The creator of a Clydebank superhero who gains his powers from drinking whisky admits he was inspired to write his tale by Scotland’s national dress.

Dermid Strain penned his novel Kiltman because he says he feels “empowered” whenever he puts on the tartan.

Now living in London, Dermid, who grew up in the Radnor Park area of Clydebank, revealed he had been building the story in his head for years but the Covid pandemic lockdown gave him the nudge he needed to finally take the plunge and get his story down on paper.

Speaking to the Post, Dermid detailed how the power of the kilt once helped to lighten a tense situation when he was walking down an American street.

He said: “I was in New York and I’m walking down the street and I see this young girl who tried to turn a corner, but she has overcut it and the side of her car is really close to a fire hydrant.

“She has kind of frozen, not sure if she should go forward or backwards - and she’s worried she is going to scratch the side of her car.

“Behind her, there are four young guys in a car, and they are leaning out the window and they are shouting at her and swearing at her because they are trying to get past her.

“I ended up going in front of her car and managed to help her navigate around the hydrant.

“She’s waving and me and thanking me, but, the funny thing was, the four guys in the car behind, they were also waving out the window and smiling at me and shouting ‘Go Scotland!’.

“And suddenly I realised, these guys who were full of all this hate and anger about this poor girl who was just trying to drive a car, the kilt has just completely transformed them into nice people.

"That’s when I got the trigger - I thought there is definitely something in a Scottish superhero that wears a kilt.”

Kiltman’s story surrounds a man named Kenny Morgan, who lives in Duntocher and works at a fictional distillery in the Kilpatrick hills, creating his own whisky.

He builds a still in his basement and, once the whisky is ready to try, finds that drinking the whisky gives him superpowers, such as extraordinary sight, hearing, pace, taste and touch.

“He ends up doing some amazing things to help people,” Dermid added.

“But he can’t figure out what’s happening with this whiskey. So he goes up and investigates the water and he finds that the water he is using for the whiskey has come from this pond where a meteorite has landed.”

As with any superhero concept, there needs to be a villain, and this comes in the form of Cullen Skink, who is hellbent on blowing up the west of Scotland.

Dermid has published two Kiltman novels already and is currently working on a third.