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Scottish tartan weavers distinguish between colour and shade when crafting a tartan. In traditional tartan weaving, a limited set of colours is used, but different shades of the same colour can be applied. This technique contributes to the variety and appeal of tartan designs. For example, the Modern, Ancient and Weathered versions of the lightweight Gordon tartan (shown below) are identical in pattern and size; each just uses different shades of the accepted colours.

                                                                                Gordon Modern Tartan

                                                                                         Gordon Ancient Tartan

                                                                                         Gordon Weathered Tartan

Additionally, each weaving mill has a signature set of colourways for their textiles. One mill’s green may vary significantly from another’s. So, if you are looking for something to precisely match your kilt or another garment, it’s crucial to try and identify the weaver first. Simply ordering a product with the same name may well cause disappointment when it doesn’t match as expected. Ordering woven tartan fabric samples, rather than relying on online images, is by far the best way to make sure that your tartan will be a good match.

Every tartan has a broad range of shades specified as “correct”, and as long as the pattern adheres to the standard, the sett size and exact shade used are less critical. For example, a MacDonald Clan modern tartan, woven by Lochcarron, will feature different shades of colours from a cloth produced by Strathmore, House of Edgar, or Ingles Buchan. At times, differences between the various mills are barely perceptible, and at other times, the difference is quite marked. Tartans from the same mill can vary in scale and shade. At first glance, a 16 oz. heavyweight large-scale tartan may appear quite different from a 10 oz. lightweight, but both are accurate representations of the original design.

Tartan Terms

Tartan descriptions can be confusing for beginners due to the numerous adjectives used, such as modern, ancient, repro, weathered, and muted. These terms do not refer to the age of the tartan, but rather the colour scheme used in its creation.

Modern

Modern colours refer to the introduction of new chemical dyes in the 1850s, which allowed for brighter and more intense shades. Some darker shades created by these dyes are nearly black, making it difficult to distinguish between dark green or blue and black. This can obscure the weaver’s colour choice, making subtle shades harder to distinguish. This may well explain why “ancient” colourways have become increasingly popular.

Ancient

Ancient colours have less vibrant shades and these often show off the pattern to better effect. This palette became more popular in the 1950s and 1960s. The ancient palette tries to mimic the colours created by natural dyes, so reds, for example, may appear less scarlet and more orange. Sometimes old dyes are referred to as vegetable dyes, which isn’t strictly accurate. Many of them were indeed made from plants and flowers, but many also came from minerals or animals.

Weathered

Weathered colours imitate the appearance of a tartan faded by exposure to elements like the sun, rain, wind, snow, frost, and heat. The colours become more “earthy,” with greens turning khaki brown and navy blues changing to muted slate greys.

Muted

Similar to weathered colours, muted shades mimic how a tartan would look when exposed to the Scottish elements.

Reproduction

These colours are recreations of how “found” tartans would have looked like when newly woven. This effect can be seen the Glen Affric and Ulster Tartans, which were found preserved in peat bogs and dated to around 500 years old.

Old

There are a small number of tartan designs which have been found to be older than the pattern normally worn in modern times by the family or clan. The adjective “old” is sometimes used in these cases, such as Fraser Old, a sett that is actually older than other Fraser tartans.

If there is no adjective describing the colour palette at all, this normally implies the default of modern colours.

We hope you found this exploration of colours and dyes in Scottish tartans informative! For all your tartan needs and to discover your perfect match, visit our tartan viewer.

Our kilts are hand stitched throughout, with a minimum of twenty nine, and up to thirty five, hand lifted deep pleats. Pleating will normally be to the sett, but can be to the line in the regimental manner, if specially requested.

We use superior heavy duty bridle leather kilt straps which are exclusively made for us at an Aberdeenshire saddlery. The kilt straps are made from the best quality vegetable dyed bridle butt leather. Our kilt straps cost us three times the price of regular straps, but we don't pass this cost on to our valued customers. The difference in quality speaks for itself, we guarantee that our straps will last a lifetime.

We fit two of our high quality straps with hand cast buckles straps to every kilt we make. The additional seat buckle and strap found on most modern kilts is a hangover from the old military kilts with massive 4” rises. We find this additional kilt strap to be the most common cause of a kilt apron pulling tight and not sitting correctly. It is completely unnecessary on the civilian kilt with a 2” rise and is best left out.

The unseen work on a kilt is extremely important but often neglected to cut costs. Our kilt maker pad stitches heavy canvas by hand along the back of the kilt at the top of the pleats to preventing sagging. Our kilts are all ‘lifted’ by backstitching each pleat by hand along the seat line, further ensuring that the kilt holds its shape throughout its long life. This is one of the most labour intensive stages in the construction of a kilt and often missed out completely by inferior kilt makers. 

Scottish Genealogy - Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors.

TRACING your Scottish ancestors has never been simpler. All that is needed is a name or two and an approximate location as to where they were domiciled. The next step is to try an Internet search, but remember to take into account that surnames can have different spellings. Robert Burns, for example, was the son of William Burnes. The great eighteenth century philosopher David Hume spelled his surname with a ”u” whereas his brother preferred an “o”. It all adds to the excitement of the chase.

Victorian Scottish family

All of our ancestors are interesting since they were all necessary in handing down life to us, and, on that basis, we owe it to them to find out who they were, and what they did, good or bad. Most of us know a little about our grandparents, but remarkably few of us can go further back than three generations, which is a shame as it does suggest a lack of respect.

All of us are who we are because of our genetic make-up. How disappointed our forebears would be to know how soon they have been forgotten, especially when it has never been easier to re-connect with the past. All that is required to find out more about them is a desire to do so, and a certain amount of time and patience.

In centuries past, births, marriages, and deaths were recorded in bibles passed down through the generations, but how many of these have survived? Across the centuries so many families have been broken up and scattered through no fault of their own but as a result of poverty, unhappy liaisons, blood feuds and rivalries, wars and emigration. In the relentless dispersal of communities, so much has been lost, but thankfully not irretrievably.

Today, genealogy, coupled with ancestral tourism, is big business. Even the Scottish Government and Visit Scotland have got in on the act by seriously promoting their interlinking web sites at Ancestral Scotland and Scotland's People. Never before has finding out who you are been so simple.

All of Scotland's local census records, which begin on the night of 6th June 1841, can be sourced on-line. If you know the town, village, district or parish in which your ancestors lived, the information you can unearth with just a few clicks of your mouse can be a revelation.

In 1841, the gathering of census information was undertaken in each Scottish county, with Scotland divided into enumeration districts, based largely on the existing parishes. Larger or more populous parishes were sub-divided to enable the enumerator to gather all the necessary information within the day. Thereafter, the same procedure was followed at ten year intervals to the present day.

Church records also provide a useful source of reference, but you must take into account that it was only after January 1855 that civil registrations was made compulsory, regardless of religious denomination.

From then on death records showed the date, time and place of death, the deceased's name, sex, marital status, age and occupation, cause of death, duration of last illness, doctor's name and details of the informant. In addition, they indicated the usual residence, the deceased's place of birth, spouse's name, and their parents' names and occupations and whether they were deceased; also the names and ages of children, or age and year of death if the child pre-deceased the parent.

Researching Your Scottish Roots - Graveyards to Passenger lists.

Up to 1860, the place of burial, the name of the undertaker and when the doctor last saw the deceased alive, were also included. However, as with births and marriages, this amount of detail proved difficult to maintain. The deceased's birthplace was removed from 1856, as were the names of any children. The spouses name was also not required, but was reinstated in 1861.

Marnoch Kirkyard

Exploring old graveyards is immensely rewarding, not least because in addition to your own connections, it brings you into close proximity with so many familiar names from the pages of history. But you have to be single minded. A large number of old churches, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Catholic and interdenominational, but by no means all, have a graveyard index. Many of these date from the early eighteenth century. Others, such as the Necropolis, Glasgow's famous “City of the Dead”, only began in 1832.

To go back further in time, you have to be resourceful. At the last count there were no less than 27 local history societies located throughout Scotland. These provide an invaluable service by housing newspapers on microfilm and books relating to the past. Alternatively, you can research the constituency voters lists which became available after parliamentary reform in 1832.

But be warned. It is easy to be side-tracked by the enormous volume of information available and, if you are not very careful, it can all too soon become a marathon task. Keeping to a proscribed area of investigation is essential. Start with one decade at a time, establish where you need to start looking and move on with what you find.

Take, for example, the East Ayrshire burghs of Cumnock, Darvel, Galston, Kilmarnock, Newmilns and Greenholm and Stewarton, where official records are held at the state-of-the-art Burns monument Centre in Kilmarnock. East Lothian Council operates a similar service in Haddington, as does Aberdeen City Council for Grampian region, and so on, and so on. The local authority led genealogy network is impressive.

You should also be aware of mobility. Up until the end of the sixteenth century, Scots employed on the land rarely travelled more than twenty miles to find a wife (or husband). From the seventeenth century onwards, largely through necessity, they became travellers, pioneers and colonisers.

Up and down the social scale, infant mortality coupled with an absence of birth control frequently meant that families consisted of as many as sixteen or more siblings. As soon as they were old enough, younger sons were therefore obliged to move away from home and make their own way in the world; daughters were expected to wed where and when the opportunity presented itself.

With primogeniture an established tradition, only in the remote communities of the Highlands was land divided up under the run-rig system, bringing about an impossible state of over-crowding. In the Highland Clearances of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, droves of Highlanders departed the land, some voluntarily, others legally evicted by their landlords to make way for sheep farming.

Scotland Emigration NZ Poster

Similarly, in the Lowlands, thousands of tenant farmers and cottars migrated from their farms and small holdings to the new industrial centres of Glasgow, Edinburgh, or over the water to Ireland and across the Atlantic to America and Canada. As a result, there are now over 15 million people in America alone who claim Scottish descent, and such statistics. Similar numbers of expatriates are to be found in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Unfortunately, there are very few records in The National Archives of Scotland (NAS) which list the names and details of emigrants. The Colonial Office, based in London, was responsible for emigration in the 19th century and its records are held by The National Archives (London) (TNA). They also hold the surviving outward passenger lists from 1890.

Passenger lists from boats sailing from Greenock to Upper Canada and New York after 1700 can be found in the ships list website. Sometimes it is advisable to search sources outside of Scotland, and it is well known that the Mormon Church (LDS or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) operates a huge online database.

The Monarchs of Scotland - Scots Connection.

Calgacus, from the processional frieze of famous Scots, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, William Hole 1898

THE Scottish Nation successfully absorbed several races as it evolved between the sixth and fourteenth centuries. The early Scots were a Celtic people from Ireland who invaded and settled the North West Coast of mainland Britain. Already in place were the indigenous Picts, referred to by the Roman orator Eumenius as early as AD296, and so called because they painted their bodies (Picti in Latin means 'painted people').

However, only from the ninth century is it considered correct to use the word “Scot” when referring to the inhabitants of northern Britain. Before this, the Irish word “Scotti” referred only to descendants of the Celtic Dál Riata from north -east Ireland, who began to occupy the coastline of Argyllshire and western Scotland from the ninth century. Up until then, the territory from Caithness to Fife was inhabited by Pictish tribes, with Southern Scotland occupied by Angles and Britons. Central Scotland, however, was occupied by the Romans from around 84AD, after Gnaeus Julius Agricola had won the Battle of Mons Graupius against the Caledonian leader Calgacus. The ongoing fierceness of the local tribes and the harshness of the climate soon drove the Romans south behind the 37-mile long Antonine Wall which connected the Firths of Forth and Clyde. By 122AD, they had retreated even further to the south behind the better constructed Hadrian's Wall which runs from Wallsend on the River Tyne to the Solway Firth, a strategic fortification which they finally abandoned in the early fifth century.

c.500  Fergus Mor McErc (Fergus, son of Fergus) - WHILE little is known about him, Fergus Mor McErc is widely accepted in medieval texts as the founder of the Scottish nation which emerged around c.500AD.  The tradition says that he and his followers arrived from Ireland, and that they brought with them the mystical Lia Fail, the Stone of Destiny upon which he and his successors were subsequently crowned. He was succeeded after his death by his son Dúngal. Thereafter, sources are obscure and contradictory until the arrival of Alpin, although it is believed that Fergus's grandsons were Gabrán mac Domangairt and Comgall, and that a great-grandson was named Aédan mac Gabrán. It is also known that various Pictish Kings died in battle against either Viking invaders or in family feuds – notably Uven Mac Angus, Eogån, and latterly Ōengus II, brother of Caustantin.

Scottish Kings and Queens - Duncan I to Margaret Maid of Norway.

House of Dunkeld (1034-1286)

1034 –40 Duncan I
DUNCAN was the son of Malcolm II's daughter Bethoc and Crinan, Hereditary Abbot of Dunkeld, and succeeded his grandfather as King. The early years of his reign appear to have been peaceful, but in 1039 he led an army into England in retaliation against a Northumbrian attack on Strathclyde. He attacked the town of Durham, but was forced to retreat. The following summer, for reasons unknown, he marched into Moray, traditionally controlled by Macbeth, where he was killed in battle near Elgin, allegedly by his own men who were loyal to Macbeth.

1040-57 Macbeth
THE son of Finlay, Mormaer of Moray, and allegedly another daughter of Malcolm II, he married the Lady Gruoch, a granddaughter of Kenneth III, following the death of her first husband. When Duncan I invaded his territories of Moray, he conspired in his murder, and two years later, may have been instrumental in the killing of Duncan's father Crinan of Dunkeld. Contrary to the myths perpetuated by the English playwright William Shakespeare's version of the story, Macbeth ruled over Scotland for seventeen years and was confident enough to embark upon a pilgrimage to Rome in 1050. Four years later, however, Scotland was invaded by Siward, Earl of Northumbria, acting on behalf of the Saxon king, Edward the Confessor. Although Macbeth survived the ensuing battle, the Saxons nominated Duncan I's son Malcolm Canmore in his place. The fighting continued and Macbeth was killed by Malcolm three years later at the Battle of Lumphanan.

1057-58 Lulach “The Simple”
THE son of the Lady Gruoch by her first husband, Gille Coemgain, Mormaer of Moray, and through his mother a great grandson of Kenneth III, Lulach was briefly made king by his followers on his step-father's demise, but was shortly afterwards killed by Malcolm at Essie, near Rhynie, Strathbogie.

St Margaret, St. Margaret's Chapel, Edinburgh Castle. Douglas Strachan (1875-1950). Stained glass window 1922

1058-93 Malcolm III (Canmor or Ceann Mor, meaning “Big Head”)
EXILED to England following the overthrow of his father by Macbeth, Malcolm soon emerged as a formidable soldier. His first wife was Ingibjorg, daughter of Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Jarl of Orkney (although some historians believe that she was Thorfinn's widow and not his daughter). She and Malcolm had three sons, Duncan, Donald and Malcolm. After Ingibjorg’s death around 1069, the fugitive Margaret Atheling, a great-niece of the Saxon king, Edward the Confessor, and sister of Edgar Atheling, Saxon claimant to the English throne, arrived in Scotland. She and Malcolm married and they had eight children, four of whom in turn became Scottish kings. Their daughter Mathilda married Henry I of England. Margaret made a profound impact on Scotland's religion by introducing the Roman faith, and, in recognition of this, she was canonised by the Pope in 1249. In the course of his reign, Malcolm invaded England five times and in 1072, was forced by William the Conqueror to sign the Treaty of Abernethy. After William's death in 1087, Malcolm invaded England again. He was killed with his eldest son Edward at Alnwick in 1093. By Ingibjorg, he had three sons, and by Margaret, six.

1093-94 Duncan II
ELDEST son of Malcolm III and Saint Margaret, he was held hostage by William the Conqueror in 1072, but on his father's death his claim to the Scottish throne was supported by William II of England. He was killed in battle six months later and superseded by his uncle, Donald Bane.

1094-95 Donald III “Donald Bane”
THE younger son of the deposed Duncan I, he had gone into exile in the Western Isles for the duration of Macbeth's reign. On the death of his brother Malcolm III, he returned to the mainland to oppose his nephew, Duncan II, briefly becoming king until overthrown, imprisoned and blinded by another nephew, Edgar.

1095 –97 Edmund
THE second son of Malcolm III and Saint Margaret, he appears to have been willing to share the kingdom with his treacherous uncle Donald Bane, whom he succeeded. On the intercession of his brothers and maternal uncle, however, he retired into Holy Orders to to become a monk in Somerset, England.

1097-1107 Edgar
FOURTH son of Malcolm III and Saint Margaret, Edgar supported his half-brother Duncan II, and, on his death invaded Scotland with the support of the English king, William Rufus, taking possession of Lothian. The year after he ascended the Scottish throne, he signed a treaty with Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, in regard to Norse claims in the Hebrides. Like all of his brothers, he was deeply religious and endowed churches in St Andrews, Coldingham, Dumfries and Durham. He died in Edinburgh and was buried at Dunfermline Abbey.

1107-24 Alexander I - “The Fierce”
FIFTH son of Malcolm III and Saint Margaret, Alexander founded Augustinian religious houses at Scone and on Inchcolm Island, in the Firth of Forth, and prohibited the acknowledgement of English supremacy by bishops of St Andrews. He married Sybilla, a natural daughter of Henry I of England, who was his sister's husband, but they had no children.

David I and Malcolm IV, from the Kelso Abbey Charter, illuminated initial, 1159

1124-53 David I
THE youngest son of Malcolm III and Saint Margaret, David was born in 1084, brought up in England at the Court of his brother-in-law, Henry I, and married Maud, daughter of Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria. During the reign of his brother Alexander I, he controlled southern Scotland as “Earl”, and, on inheriting the Scottish throne, did much to reorganise his realm along Norman principles. To this end, he encouraged the foundation of religious houses and invited many of the Anglo-Norman friends he had made in England to Scotland, offering them land in return for their services.

King David's son and heir Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, pre-deceased him in 1152. Earl Henry had married Ada de Warenne, a relative of William the Conqueror, and their sons Malcolm and William would both succeed as kings of Scotland. One daughter married Florent III of Holland; another, Conan IV, Duke of Brittany, then Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Hereditary Constable of England, and Princess Marjorie, the third surviving daughter, married Gillechrist, Earl of Angus.

David's support of his niece Mathilda against her cousin Stephen, Count of Bulogne (both Mathilda and Stephen were grandchildren of William the Conqueror) ended with Mathilda's defeat at the Battle of the Standard in 1138. The enmity continued with David joining Mathilda in London in 1151 to accompany her to Winchester. In failing health, he died at Carlisle.

1153-65 Malcolm IV - The Maiden
GRANDSON of David I, Malcolm succeeded his grandfather at the age of twelve and soon found himself having to confront the anti-Norman factions of his kingdom. Among these was Somerled, ancestor of the Clan Donald and acknowledged by the Gales as “King of the Hebrides”. Providentially, he soon became preoccupied with a war against the King of Man. Malcolm meanwhile ceded several of his English land holdings to his cousin Henry II of England, and fought alongside him in France. Returning to Scotland, he suppressed an uprising in Galloway, and when Somerled laid siege to Glasgow in 1164, the islesmen were repelled and Somerled and his son killed. Deeply religious, Malcolm founded a Cistercian Abbey in Coupar Angus.

1165-1214 William I - The Lion
THE second son of Henry, Earl of Huntingdon by Ada de Warenne, William “The Lion” invaded England in 1174, and was taken prisoner at Alnwick, whereupon he was forced to sign The Treaty of Falaise, which acknowledged his cousin Henry II as his feudal overlord. This agreement was overturned in 1189 with the Quitclaim of Canterbury, in which Henry's successor Richard I of England negated the obligation in return for a payment of 10,000 merks (a Scottish silver coin worth one twelfth of its sterling equivalent). During his reign, William suppressed rebellions in Galloway and Ross, and consolidated his rule north to the Pentland Firth. He married Ermengarde de Beaumont and they had two sons and three daughters: Princess Margaret, who married Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent; Princess Matilda, who married the fourth Earl of Norfolk, and Princess Marjorie, who married the fourth Earl of Pembroke. It was through his second son, who inherited the earldom of Huntingdon, that all future kings of Scotland after the death of the Maid of Norway are descended.

1214-49 Alexander II
SON of William I, and born in Haddington, Alexander suppressed rebellions in Moray, Argyll, Caithness and Galloway, and began to counter-attack the Viking incursions into the Western Isles. In 1215, he gave his support to the English barons in their confrontation with King John, which led to the signing of the Magna Carta. He renounced his claim to Northumberland and to consolidate his friendly relationship with Henry III, King John's successor, married Henry’s sister, Princess Joan. Following her death, he married Marie de Courcy, daughter of a Picard lord and by whom he had his only son. He died on the island of Kerrera, off Oban in Argyll.

1249-86 Alexander III
THE only son of Alexander II, he had fourteen years into his reign to contend with a formidable invasion from King Haakon of Norway, who fortuitously withdrew after the indecisive conclusion of the Battle of Largs. The situation was resolved after Haakon's death in 1263 and the Hebrides was ceded to the Scottish Crown at the Treaty of Perth in return for a monetary payment. Although Alexander maintained close ties with England, he firmly avoided paying homage to the English king. His first wife was Princess Margaret of England, daughter of Henry III; his second wife, Yolande, daughter of the Comte de Dreux. In his excitement to return to her at his castle at Kinghorn in Fife, he crossed the Firth of Forth in a storm and fell from his horse on the cliffs near to his destination, where he died. Tragically, his three children by Queen Joan had pre-deceased him, leaving only his granddaughter Margaret as his direct heir.

1286-90 Margaret - The Maid of Norway
WITH the tragic, unexpected death of her grandfather, Princess Margaret of Norway (daughter of Princess Margaret of Scotland and King Erik of Norway) was named heir to the Scottish throne, and betrothed to the six-year old Prince Edward of England. She was seven years old when she was despatched by boat to claim her realm under the regency of six Scottish nobles but mysteriously died off the coast of Orkney. Her demise threw the succession to the Scottish throne into chaos, and her uncle, Edward I of England, promptly pronounced himself Overlord of Scotland. There then began a process to select a replacement monarch in which thirteen candidates came forward – Florent V, Count of Holland; Patrick of Dunbar, Earl of March; William de Vesey, William de Ros, Robert de Pinkeney, Nicholas de Soules, Roger de Mandeville, Patrick Golightly, John Hastings, John Balliol, John Comyn of Badenoch, Robert de Brus, and, as father of Queen Mary, King Eric of Norway himself. After lengthy negotiations, John Bailliol was chosen by Edward and enthroned at Scone on 30th November, 1292.