover up again as the carriages are called.

The whole naturist thing is bigger in America, of course. In New York, nude dinners are a huge hit and naturist groups host “clothing optional” meals at restaurants around the city. American converts to the cause can indulge in naturist cruises, flights and even train journeys. Instinctively one knows this kind of activity is never going to break out on the 8:15 from Falkirk High.

But if naturism has never quite achieved the market penetration in Scotland to match its successes on the other side of the pond, it plainly has a growing band of adherents. And when the options are the plunging temperatures of winter or a midge-infested summer, it’s easy to understand why, rather than parade in public, our hardy home-grown naturists have begun to open up their dining rooms to perfect strangers.

If their retreat inside is understandable, other questions about naturists nag away. For a start, if it’s not about sex, then what is it about? Self-respect, apparently. According to the British Naturism organisation, it’s “a way of life in harmony with nature . . . with the intention of encouraging self-respect, respect for others and for the environment.”

Given the apparent maturing age of many of its adherents, it might be possible to accept the British Naturism notion that “nudity in sun clubs is not sexually stimulating”. But it seems fair to ask just what is it with some fiftysomethings that makes them whip their kit off as soon as their stomach muscles slacken? The answers from the converted are amazingly bland. It seems a BBC documentary first made Richard and Roxanne curious about naturism, and they broke their duck 10 years ago on holiday in Spain. They were apparently attracted not by the aesthetics of the human body but by much more mundane factors. Roxanne mentions the comfort of not having to wear damp swimwear. For Richard there was a certain classlessness about the whole thing. After all, your top hat’s not too much use if you’ re naked, however rich you are.

On their website, the couple explain themselves with a certain diffidence: “We are definitely not models and we welcome couples of all shapes and sizes from all backgrounds and religions, to join us for a nude evening, dinner, and a good conversation. Roxanne is a mild smoker and we don’t mind if you do either.” Heaven knows where the smoking ban will leave them. They plough on: “We deliberately have not placed our photos on this site as we have family who we do not want to offend, we’re sure you appreciate this.”

Other Scottish naturists are more robust. Take the publisher of the online Secret Naturist Handbook who boasts: “For more than 20 years I’ve explored the rolling hills and valleys of southeast Scotland. I have walked for miles across the heather moorland of the Southern Uplands, mountain biked along lonely forest trails and splashed in the cold waters of the North Sea. All the while totally and utterly naked!” Totally and utterly naked they may be, but Richard and Roxanne are less evangelical. They have made the choice to be more discreet, offering three-course dinners at their detached home, somewhere near Edinburgh. The evenings are entirely free of charge.

“Lots of people think there must be a catch. To be honest, I think we’d get more people coming if we charged,” says Richard, who wishes his surname to remain confidential. “But we do it for social reasons, not to make money. We have dinner, blether for a few hours and then the guests go home. Nothing more.”

The couple believe they are the first to host nude dinners in Scotland, though there are naturist guesthouses in the Borders and Glasgow.

After their experiences abroad, Richard and Roxanne couple reckoned there had to be naturists at home who wanted to socialise just as they might in Spain — but without the hazard of a fierce Atlantic gale playing about their parts. Eighteen months ago the couple decided to go public — well, almost. Richard, a 52-year-old IT expert, created a website inviting naturist couples for “an intimate nude dining experience”.

Since then, the number of inquiries has risen exponentially and the website receives about 300 hits a day. While many inquiries are from people wanting more intimate entertainment, a substantial number are from genuine naturists eager to meet like-minded people. Now the couple host nude dinners every month.

The list of participants seems endless. A sheep farmer from Australia. A range of academics from central Scotland’s bigger cities. Local council workers, doctors, nurses and a recently retired army officer.

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