Reprinted with Permission from the Chapter entitled "Sporrans" from the book,"So You're Going To Wear The Kilt" written by J. Charles Thompson, now deceased, Revised 3rd Edition and Published 1989

SPORRANS by J. Charles Thompson

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With the kilt, a sporran is a real necessity. You have to have some place to put whatever you usually carry in your pants pockets. The only sporran that will serve for all occasions is the fur sporran with the animal's head made into the flap that closes it. These animal-mask sporrans are very expensive (all but the plainest leather sporrans are) and hard to get, since badgers and otters are now protected (in Scotland), though I understand the sporran makers are importing badger skins from Texas. Someone should get into the business over here. A marmot is just the right size for a sporran, (sorry, Craigie doesn't have a marmot) and the eastern marmot, marmota virginiana, is the wood-chuck, a farm pest that is not likely ever to get on anybody's protected list. In the first edition of this book I suggested that a skunk skin sporran, with its black and white, would look well with the black and silver of Scottish evening dress. A taxiderrmist in Nova Scotia took up this suggestion, and skunkskin, animal-mask sporrans are now available.

You have two options, unless expense is no object. The first is to get a plain leather sporran to wear with your kilt jacket and start saving up for an evening sporran. Your evening outfit is going to run into money, anyway. The other alternative is to buy a not-too-fancy evening sporran and wear it for both day and evening. This is not too good. For evening wear, the sporran must be fur and/or silver mounted. This is not going to look well with a sports jacket or even more informal outfits. And the purists who talk of "hunting attire" will boggle at the glittering silver. You are going to want two sporrans in the end, and one of them should be plain leather, so the best deal in the long run is to get that one first. They are now manufacturing sporrans with fur fronts and leather around the edges. These appear to me to be neither flesh, fowl, nor good red herring. They definitely are not dressy enough for evening, and that being so, there is no warrant for spending the extra that they cost over a plain leather sporran.
If you have a chance to shop for a sporran (rather than mail ordering) be sure it is roomy. You will have to carry in it a money clip for bills and credit cards, a coin purse (loose coins in a sporran are hopeless), and your driver's license and car keys, at very least. So try to find a sporran with a mouth you can get your hand into. An old and most convenient pattern of soft leather with drawstrings is now being revived.
Don't wear the sporran too low! The top of a small sporran should not be lower than about a hand's breadth below your navel. If you wear a hair sporran-and it is not recommended except for bandsmen-the top must be even higher, because the bottom should not come down below the bottom of the kilt. One of my advisers in Scotland says that no sporran should be worn more than a couple of inches below the navel. He points out quite correctly that this height is far more comfortable, particularly when you are really active as when running or dancing. If you decide to wear your sporran so, however,
you must put up with the fact that you will be wearing it a few inches higher than other people. There is nothing, of course, to prevent you from adjusting the height to the occasion. Wear the sporran at the stylish height until you are about to start running or dancing, and then take up the strap a couple of holes! For really violent activities like tossing the caber or throwing the hammer, the sporran is, of course, laid aside completely.
Some kilts have little belt loops in back to put the sporran straps through, but I have found them useless and inconvenient. A sporran on a strap or chain of the right length hangs perfectly well without any further support. And in ballroom dancing the sporran must be put out of the way by sliding it over onto the left hip. If the strap or chain is confined in back, this becomes a real hassle. Except for evening, use a strap on your sporran, rather than a chain! The chain chafes the kilt and wears it out much faster than a strap...................end....................

Reprinted with Permission from the Chapter on Sporrans of the book,"So You're Going To Wear The Kilt" written by J. Charles Thompson, Revised 3rd Edition and Published 1989