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Some researchers say that migrating Gaels in ancient times brought the kilt from Ireland and introduced it into Scotland. It's quite true that many aspects of Celtic culture migrated from place to place and were shared in every Celtic region, from Galicia to Gaul. When it comes to cultural innovations, much of the time, the long-suffering Scots don't seem to get the respect or credit they deserve. The Irish have laid claim to inventing many cultural treasures prized by Scots, including whiskey, bagpipes, kilts and almost anything else you could name. The historical record on kilts, however, supports the notion that Scotland is a better choice than Ireland for the birthplace of the modern kilt.

The Irish claim to inventing the kilt is partially based on analysis of stone carvings on Celtic crosses and monuments in Ireland; although these carvings predate the 11th century, their proponents say, they show people wearing kilts. Upon closer examination, however, the figures on the carvings are seen to be wearing an almost knee-length tunic, called a léine, belted at the waist—and not a shirt on top, and a separate skirt on the bottom. The garment seen below the belt on ancient carvings is merely the bottom half of the long tunic.

Other evidence for Irish invention of the kilt comes from artistic representations of soldiers and knights in quilted armor. The garment in question is not a kilt but a cotun, a heavy tunic whose quilted padding provides light armor protection in battle. In some carvings in which soldiers are wearing cotuns, the bottom part of the garment looks pleated like a kilt; however, these vertical lines on the lower part of the cotun are actually just stitches in the quilting. This is another example of a knee-length tunic having been wrongly misinterpreted as a kilt when it is not.

A Primer in Kiltic Evolution:
From the Léine and Brat to the Belted Plaid and Phillabeg

Kilts have traveled a long and winding road on their way to their modern form. The initial form of the kilt, the knee-length tunic known as léine, expanded over the centuries. By the sixteenth century, the leine had evolved to the point that it resembled an oversized, long-sleeved bathrobe, worn in pullover or open, belted styles. Also around this time the brat—a woolen shawl—became a popular item to wear over one's leine. In Scotland, the brat was referred to as a plaid, an old Scots Gaelic term for blanket. With archaeologists finding evidence of tartans dating as far back as the third century, it is possible that some of these “plaids” may have been executed in a tartan pattern.

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