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Tartan has without
doubt become one of the most important symbols of Scotland and Scottish
Heritage and with the Scots National identity probably greater than at any
time in recent centuries, the potency of Tartan as a symbol cannot be
understated. However, it has also created a great deal of romantic
fabrication, controversy and speculation into its origins, name, history
and usage as a Clan or Family form of identification. |
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What
is a Tartan?
Tartan is a woven material, generally of wool, having stripes of different
colours and varying in breadth. The arrangement of colours is alike in
warp and weft - that is, in length and width - and when woven, has the
appearance of being a number of squares intersected by stripes which cross
each other; this is called a 'sett’. |
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Repro. Falkirk Tartan |
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By changing the
colours; varying the width; depth; number of stripes, differencing is
evolved. Tartan patterns are called "setts"; the sett being the complete
pattern and a length of tartan is made by repeating the pattern or sett
over and over again.
Origins of Tartan
The Celts for many
thousands of years are known to have woven chequered or striped cloth and
a few of these ancient samples have been found across Europe and
Scandinavia. It is believed that the introduction of this form of weaving
came to the West of Northern Britain with the Iron age Celtic Scoti
(Scots) from Ireland in the 5 – 6th c. BC.
Early Romans talked of the Celtic tribes wearing bright striped clothing -
there was no word at that time for chequered. One of the earliest examples
of tartan found in Scotland dates back to the 3rd century AD, where a
small sample of woollen check known as the Falkirk tartan (now in the
National Museum of Scotland) was found used as a stopper in an earthenware
pot to protect a treasure trove of silver coins buried close to the
Antonine Wall near Falkirk. It is a simple two coloured check or tartan
which, was identified as the undyed brown and white of the native Soay
Sheep. Colours were determined by local plants that could be used for
dyes.
Tartan The Name
The
word Tartan we
use today has also caused speculation and confusion as one camp says it
comes from the Irish word - tarsna - crosswise and/or
the Scottish Gaelic tarsuinn – across. The Gaelic word for Tartan
has always been – breachdan - the most accepted probability for the
name comes from the French
tiretaine which was a wool/linen mixture. In the 1600s it
referred to a kind of cloth rather than the pattern in which the cloth was
woven. |
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German Woodcut of
around 1631. |
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History
One
of the first recorded mentions of Tartan was in 1538 when King James V
purchased "three ells of Heland Tartans" for his wife to wear. And in
1587, Hector Maclean (heir of Duart) paid feu duty with sixty ells of
cloth "white, black and green"- the tradition colours of the Maclean
hunting tartan. An eyewitness account of the Battle of Killecrankie in
1689 describes "McDonells men in their triple stripe” but the first
positive proof of the existence of what we now call ‘Tartan’,
was in a German woodcut of about 1631 which is thought |
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to
show Highland soldiers - no doubt mercenaries - in the army of
Gustavus Adolphus and
wearing a clearly identified tartan philamhor - the great kilt.
The
next important milestone in the history of tartan was the 1745 rebellion
ending with the Battle of Culloden in 1746 and the following genocide in
the highlands. The romantic Young Pretender,
Charles Edward Stuart - Bonnie Prince Charlie - ranged
his inferior Jacobite forces of Highlanders against the Duke of
Cumberland's Government forces. The Jacobite army was organised into Clan
regiments and as historian Jamie
Scarlett explains "here
we have the first hint of the use of tartan as a clan uniform."
To understand how this battle proved to be the catalyst for the great Clan
Tartan myth, we have to look at the lifestyle and the terrain in which
many of Scotland's major families or clans lived at that time.
Each area or community grouping would doubtless have, as one of its
artisans, a weaver. He - they were invariably men - would no doubt produce
the same tartan for those around him and that tartan would initially
become what we now call a District Tartan - one worn by individuals living
in close geographical proximity such as glen or strath. By its very
nature, that community would be one huge
extended family that soon
became identified by its tartan which it wore, not to differentiate it
from its neighbours in the next glen - but because that is what its
community weaver produced! It was one short step from there to connect
that tartan to the name of the wearers. |
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All
weavers depended very much on local plants for their dyes so the locality
of the weaver might well have some bearing on the colours of the tartan
that he produced. If he lived on the west coast of Scotland,
Gipsywort would give him
lettuce green, seaweeds would give him flesh colour and seashore whelks
might provide purple. If he lived inland, then he would undoubtedly look
to the moors for his colours: heather treated in different ways
would give him yellow, deep green and brownish orange; blaeberries (the
favourite food of the grouse) would provide purples, browns and blues;
over 20 different lichens would give him a wide range of subtle shades. If
he was affluent or dyeing and weaving for a customer of some substance,
then he would seek more exotic imported colours of madder, cochineal, woad
and indigo. |
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"The Battle of Culloden"
by David Morier circa 1745 |
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If
the concept of clan tartans was born at Culloden it wasn't universally
known - in that battle there was frequently no way of differentiating
friend from foe by the tartan he wore. The only reliable method was to see
with what colour ribbon - sprig – a bit of plant - each combatant
had adorned his bonnet which, would differ to show the affiliation to ones
Clan. This represented in Scottish Heraldry today as a ‘Plant Badge’ that
would be worn by a follower to show loyalty to ones Chief. There is a
contrary view that this was caused, not by the lack of clan tartans, but
by the Highlander's propensity for discarding his cumbersome philamhor
(belted plaid) before charging into the fray.
After Culloden and the following genocide that occurred throughout the
Highlands, the Government was determined to destroy the Clan System and
raised an Act of Parliament known as the “The Disarming Act” one of these
laws was to make the wearing of tartan a penal offence for the next 36
years until 1782. This proscription however applied only to common
Highland men - not the upper echelons of Highland society, not to Lowland
Scots and not to women. But most importantly, it did not apply to the
Highland regiments that were being formed in the Government army.
Clan
Identification and Tartan
William Wilson and Sons est. 1760 of Bannockburn, near Stirling was
relatively unaffected by the ban on tartan (1746 – 1782) and continued to
mass produce Setts of tartan for the Military and the Upper classes.
The Wilson’s "Key Pattern Book" of 1819 documents weaving instructions for
more than 200 Tartans - many of them tentatively named - produced at their
Bannockburn dye works and weaving sheds. |
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Wison & Sons. No 219 -
1819 |
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There is no evidence that Wilson's Tartans had anything whatsoever to do
with any ancient regional or pre-1746 patterns. The Tartans worn at the
Battles of Sheriffmuir or Culloden have almost all been lost forever. In
1816 an attempt was made to match Clan to 'true' Tartan. Tartans were
gathered but these had more to do with regimental uniforms and Wilson's
successful marketing than any older patterns. But the idea that Tartan and
Clan paired had become firmly established.
When the laws were repealed in 1782 there was a resurgence of Scottish
nationalism and efforts to restore the spirit and culture of the Highlands |
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after this lengthy period of repression were encouraged by the newly
formed Highland Societies in London (1778) and Edinburgh (1780).
Thanks to the personal
planning of Sir Water Scott, the 1822 visit of King George IV to Edinburgh
was to see Highland Chiefs being persuaded to attend the levee and other
functions, all attired in their Clan tartans (some did not go). Almost
overnight tartan became popular and families, who probably had never
before worn tartan, (and hated the Highlanders) became the proud
possessors of family Tartans. This along with Sir Walter’s romanticism of
Tartan in his novels this was to aid the Clan and the Tartan to become
synonymous.
Another great boost to tartan came from Queen Victoria and her Consort,
Prince Albert. They fell in love with Balmoral - the Royal residence on
Deeside in Scotland - and
with tartan and all
things Highland. Prince Albert designed the now world famous Balmoral
tartan and they bedecked room after room with it, further consolidating
the Victorians' romanticised view of the 'noble' Highlander. |
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GENTLEMEN - THE TARTAN
Here's to it!
The fighting sheen of it,
The yellow, the green of it,
The white, the blue of it,
The swing, the hue of it,
The dark, the red of it,
Every thread of it.
The fair have sighed
for it,
The brave have died for it,
Foemen sought for it,
Heroes fought for it.
Honour the name of it,
Drink to the fame of it -
THE TARTAN.
(Murdoch
Maclean) |
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Over the last fifty
years or so tartan has developed into a multi-million pound industry
dominated by a few large mills. Today tartan holds a unique place in the
annuals of textile history and has come to symbolise, along with the kilt
and bagpipes, the cultural identity of the whole Scottish nation.
One thing Murdoch
Maclean forgot in his poem was –‘Be Proud of It’
© John A. Duncan of Sketraw,
KCN, FSA Scot. |
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