If you’re into clothes, there are few things more stimulating than having to dress for a new activity. Having to do so for stalking in the Scottish Highlands recently was particularly interesting, given there’s such menswear tradition behind it. 

Many stalkers today still wear pretty classic clothing. There’s a lot of tweed, waxed jackets, tattersall shirts and shetland jumpers. Our stalker Hamish (below) is out in all weather and wears brushed-cotton shirts and tweed breeks (also known as plus fours or twos, depending on how far they roll beneath the knee).

This is what tweed was traditionally used for of course, and hairy wool like this has a lot of technical attributes – it’s strong, supple, quiet and water resistant, as well as fairly warm when wet. 

Wonderfully, Hamish and his assistant even wear deer stalkers – the one menswear garment this sport has give its name to. And on the hills you can see the practicality of the hat, with the front and rear peaks providing shelter, while the open sides (with optional flaps across the ears) allow maximum peripheral vision.

The two areas where stalkers tend to opt for more technical clothing are the lower legs and outer coat. 

Boots are often leather, but they’re technical, with waterproof linings and commando soles. Hiking boots rather than country boots, basically, from brands like Meindl, Zamberlan and so on. 

And they’re nearly always worn with gaiters – the waterproof wraps that clip to your boots and fasten above the calf. On a stalk you often walk through long grass and deep mud, and few things are worse than being outside for hours with wet feet. We were certainly glad of them when we went, with our legs at times sinking up to the knee in mud that felt like a weird, uncooked brownie mixture. 

Technical outerwear is less of a requirement, but more needed if it’s actually going to rain. Hamish wears a jacket from RealTree, but it’s also common to wear waxed jackets, and field jackets with water-proof membranes underneath their trad-looking wool. 

So what did I wear? Well, to be honest I thought I would feel a little fake – a little touristy – if I donned the full outfit of tweed plus-fours and Barbour jacket. 

I love the fact that these classic-menswear items are still worn, and that it’s practical to do so, but I thought it might feel a little like costume, akin to someone arriving on Savile Row in a bowler hat and twirling an umbrella. Or perhaps more accurately, like a native regular rather than an outside visitor. 

So I wore something in between, using mostly clothes I already had and taking lessons from the practicality of the things the regulars wear. Those clothes were:

• An old Barbour Solway I had, in characteristically beaten-down green (size 42)
• A brown Rubato lambswool sweater 
• A wool/cotton neckerchief from Anderson & Sheppard
• Some RRL heavy-canvas trousers (2024 special edition, not currently available)
• Two headwear options: a black PS watch cap and a faded black Ralph cap
• Zamberlan boots and gaiters borrowed from Campbell’s

It proved very practical. The colours were all the muddy browns and greens that had been requested, and the materials did well during a day that ran from mist and freezing wind, to hard work in hot sun. 

Indeed, at one point I had to crawl for 10 minutes through the wet grass, before lying down stock-still for another 10, waiting for a deer to move. It was at that point that I remembered gratefully that those RRL trousers had some kind of wax treatment, and so I was waxed from shoulder to knee. 

The little neckerchief proved to be very effective at both protecting the neck and soaking up the sweat of six hours on the hills. The PS watch cap kept my always-vulnerable head cosy when mist descended. 

And we were relatively well camouflaged. This is particularly important in the Highlands, where there is little tree cover and you’re just walking for hour after hour, in silence, in single file, trying to find which part of the hills the deer decided to spend the night. 

People generally don’t wear bright colours here either – unlike the red or orange often worn elsewhere – because while the deer wouldn’t be able to see it (they are effectively colour blind) there is a lot less risk of shooting anyone else. Plus the browns and greens of estate tweeds are more of a tradition. 

By the way, piece on estate tweeds coming up next week….

Thank you to John, Hamish and everyone that made our stay in the Highlands so enjoyable. For a lot more on stalking, see the first article on this subject here. As ever with PS, the comments are worth just as much as the article, if not more.