Scotland
- Local Products - Traditional
Crafts - Tartan
Tartans
are synonymous with Scotland and its heritage. The tartans themselves
have a long history. The oldest known piece of tartan was found
buried in a pot near Falkirk with
nearly 2000 Roman silver coins. It has been dated to 300 AD.
The
word "tartan" originally described the way the thread
was woven to make the cloth: each thread passed over two threads
then under two threads, and so on. The cloth was originally intended
to be decorative. Each region produced it's own distinctive tartan
based on the type of wool and the natural colour dyes available
in the area. By the 17th century these regional variations in patterns
came to be associated with the dominant clan of the region.
The
tartan was banned after the 1745 Jacobite rebellion but was back
in favour less than a century later with acolytes as diverse as
George IV in 1822 and by Sir Walter Scott and later,
Queen Victoria.
Many
of the original clan tartans have been lost but today there are
reputedly over 2000 tartans, some of them recognised as clan tartans,
but also many universal tartans.
Useful Sites
Scottish Tartan Society
History
of the Tartan
Tartans
of Scotland
Tartans
Finder
