Our CANONGATE SALES STORE is currently CLOSED for refurbishment from SUNDAY 4th FEBRUARY 2024 for approximately 6 weeks. Our Sales Team have RELOCATED to our HIRE STORE 19-21 St Marys Street to continue business as usual, during this time. ALL COLLECTIONS including Made-to-Measure Orders MUST be arranged by PRIOR APPOINTMENT ONLY to avoid disappointment. Thank you for your co-operation.

Our Values

Heritage | Craftsmanship | Sustainability | Made In Scotland

Handmade kilts tailored to an exacting standard by skilled artisans. Created with expertise in the heart of Edinburgh using the finest Scottish tartan.

Victorian highlander with dog wearing a tailored kilt

Heritage of The Kilt

There’s a lot more to Scottish heritage than the kilt - but what a place to start. We’ve come a long way from the battered great plaid (‘feileadh mòr’) of the sixteenth-century Highlands to the modern sewn kilt in a newly-commissioned tartan, but the thread of our national identity runs through both. It’s easy to play fast and loose with an icon (and many do), but at GNK we treat our heritage with the love and respect it deserves. Using only traditional techniques, we’re a young(ish) business with a very old soul. And we’re keen to share our passion for the history of our favourite garment - be that with customers in store or in one of our talks on the history of Highland dress.

Kilt Craftsmanship

We are kiltmakers on a mission: to reenergise a craft endangered by machine-made copies and the hoarding of knowledge in a competitive industry. In 2016, we founded the Edinburgh Kiltmakers Academy to train a new generation of independent young makers to work in the old style. Come into one of our shops and ask us how our kilts are made - we’ll dig out an apprentice to tell you. You may even see one being sewn on site. Our highlandwear suppliers are likeminded artisans and respected authorities in their specialist fields, pleased to work with us to preserve and promote Scottish craftmanship.

kiltmaking craftsmanship
tartan swatch archive

Kiltmaking and Sustainability

We’re not fans of fast consumption, which is why we use only the best locally-sourced materials and craftsmen to make kits that can be treasured for a lifetime and passed down through generations. It doesn’t get much slower than that. If you need a repair or an alteration made to one of our kilts, help us close the loop and bring it back in. And that applies to kilts that you brought elsewhere / found in your grandpa’s bothy too.  

Made In Scotland

We're proud to be Scottish. And to source our products locally.

And whilst we've been known to roam as far as England in pursuit of the perfect tailoring, if we can have something made closer to home, we absolutely will.

Don't believe us? Take a look at our suppliers on this map:

Map of Scottish craftspeople we work with to product handmade kilts and highlandwear