Scot war dress was yellow

Telegraph:

Historian Fergus Cannan states that the Scots armies who fought in battles like Bannockburn, and Flodden Field would have looked very different to the way they have traditionally been depicted.

Instead of kilts, he said they wore saffron-coloured tunics called "leine croich" and used a range of ingredients to get the boldest possible colours.

"What the Scottish soldiers wore in the country's greatest battles is an area that, up until now, has not been properly studied," he said.

"A lot of historians quite rightly stated that the film Braveheart was not terribly accurate, but what they didn't admit was that they didn't have a clue what would be accurate."

Mr Cannan, a military history specialist, who has traced his own roots back to Robert the Bruce, scoured original medieval eye-witness accounts, manuscripts, and tomb effigies.

Using these and other sources, he built up a picture of what members of Robert the Bruce's forces would have worn in 1314.

Numerous accounts cited by Mr Cannan in his new book, Scottish Arms and Armour, refer to the distinctive linen tunics, usually worn with a belt round the middle.

"Forget about the plaid and tartan," he said.

"The yellow war shirt is never shown in any film or popular image and yet it is something that all the original writers comment on."

Highlanders wore the tunics throughout the Middle Ages and right up until the end of the 16th Century, he said.

Because Saffron was expensive, poor clansmen dyed the linen with horse urine or bark and crushed leaves to get the rich yellow colour.

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It is interesting that an army would choose a color that is associated with cowardice. I don't think I have ever seen the association with the Scots who were pretty fierce warriors. The smell of their battle dress may have been off putting though.