The Royal Mile

[bchunter]

We just got back late last night from a week in Belfast and Edinburgh. We were in Edinburgh for almost 4 days total, and in that time I saw two dudes in kilts. One was a military personal at the Castle in uniform, and one was another American trudging up High Street towards the Castle. That's it. I felt like a tourist attraction. A camera glitch has lost all photos, too. All in all I was disappointed in the cheap stuff being hawked by many of the vendors along the Royal Mile. I even went into several of the reputable shops, and none kilted in sight. I was surprised.

[Lily]

You,re not the only one.
was there 2 weeks ago and saw it too.
Went to the mill, found out about the homecoming tartan, wanted a (ladies) kilt but they hadn,t it in store.
There was a great change since I was there with the Gathering, a lot of shops are closed and there,s a lot of crapp in other stores to buy.
But my sis and I had a great weekend again.

[cessna152towser]

I'm amazed you didn't see a lot more kiltwearers in Edinburgh, there were thousands of guys out and about in kilts in Edinburgh on Saturday.

[McClef]

Maybe they were a little further west of the Royal Mile though Alex - at a place called Murrayfield?

[bchunter]

By Saturday we were motoring our way back southwestardly to catch a ferry back to Belfast.

[OC Richard]

Being an infrequent visitor to Edinburgh, visiting there twice in the 1980's but not again til 2004 and 2007, I was amazed at the difference the interval of time had wrought.

In the 1980's cheap Pakistani and Indian goods had not yet flooded the market and all the shops along the Royal Mile were Scots selling Scottish-made handcrafted goods. There were long-established pipemakers with shops there.

My jaw dropped when in 2004 when I saw shop after shop manned by bearded and turbanned Easterners selling nothing but cheap Eastern bagpipes, sporrans, kilts, etc. Tourists seemed to be unaware that the things they were buying were not Scottish.

In my opinion Scotland should pass laws, such as exist in many other countries, protecting their native industries. Kilts, sporrans, bagpipes, and what-not should not be allowed to be imported into Scotland for resale. (This would allow individual Scots to purchase overseas kilts and bagpipes for their personal use.)

Another thing that struck me about the Royal Mile is the discrepancy between the Castle end and the Holyrood end. Close to the castle were all sorts of nice shops (though touristy) while at the other end were many shuttered, abandoned-looking places.

Oh... another thing about the Holyrood end: the unspeakably hideous Parliament building:



Still a few legit Highland dress houses:

[bchunter]

I agree with you, OC. While I cannot speak for earlier times, the abundance of cheap imports diverted most unaware tourists away from the much more expensive, quality shops. Like you, I found that the World's End pub marked the essential end of the vibrant portion of High Street.

[Tobus]

In my opinion Scotland should pass laws, such as exist in many other countries, protecting their native industries. Kilts, sporrans, bagpipes, and what-not should not be allowed to be imported into Scotland for resale. (This would allow individual Scots to purchase overseas kilts and bagpipes for their personal use.)

I can understand your frustration and your desire to want to help Scottish industry. But honestly, more law isn't the answer. And such a law would be highly discriminatory anyway... bordering on racist. It would be challenged as such and probably overturned.

[Lachlan09]

I haven't been there's for donkeys ! Is JR Glen (aka Steptoe & Son) still there ?

[auld argonian]

Maybe we need an "app" for that. Some kind of Google Map thingie that directs the kilted faithful to the GOOD places and away from the TAT.

With the technology today you can put actual photos of the locations into the system so that they show up according to the GPS coordinates.

A new project worthy of the members of the forum!

Best

AA