The History Of Tartan

There are more legends and myths concerned with the wearing of the with the wearing of the kilt than with any other style of national dress. Perhaps the most common held believe is that you have an a god given right as a Scotsman to wear a particular tartan. There are numerous websites devoted to clans where the clan's tartan is well documented and it is stated that only fellow clansmen are entitled to wear it.

There are rules about what is correct, to wear with a kilt. These rules and guidelines have been developed over the years as a way of ensuring that Highland dress, formal and daywear looks smart and that the kilt is worn with style and panache This is quite different from saying who is entitled to wear, what tartan. The rules of dress apply to anyone wearing a kilt - and should be adhered to if you want to look good. There is nothing worse to look at!! than a badly worn kilt - an image the proud kilt wearer does wish or should portray.

Put in simple terms, clan tartans are a relatively modern invention but we Scots have always had Plaid, In the days when Highland attire was the everyday dress of the common people of the Scottish Highlands, the garment worn, was a plaid a long piece of fabric wrapped around the body and fastened around the waist with a belt. The plaid was also used as a blanket at night. Although warm and comfortable, plaids have a habit of coming easily undone - to the potential embarassment of the wearer. The modern kilt is a far more recent invention, supposedly originated by an English estate owner to spare his daughters embarassment at seeing young scots estate workers working in conditions that might not be suitable for wearing the Plaid.

Up until the banning of the wearing of Highland dress by the British Government after the Jacobite rebellions, plaids were worn in a huge range of tartans. (Punitive restrictions on the wearing of the kilt etc: were introduced. "No man or boy shall, on any pretext what-ever, wear or put on....the Plaid, Philabeg, or little kilt, Trowse, Shoulder-belts,or any part whatever of what belongs to the Highland Garb; and no tartan or particular coloured Plaid or stuff shall be used for Great Coats or upper coats...." Bagpipes were also banned as "instruments of war". the penalties for ignoring thes restrictions were severe. A first offence was punishable with six months' imprisonment, and any repeat entailed transportation to the colonies for a period of seven years) The restictions on Highland Dress lasted on the state book for for 35 years and the law was repeale in 1781. The designs of tartan differed from area to area, depending on the availability of the local plants used for making dyes.

According to the writer Martin Martin of Skye, writing around 1700 - "The plaid worn only by the men ... consists of diverse colours .... Every isle differs from each other in their fancy of making plaids, as to the stripes in breadths and colours. This humour is different through the mainland of the Highlands."

Over time, certain tartans became associated with particular areas, but there was never any sense that you had to pledge allegiance to a clan chief in order to have the right to wear that tartan. Tartans did not become standardised until the introduction of modern chemical dyes allowed manufacturers to achieve consistency in colour and design.

By the beginning of the 1800's, the clan system had disintegrated. Clan chiefs had become completely Anglicised in speech, culture and loyalty and the majority were simply absentee landlords living off rents from their Clansmen. The shame of the Highland Clearances were about to begin when the so-called clan chiefs drove the clanspeople off their lands to make room for sheep - which provided a greater financial return. This was the start of a way of life that had stood for centuries.

At the same time as the people were being driven out to live in Lowland slums to provide the manpower for the Industrial Revolution, or shipped across the seas to settle in Canada, America or Australia, the concept of Scottish National Dress was being established. Based on the fact that tartans had varied geographically, the notion arose that every clan had a unique tartan which was proper to it alone. The convention was adopted - by the Anglicised clan chiefs - that a clan tartan was that which the chief of a name ordained. This idea was greatly encouraged by the appearance in Edinburgh of two Polish brothers calling themselves Sobieski Stolberg Stuart. Claiming to be the grandsons of Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Sobieski-Stuarts published a book entitled the Vestiarium Scoticum which they maintained was a 16th century manuscript detailing tartans and the clans to which each belonged. Clan chiefs rushed to adopt tartans, partly as a way of legitimising their ownership of vast tracts of land.

The Vestiarium Scoticum was later uncovered as a fraud. However, by then the modern notion of clan tartans had become well established. There are still to this day clan tartans which owe their origins to the fertile imaginations of the Sobieski-Stuar.

Modern Scottish National Dress is nowadays identified as a symbol of Scottishness and as such belongs equally to all Scottish people. Scottish people wear the kilt on special occasions as a way of celebrating their Scottishness. Wearing the kilt is a way of celebrating your Scottish ancestry, or of showing your interest in and sympathy with Scotland and her culture. I have never yet met a fellow Scot who maintains that an individual has no right to wear a particular tartan.

This is what the Lord Lyon in Scotland says on the matter of wearing Tartan - "Often over the years one has heard people explaining how they have 'the right' or that they are "entitled" to wear this or that tartan. In fact no such right, in any legal sense, exists for them or for anyone else. The only considerations which govern the wearing of a particular sett are usage and good taste.

"Perhaps somewhat surprisingly there is no legal definition of what is or what is not the tartan of a particular clan. It is now accepted that the arbiter of what the clan should wear is the Chief concerned but his decision has no legal force behind it.

"The general idea of using tartan for identification is of relatively modern origin; it gained ground swiftly in the early 1800's when surviving correspondence shows Chiefs and Chieftains writing to ask the manufacturers what their tartan was. They received a ready response.

"Prior to this, for centuries, the pattern of a man's plaid depended on what was available locally and which pattern took his eye By the end of the 18th century the manufacture of tartan had moved from being a local cottage industry down into the Lowlands where it thrives to this day. The steady production of new patterns for which an attractive name was given coincided with the great growth of romanticisation of all things Highland and the boom in Clan tartans Sir Walter Scott can be proud of his efforts in promoting and romanticising the wearing of the tartan.

"People who asked for a particular clan tartan found them readily available and in the pattern books of the day it is possible to see the change of title as, for instance in the case of Wilson's pattern 'No. 250' which later became 'Argyll' and then 'Campbell of Cowdor.' So, too, the occasions where the attribution was duplicated and a pattern is shown under several different clan names and minute differences in a basic sett sufficed to produce a new clan tartan."

In conclusion then, the whole subject of wearing a tartan with a particular significance in is up to the individual. There nothing very wrong in people wearing any particular tartan which takes their fancy; after all, this was the original use.

So the answer to the question - "What tartan am I entitled to wear?" is - Any tartan you fancy. The sole considerations are good taste. (Some tartans are appalling clashes of colour.) Highland attire is smart looking and feels great to wear. So of course the major consideration ought to be looking good

Another author's view -

"The Tartan Kilt is perhaps the most Worldly identified,cultural tradition of the Highland Scots. Therefore, it surprises most people that many of the recognizable features and traditions associated with the wearing of the Kilt were, in fact,developed in the 19th century by the Nobles of England and Scotland,not the Scottish Highlanders.

"There is much evidence that most of the recognizable Tartans seen today are in fact creations of Scottish and English Tailors during the reign of Queen Victoria (1831-1901). Despite this, it's generally accepted that the basic concepts of the Tartan and the wearing of the Kilt do indeed have their origins in the history of the early Scottish and Irish Clans. There were certain Clans that did have a certain uniformity in the design of their garments as early as the 10th century.

"The Kilt, or Philbeag to use its original Gaelic name, that has now become the standard dress for all Highlanders, has its origin in an older garment called the Belted Plaid. The Gaelic word for Tartan is Breacan, meaning partially colored or speckled, and every Tartan today features a multi-colored arrangement of stripes and checks. These patterns, or Sett's, are used to identify the Clan, Family or Regiment with which the wearer is associated. Although there are other types of Tartans,such as Trews (trousers), Shawls and Skirts,the Kilt is by far the most recognizable.

"It is generally accepted that the first Tartans were the result of an individual weavers own design.Then they were later used to identify individual Districts, Clans and Families. The first recognizable effort to enforce uniformity throughout an entire Clan was in 1618, when Sir Gordon of Gordonstoun wrote to Murry of Pulrossie requesting that he bring the plaids worn by his men into 'harmony with that of his other Septs.'

"After 1688, and the fall of the Stuart Clan, and subsequent rise in the spread of Jacobism, the English government felt the need to take a more active roll in the affairs of the Scottish Highlands. In 1707,The Act of Union took place, and succeeded in temporarily uniting the political factions and Clans that were universally opposed to the Act. The Tartan came into it's own as a symbol of active nationalism and was seen by the ruling class as the 'uniform of rebels'. It is also believed that this act of Parliament succeeded in uniting, to some extent, the Scottish Highlands and Lowlands, as the wearing of the Tartan spread from the Highlands to the Lowlands, previously not known for their wearing of the Tartan.

"After the rising of 1715, the Government felt the need to enforce stricter policing in the Scottish Highlands and Lowlands. A number of independent companies were formed to curtail the lawlessness that had developed. One of the features that distinguished their recruits were the large number of Highland gentlemen that enlisted and chose to serve in the private ranks. Many English officers were surprised to see these Scottish Privates attended by personal servants who carried their food, clothing, and weapons. From the time they were first raised, these independent regiments became known as the Black Watch, in reference to the darkly colored Tartans they were known to wear.

"One of the most famous tales of these Highland companies is told of the curiosity of King George V who had never seen a Highland soldier. Three handsome privates were chosen and dispatched to London to be presented to the King. The King was so impressed with the skill with which they wielded their Claymores and Lochaber Axes that he presented them each with a guinea. Nothing could be more insulting to a Highland gentleman, but they could not refuse the gift. Instead they accepted it, and as they left, they flipped it to the porter as they passed the palace gates.

"In 1740, these independent companies became a formal Regiment, and the need arose to adopt a formal Tartan. This became a problem, for which Tartan could they choose, without insulting certain Clans, or seeming to favor others? In the end, an entirely new Tartan was developed and has ever since been known as the Black Watch Tartan. It was the first documented Tartan to be known by an official name and possesses the authenticity of a full pedigree. From this Tartan has been derived all of the Highland regimental Tartan designs and many of the hunting Setts worn by other Clans.

"During the 1800's, the wearing of the Belted Plaid began to be exchanged for that of the Kilt. The Belted Plaid, being a one-piece six-yard long cloth, belted about the waist with the remainder being worn up about the shoulder, was proving to be somewhat inconvenient to wear. A "new" little Kilt design became popular and it consisted of a plaid which had the traditional pleats permanently sewn in place, and separated the lower from the upper half, allowing the upper section to be removed when it became convenient.

"By 1746, the Government, weary of being called to supress Highland uprising, enacted a law making it illegal for Highlanders to own or possess arms. A year later, the Dress Act restricted the wearing of Highland clothes. Any form of Plaid, Philbeag, Belted Plaid, Trews, Shoulder Belt or little Kilt were not to be worn in public. Punishment for a first offense was a six-month imprisonment, a second offense earned the wearer a seven-year exile to an oversea work farm. Even the Bagpipes were outlawed, being considered an instrument of war. Only those individuals in the Army were permitted to wear the Plaid and, as a result, it is told that many Highlanders enlisted simply to be allowed to wear their more comfortable traditional clothing.

"By the time the Dress Act was repealed in 1783, the fabric of Highland life had been forever changed. The Dress Act had succeeded in changing Highland Society to the extent that many of

"With the growing feeling of Nationalism in Scotland, the Kilt is being worn more often than in the last 100 years.Many Scotsmen are rediscovering their roots and begining to show great interest in reviving some of the old traditions and customs of the Highlanders. Although the future of the Kilt is yet to be seen, it will always be remembered as perhaps the most identifiable garment ever worn by any one group of individuals."