The Most Interesting Tartans

The Most Interesting Tartans You’ve Likely Never Heard Of!

We’ve all heard of MacDonald, MacGregor, Campbell and Royal Stewart. We may even be able to identify on sight many of the more common clan tartans. But with entries in the International Tartan Index (maintained by the Scottish Tartans Authority) numbering well above seven thousand, there are tartans on record that you are not likely to see at your next Highland Games or St. Andrews Society meeting.

Some of these are artifact tartans with some very interesting history behind them. One example is the Glenaladale tartan. This historic tartan was found on Prince Edward Island, Canada, in 1968 by Ranald L. MacDonald. It belonged, at the time, to an elderly priest who was reportedly a descendant of Major Alexander MacDonald of Glenaladale, a supporter of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Major MacDonald migrated to Canada in 1772, supposedly bringing this plaid with him.

Another artifact tartan is the Strathspey tartan. The original sample, dated to 1794 or 1795, is said to have come from the back of a waistcoat worn by an officer of the Strathspey Fencibles Regiment, raised by Sir James Grant. The design is very similar to the Black Watch (worn as a hunting tartan by the Clan Grant, among others). Whereas the Black Watch tartan has two and four black lines alternating in every blue field, the Strathspey has three black lines on every blue. In 1984 the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society officially recommended this tartan for wear by any dancer with no clan affiliation.

Not every artifact tartan on record comes from Scotland, however. The weaving of tartan cloth is not unique to Scotland, or even to the British Isles. Examples of tartan cloth can be found across the globe.

How many of us have heard of the Kazakhstan tartan? According to the Scottish Tartans Authority, cloth in this blue, black and yellow pattern was found buried with mummies found in the Kazakhstan region dating to 2000 BC! This makes it slightly older than the Hallstatt tartan (named for the Austrian village), dating to between 1200 and 400 BC, and documented by Elizabeth Wayland Barber in The Mummies of Urumchi (1999).

We don’t need to go back quite that far in time to find evidence of tartan cloth in Europe, though. In 1983 several figures wearing Highland dress were discovered painted in murals on the walls of Loevenstien Castle in the Netherlands. Though the castle itself dates to 1368, these figures were most likely painted by a Scottish officer of the garrison, possibly William MacKay, who died between 1750 and 1753. Three tartans are illustrated. These have since been reconstructed by Dutch weavers and do not resemble any other tartans on record.

Some rare and unusual tartans, of more recent history, can be better documented. When one thinks of Scottish tartan, one does not immediately think of Malaysia, but around 1880 Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor paid a visit to Queen Victoria. He was presented at that time with a length of tartan, woven by Thomas Gordon & Sons of Glasgow. A regimental tartan for Johor (Johore) was woven at a later date by Andersons of Edinburgh (now Kinloch Anderson).

But a tartan certainly doesn’t have to be old to be rare or obscure. How many of the following relatively recent designs have you seen at your local Scottish gatherings?

There is the blue, black and white Argentina tartan, designed in 1995 by Edward McRae, of the St. Andrews Society of the River Plate. The design is based on the Robertson tartan, in honor of John and William Parish Robertson, leaders of the 1825 Monte Grande settlement, which was home to about 225 Scottish immigrants. The colors are taken from the Argentinian flag.

What of the Aubigny (aka “Auld Alliance”) tartan? This design was created in 1992 by Polly Wittering of the House of Edgar. The French town of Aubingy-sur-Nere is “twinned” with the Scottish town of Haddington and actively promotes its Scottish connections. The Aubigny tartan to based upon the Stewart of Atholl tartan. Aubigny is sometimes referred to as La Cité des Stuarts, because in 1423 the town was granted to Sir John Stuart, a Scottish military commander who assisted the French against the English during the Hundred Years War.

The Nova Scotia tartan is a very popular design, especially in that Canadian Province, but how many are aware that the town of Sydney, in Nova Scotia, has its own tartan? The very unusual colors of this tartan were chosen for their significance to the important steel industry there. Gray represents the steel plant; orange the red-hot ingots; black the coal in the furnace; and off-white represents the limestone used in the production process.

Many district tartans in the United States are popular, including the New York City tartan. But less well known are the Manhattan tartans, designed in 1999 by artists J. Morgan Puett and Suzanne Bocanegra. One, called the “Manhattan Financial” tartan was woven with a silvery white thread to give a tinsel effect. The other, called “Manhattan Ethnic,” was woven in various shades of pinks, tans and browns to represent the multitude of ethnic races found in Manhattan.

Unfortunately, space does not allow us to include an image for each of the interesting tartans mentioned above, but all of these can be found by browsing the International Tartan Index. The interested reader is encouraged to go online and do a little exploring. See what other kinds of unusual or unheard of tartans you might discover!