[varialectio]

Interesting article, but none of this is news. There’ve been a slew of books and articles in the last five years or so critical of accepted ideas about the Celts—including by Steven Oppenheimer, John Collis, and Simon James. Too bad TR didn’t publish the book while he was alive. They never explained the delay.

Like all debunking, it’s probably gone too far. There were plaids in Britain in the first century AD, tho’ I think he’s right about no kilts til the 18th c.

[Clemenza]

I read this more than a decade ago in Eric Hobsbawm’s “The Invention of Tradition.”

[AnAmericanMother]

What he's done is strung together some half-truths and made some huge leaps. He's also deliberately concealing some well known information.

The story's been around for years that the "little plaid" or kilt per se -- the garment with permanently sewn-down pleats and a waistband -- was invented by a tailor in Lochaber some time in the 18th century. This website begs to differ, pointing out depictions of the small kilt occurred in the 17th century.

The "great plaid" or actually just the "plaid" however dates back as far as recorded history goes. It was a sort of do-it-yourself kilt - you laid the HUGE rectangle of cloth down on the ground, pleated it side to side, then slid your belt under at waist height, lay down, flipped the end panels over the front, buckled the belt, and stood up. (Is that perfectly clear? There are guys at the Highland Games who demonstrate this!) The left over top piece could be flung over your shoulder, used as a rain coat, or just hang behind like a tail.

The "little kilt" is just the belted plaid with the top cut off and the pleats sewn down.

And "Ossian" was exposed as a fraud in the 18th century by none other than that good old literary combatant, Dr. Johnson. This is NOT news. The fact that James McPherson decided to pass off some of his own poetry as translated from an 'ancient manuscript' does not in any way invalidate other authentic (if incomplete) sources.

So Trevor-Roper is being more than a little disingenuous here.

(Isn't this the guy that declared that the fake "Hitler diaries" were "authentic"? Some 'eminent historian', that.)

[ArmyTeach]

... no kilts til the 18th c. Well, I think it's for sure there were no kilts in the second half of the 18th century. They were banned after Culloden, or so I hear.

[ArmyTeach]

... no kilts til the 18th c. Well, I think it's for sure there were no kilts in the second half of the 18th century. They were banned after Culloden, or so I hear.