Practical plaid

Dr A.M cc or mick( letters ,23 August) gives further thoughts on the kilt and its use. Wearing it daily as my normal dress, I have found it suitable for hillwalking in Scotland, Africa and the Himalayas. In Nepal I was occasionally mistaken for a Bhutanese, due to similarity (not identity) of Bhutan national dress with Scottish.

Dr Mccormick mentions the risk of Lyme disease. I mentioned Lyme disease in a textbook I edited in 1986 (The Control of disease in the tropics, 5 th edition, H. K. Lewis ,1987) but did not mention kilts in that context.

I do advise hill-walkers in Scotland to examine their bodies for ticks after such walks, whatever they wear, and to remove them promptly as a precaution against tickborne infections.

I now usually wear Culloden tartan, copied from a coat left on the battlefield in 1746 – which was well before the contribution of the Sobieski brothers. I also wear a tie in St Ninian’s tartan, devised for the Pope’s visit to Scotland in 2010 (I was in the pipe band which welcomed him in Princes Street). So tartans have been devised since at least before 1746 and still are.

(DR) DAVID STEVENSON

Blacket Place, Edinburgh