Kwest for Kilt

by Taber
(United States)

Both sides of my family have strong Scottish connections.

My mom's side of the family (Allison) can trace connections back a couple generations, as both of my great grandparents were born in Scotland. The family tree on my father's side (Akin) is longer, but also has a strong connection to Scotland.

Understanding my family's heritage and embracing it has always been important to me and after marrying my wife (also a Scot) we decided that we needed to visit Scotland and planned to do so for our fifth wedding anniversary.

We made it to Scotland during the summer of 2009, after celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary, and one of the many things I wanted to do was find a kilt. My wife and I called this the Kwest for Kilt. We posted a blog of our trip called the Trek for the Tartan.

The Kwest for the Kilt was not very well organized. I did not fully understand that the modern kilt was part of an outfit and I had hoped we'd simply find one during our travels.

After visiting several shops along the Royal Mile I had a better understanding for the variety of kilts and outfits and started to pursue kilts for hire.

This seemed like a viable alternative and we came very close to obtaining a kilt through a hire shop, but the kilt we wanted wasn't available before we left Edinburgh.

It was around the beginning of our fifteen day trip that I learned how many varieties of tartans there are. I was looking for a Gordon Tartan, which aligns with my father's side of our family.

We stayed in Aberdeen for three days on our Trek for the Tartan and it was here that the Kwest for the Kilt came to a close.

We visited several shops in Aberdeen inquiring about kilts that had previously been hired out. All the shops we visited told us that they sold for hire kilts, but none could promise they would have a Gordon in my size.

It was when we visited McCalls' Department Store that we decided to do this correctly and I purchased a kilt in the Antique Gordon tartan. The entire outfit turned out very well and I have gotten rave reviews when I've worn it.