Scottish estates spend more than £250k on tweed suits

Scottish shooting estates spent more than a quarter of a million pounds on estate tweed this year, according to a new study.

The information came to light during research for a new Pace Productions film created by the Angus Glens and Grampian Moorland Groups called Tweed — Hill to Hill — A Rural Tradition. It found that the annual spend on estate tweed across Scotland’s seven regional moorland groups came to an estimated £268,924.

The tradition of shooting estates having their own special tweed, with gamekeepers measured up for a new set each year, began in the early 1800s when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had bespoke tweed designed for their staff at the Balmoral estate.

Campbell’s of Beauly, one of Scotland’s top tweed tailors — which received the Royal Warrant earlier this year — said that estate tweed is very important to business.

John Sugden, owner of Campbell’s, explained: “All our bespoke suits are made on site, which is a real skill. We work with over 100 estates, making up 60 to 70 per cent of our work in the tailoring department. Our retail business also benefits from the estate market through fieldsport guests purchasing tweed products in our shop, another very important revenue stream.

“We are closely linked to estates and without their business it would be a very different outlook for us.”

The tradition of special estate tweeds goes back to the 1800s