The Kertch,  or Am Brèid (pronounced Bray'ch)

by: Victoria Chavez aka Alison inghean Coinneach mhec Iain of the Clan Guinne

Many misconceptions I often see at faire come from most people playing a Scottish female character. I am aware that we do not know much about Scots women of the time, however there is one thing that is an historical certainty. A married Scots woman, who was Catholic, would always wear a kertch known in Gaelic as brèid. Never would a married woman be seen wearing a Bonaid (the man's little round flat knitted thing, mistakenly called a tam).

It is simply a piece of white cotton muslin or fine linen cut into a PERFECT 1yd by 1yd square.

• Fold it over into a triangle and tie on like a kerchief so your hair is inside of it.
• You will have two VERY long loose ends, pull these up on top of your head where your kertch meets your hair line and twist.
• Tie the two ends together in a square knot and tuck the two short loose "rabbit ears" under the band you have just created.

We play Catholics and up until Vatican II, Rome dictated that impure women needed to cover their hair at Mass (ideally impure WAS married). It used to be they covered their hair all the time up until this century and then it was just at Mass until Vatican II in the 60's deemed it unnecessary. The brèid is your wedding band, marriage was the right of passage for women."...the young bride wore it on the morning after her wedding."¹    

In Scottish clan society married women were allowed to hold property, participate in clan decision making and given respect as a "real" person. Before marriage, a woman was just a "girl", she knew nothing of the real world. This is why if you are old enough to be married, play married, your status is much higher. If you are young enough to get by playing unmarried, wear your hair down with nothing covering it. (Do NOT wear a snood, this is a Lowland and English fashion). "The ordinary girls wear nothing upon their heads until they are married or get a child...their hair hangs down over the forehead, like that of a wild colt."²

* If your hair is too short to be seen you must wear a kertch and thus play a married women so that it is covered.
* You would wear the kertch after being widowed (widow life is even better, you keep your status, probably some money and no husband to contend with) because you were still impure, you would want to wear it, again, to uphold your status.

The kertch, if worn correctly, will have about 3 points on the back, the religious symbolism being the holy trinity (the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) under whose guidance a wife was to walk...literally.

Feel free to decorate the ends of your brèid with knot work embroidery, this is a very important piece of your clothing that you would spend time on. "The indication of a women's marital status by the type of her head-covering is not uncommon in European folk costume. In the Highlands of Scotland this practice was taken seriously and in some cases the kertch or coif was the finest piece of attire in a poor woman's possession."³

¹ John Tefler Dunbar, History of Highland Dress, p.100
² John Tefler Dunbar, The Costume of Scotland , p.125
³ John Tefler Dunbar,  The Costume of Scotland, p.125