Figure 1.--Here we see an assembly for prize-giving day at the end of the school year in the v1980s. We are not sure what type of school this was. Private schools usually had tweed jacket to wear wiyh liklr. These boys are wearing kilts with jumpers (sweaters). We think this may have been a state primary. We habave not noted private schools wear the boys wear their school jumpers with kilts. This would not have been the everyday unifirm, but the unifirm foer speckiall occassions.

Kilt usage in Scottish schools has varied over time and from school to school. Primarily they were worn at private schools as a formal uniform for Sunday or special occassions. A few schools used it as the everyday uniform, but this was not very common. And at some schools boys were allowed to use it as an alternative to pants. This was most common in the Highlands. Unfortunately we still have only limited information on the 19th century. Before the advent of photography we have virtually no information. Unfortunately we have very little information in the 19th century, buy we know Queen Victorian helped popularize all things Scottish and dressed the young princes in kilts. Queen Vicyoria arrived about the ame time as photography (1837). Photograophy was invented in France (1839). It took some time for school photograoht to begin and become common. We know much more about the 20th century. We not only have studio portaits, but now have large number of now standard school photohraphs, but also family snapshots to add to the bugoning photograohic record. We thus see many examples of boys, but not girls, wearing kilts to school. This includes schools where they were not required as well as schools where they were part of the uniform. We see fewer kilts in the 21st century, mostly at private schools were they were used a the formal dress up uniform.

The 19th Century

I know little about conventions at Scottish schools concerning wearing the kilt in the 19th Century. Most schools until the late 19th Century were private schools. It is thus likely that some the well to do boys that attended school in the early 19th Century may have worn kilts. Queen Victotria and Prince Albert in the 1840s began dressing the young princes in Higland garb. It was undoubtedly an astute political move, but was in keeping with the romantic notions of Scotland which was sweeping England and very much affected the young queen. The first prince to wear a kilt was the future Edward VII. I'm not sure, however, how this affected the wearing of the kilt at Scottish schools. A reader writes, "It seems to me that there are not many photographic evidences from 19th century showing Scottish children in kilt. Surely poor Highlander children wore kilts, but we have not many photos of them." We have archieved information on only a few individual Scottish schools during the 19th century. The boys are wearing knee pants and long pants. At private schools knickers were common, but we have not yet noted kilts in the few images we havce archived.

The 20th Century

The kilt by the early 20th century had come to be dress wear. I think some Scottish boys at private schools may have worn kilts to school. The convention was, however, probably to wear the kilt to Church on Sunday or for other special occasions. I would not dismiss the possibility of some schools adopting the kilt as the school uniform. It is likely, however, that the kilt was not commonly worn at state schools. Kilts were still seen at schools, but were normally only worn at a small minority of the boys. Many state and fee paying day schools had kilts as an option and many took them up. One HBC contributor reports that about 20 percent of boys at some primary schools in the 1950s might be kilted. In his case, the village school in the early 1950s had three boys, including him, who were regularly kilted out of a school population of about 60 children. About 30 of whom would be boys so about 10 percent in this case. Another 6 boys wore kilts some of the time, say for Sunday wear or special occassions. This may have varied by region. Kilts were probably more common in the Highlands. We note the Pitcalnie School in the northern Highlands during 1957. Aboout half of the boys wear kilts. We also see boys at private schools wearing kilts, such as Scotus Academy in the 1960s. At secondary school there were only about 10 kilties out of a school population of about 400, of whom 200 would be boys so only 5 percent and reducing in the senior forms. At university there were also some kilties but harder to quantify. Some areas of Scotland had higher percentages and some lower. If there were a critical mass of kilted boys other boys were less resistant to the idea of kilt wearing and mothers even more keen tosend their sons out this way. Financial means also played a part since kilts by te 1950s were expensive.

The 21st century

Modern practices at Scottish schools vary between state and private schools. The kilt is not normally worn at state schools. We see very rate examples. Many private schools, however, use the kilt worn with a tweed jacket as the principal formal dress-up uniform. Not only are Scottish boys not wild about wearing kilts, given the cost of the kilt and the need for dry-cleaning wool, it is not practical for everyday wear, especially for boys. We rarely see boys wearing kilts, except for special occasions. Schools now only require the kilt on special occasions and Sundays. And actually boys are discouraged from wearing their kilts for everyday because they might get it dirty. This is rarely an issue because few boys are all that anxious to wear their kilts.

Navigate the Relate Boys Historical Clothing Uniform Garment Pages
[Return to the Main Scottish school kilt page]
[Retuen to the Main school garment page]
[Main school kilt]
[Blazers] [Bookbag] [Caps] [Coats] [Hose] [Kilts] [Pants] [Shirts]
[Shoes] [Smocks [Suits] [Seaters] [Ties]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing School Uniform Country Pages
[Main School Uniform Page]
[Main National School Uniform Page]
[Australia] [England] [France] [Germany]
[Ireland] [Italy] [Japan] [New Zealand] [Poland] [Singapore] [Scotland]
[Singapore] [United States]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Page
[Activities] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Debate] [Economics] [Garment] [Gender] [Hair] [History] [Home trends] [Literary characters]
[School types] [Significance] [Transport and travel [Uniform regulations] [Year level] [Other topics]
[Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Return to the Historic Boys' School Home]

Created: 8:35 PM 5/24/2021
Last updated: 8:36 PM 5/24/2021