Tell newbie about kilt pins

[Jock Scot]

To be clear, some experienced kilt wearers don't wear a kilt pin at all and if that is their choice then not an eyebrow is raised. There does seem to be an opinion here on this website from some that there is a risk of the pin catching on something and tearing the kilt cloth. I am not saying it does not happen, but after a rather long time wearing the kilt in all sorts of terrain with a "safety pin" style of pin, I have never managed to rip the kilt in that fashion and I have never personally known anyone else do it either. On the other hand, Land Rover door catches are entirely another matter!

[Tomo]

My preference is to wear a kilt pin.

Most of mine are fairly low key and "natural" looking - mainly horn, antler or wood. I basically follow the one-pin one-kilt approach, although I do have an art deco, pewter luckenbooth pin I sometimes use for formal events (when I can be be bothered swapping them).

On your original query, I wouldn't wear a clan badge just because I thought it was cool (but that said I don't wear my own clan badge either) and, in the UK at least, I would say that the claddagh is usually more associated with Irish rather than Scots heritage (although by no means are the two mutually exclusive).

[Tomo]

[OC Richard]

The background about kilt pins is that they seem to appear in the Victorian period, but weren't all that popular then.

About military kilt pins, from 1808 there were only five kilted Scottish Highland regiments, and only one, the 92nd Foot (Gordon Highlanders) wore kilt pins. They were a plain safety pin.

About Victorian civilian kilt pins, as best I can tell they were part of the general Victorian fad for Clan Crest accessories.

Victorian kilt pins were generally round, and more or less were miniature cap-badges, the Clan Crest surrounded by the strap & buckle. Plain safety pins were also seen.

As best I can tell it was around the 1920s or 1930s when the common modern traditional kilt pins became popular, so popular that some expressed the opinion that they were "required" for proper dress (an opinion which would have baffled the Victorians).

These 20th century kilt pins had a vertical axis and were usually in the shape of swords (often with targe) or less often other weaponry such as axes and dirks.

It's almost as if when men stopped wearing swords at their sides they began wearing them in the form of kilt pins, as vestiges of a former age.

Then in the 1970s, after a century of obscurity, Clan Crest do-dads came roaring back, including Clan Crest kilt pins. Now the strap & buckle was placed over a sword, just as the targe used to be.

Today kilt pins are in a strange place here in the USA. There was a "show us your kilt pins" thread here and very few of the things people were wearing on their kilts were designed and made to be kilt pins. Rather, any small object a person might own was attached to their kilts.

Personally I rarely wear a kilt pin. It's an unnecessary do-dad IMHO and when I'm getting dressed for a piping gig there are enough bits to a Highland outfit at minimum! The last thing I want to do is add superfluous impedimenta.

Time for pretty pictures!

A Gordon Highlander wearing a plain silver safety pin; it appears to have a ball at bottom, a style often seen. (There's another style with a silver rod with silver balls screwed onto each end.)



The man on the left wearing matching Clan Crest cap badge, brooch, and kilt pin



This Fraser Ross catalogue (1930s IIRC) only shows the plain pin and the grouse-claw styles



The Anderson 1936 catalogue only offers pins, in this case with silver ball and a tiny stone, and a penannular brooch style



Here in 1960 we see our familiar styles. A major maker was Robert Allison (established 1938)



Here in a 1970s catalogue we can see a fairly full range of the styles made by Robert Allison and other makers. Robert Allison was in business until 1982.

Note (lower left) the return of the Clan Crest kilt pin! They were offered by two new makers, Art Pewter Silver (est. 1968) and Carrick (est. 1971) who made Clan Crest cap badges, kilt pins, key rings, sginean, etc. It was these firms who powered the 1970s Clan Crest fad which is still with us to some extent.

[figheadair]

A Gordon Highlander wearing a plain silver safety pin; it appears to have a ball at bottom, a style often seen. (There's another style with a silver rod with silver balls screwed onto each end.)

The so-called Atholl Highlanders' pin. I don't wear one but if I did, this would be my kilt pin of choice.

[Troglodyte]

To be clear, some experienced kilt wearers don't wear a kilt pin at all and if that is their choice then not an eyebrow is raised. There does seem to be an opinion here on this website from some that there is a risk of the pin catching on something and tearing the kilt cloth. I am not saying it does not happen, but after a rather long time wearing the kilt in all sorts of terrain with a "safety pin" style of pin, I have never managed to rip the kilt in that fashion and I have never personally known anyone else do it either. On the other hand, Land Rover door catches are entirely another matter!

Ah, yes, the Landrover door..!

But that's nothing compared to baler-twine that always seems hell-bent on a do-or-die, no-holds-barred attack launched with the sole intention of recreating the Gordian knot..!

[Troglodyte]

These are variations on a theme -

DSCF3051a.jpg


They measure 3 inches, 3 1/2 inches and four inches - the top one is the simple 'military' style.

[Jock Scot]

These are variatins on a theme -

DSCF3051a.jpg


They measure 3 inches, 3 1/2 inches and four inches - the top one is the simple 'military' style.

Yes the top one is exactly like mine. Made by Hamilton and Inches of Edinburgh , hall marked silver with a 1913 date letter and belonged to my Grandfather.

[Jock Scot]

Ah, yes, the Landrover door..!

But that's nothing compared to baler-twine that always seems hell-bent on a do-or-die, no-holds-barred attack launched with the sole intention of recreating the Gordian knot..!

We call it a general, random, rural initiative test to see if the knot/knots can be undone in a day without using a knife and without having a breakdown of some sort!.

[DCampbell16B]

I have three kilt pins. The first was a tatty thing as I thought I had to have something when I was a teenager. The third showed up unasked as one of those clan badge on a claymore styles. I doubt I’ll ever wear it.

The second means something. I was staying with an older Gaelic speaking couple in Lewis for a while on my only trip to Scotland (and the little Gaelic I have has a decidedly Lewis sound to it). Walking on Traigh Shandaidh I picked up a fist sized piece of milky quartz. Later I was walking down the street in Inverness and saw some white metal kilt pins in the window. One was a claymore style with a ring of the shop’s initials in a circle rather than a targe. When I got home I took the quartz to my grandfather. He was a very talented man who built his own telescope (including grinding the mirrors), his own ham radios, his own TV. He traveled up and down the East Coast taking pictures of birds and giving talks about them. He also taught himself to cut, polish and even facet stones. He cut the quartz into a circle for me, polished it and found a way to fasten it to the pin over the store initials.

After almost 40 years I wear it every time I wear my kilt. I have a piece of Lewis and my grandfather with me.