James Pringle Weavers

Choose tartan. Choose shortbread. Choose whisky. Choose teen pregnancy, heart disease and alcoholism.
Choose James Pringle Weavers.
Some of the many Scottish stereotypes up there, and at least the first three are catered for sufficiently in here, wrapped up with the in your face shamelessness of any tourist shop you would find in any other major city in the world.
I have it on good recommendation that you can get a good kilt here though, but with so many other no nonsense kiltmakers in town like Gilt Edged, I’m tempted to steer clear.
A good tourist spot where you can pick up ‘see you Jimmy’ hats and towels that look like kilts etc.

The owners of James Pringle Weavers obviously used to take a sensible approach to Scottish traditional wear: kilts, cashmere, proper tartans…
But I guess either the high rent on Buchanan Street or just being based in Glasgow as a tourist city has left them jaded. The point of reference when you pass by the storefront is now, «Look! We have Saltire t-​shirts! And those shirts with the Scottish slang words and definitions on them! Eejits! Teuchters! ‘Mon in!!!»
Who can blame them, though, being slap bang in the middle of Buchanan Street? It isn’t altogether tacky — they do have some classier Scottish souvenir attire, trinkets, and keyrings than their pals over at Heritage of Scotland.
It’s a good wee shop, all things considered. You can get a kilt fitted in your family tartan, buy yourself a nice wooly scarf, or pick up something deliciously touristy and stereotypical. Brilliant!

James Pringle Weavers is a shop on Buchanan Street which appears to be in the middle of some kind of identity crisis. On one hand, it is a serious shop selling quality tartan and cashmere. You can get yourself fitted for a handmade kilt here — and you’ll be presented with more tartan samples than you know what to do with.
And now for the other side of James Pringle Weavers — the tacky tourist side! In addition to the proper clothing I mentioned above — in James Pringle Weavers you can also find yourself surrounded by tacky keyrings, ginger wigs and gift boxed whiskey. Basically, the upstairs of this shop is a tourist’s dream.
I can’t help thinking that this shop would be far more at home placed on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh!
The only other thing that you need to know about this shop, is that it is absolutely boiling. Especially downstairs, where it’s quite hard to breathe! Then again, if you’ve got a bit too cold shopping, James Pringle Weavers is probably a great place to go to thaw out!

Still portraying a slightly twee image of Scotland, but without the «we’ll set aboot ye» nonsense hawked by that awful Heritage store I reviewed previously, James Pringle is actually a nice enough little shop, with toy Scotty dogs, nice woolen scarves, and callendars with pictures of hills on them.
If you’re also one of these people deluded enough not to notice that all whisky tastes the same, then there’s a good selection of gift bottles here as well.

James Pringle is split between touristy souvenirs as you enter the door, and the higher quality tartan section at the back. There are the classic cuddly toy scottie dogs, ginger-​wigged tammys and whisky for tourists.
When we went down to Donington for Download 2007, my pal Mark got himself a kilt from here for the occasion, cant remember what tartan it was. Anyone at Download 2007 may have remembered the Scottish uprising and march through the camping zones. It was a sight to behold, especially when security got involved haha. Anyway, the kilt was absolutely destroyed by the end of it, but this was clearly Mark’s own fault.

If you’ve got a foreign friend and you want to buy them something a bit Scottish then look no further than the shop of Mr. James Pringle.
This weavers emporium is a great place to pick up some quality tartan scarves, shawls, kilts and all manner of tartan paraphernalia. If you want to order a tartan pattern that is not in store then speak to the friendly staff.
For the whisky lovers among you they also sell lots of little mini-​bottles, perfect if you want a token present for just about anyone. Even if they don’t like whisky they can use it as a little ornament.
Come festival season you can pop in and buy yourself weekender Kilt for £50.