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Armigerous Clans        Tartan Images

  History of Scottish clothing         What is tartan?

(tip: find out which clan you belong to first, in order to view your tartan, crest and motto)

Tartan

A tartan is a pattern consisting of crisscrossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colors. Tartans originated in woven cloth, but are now used in many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Celtic countries, especially Scotland. Kilts almost always have tartan patterns. (Tartan is also known as plaid in North America, but in Scotland  this word means a tartan cloth slung over the shoulder or a blanket.)

A Tartan is made with alternating bands of coloured (pre-dyed) threads woven as both warp and weft at right angles to each other. The weft is woven in a simple twill, two over - two under the warp, advancing one thread each pass. This form visible diagonal lines where different colours cross, which give the appearance of new colours blended from the original ones. The resulting blocks of colour repeat vertically and horizontally in a distinctive pattern of squares and lines known as a sett. In the modern era, specific tartans have become associated with Scottish clans or Scottish (and other) families, or simply institutions who are (or wish to be seen as) associated in some way with a Scottish (or other Celtic) heritage.

Clan tartans are a relatively recent innovation, due to renewed interest in Scottish heritage in the early 1800s, when the laws against the wearing of kilts and tartans were lifted. People most likely wore a pattern of tartan common to the district they lived in (weavers had their favorite patterns in different areas), and could therefore be identified as being from that area if they travelled outside their district.

Abercrombie	Anderson	Armstrong	Baird
Barclay	Bissett	Bowie	Brodie
Bruce	Buchanan	Caledonian	Cameron
Campbell	Chattan	Chisholm	Christie
Clark	Cochrane	Colquhoun	Craig
Crawford	Culloden	Cumming	Cunningham
Dalziel	Davidson	Douglas	Drummond
Dunbar	Elliot	Erskine	Farquharson
Fletcher	Forbes	Forsyth	Fraser
Fraser of Lovat	Galloway	Gillies	Gordon (dress)
Grant	Hamilton	Henderson / Gunn	Inglis
Innes	Irvine	Johnstone	Keith
Kennedy	Kincaid	Lamont	Livingstone
MacAlister	MacArthur	MacAuley	MacBain
MacBeth	MacDairmuid	MacDougall	MacDuff
MacEwan	Macfarlane	MacFayden	MacFie/MacPhee
MacGillivary	MacGregor	MacInnes	MacKay
MacKenzie	MacLean	MacLeod	MacNeil
MacPhail	MacPherson	MacRae	MacTaggart
Malcolm	Mathieson	Menzies	Moncrieffe
Morrison	Murray	Ogilvy	Ramsay
Robertson	Ross	Scott	Sinclair
Smith	Stevenson	Stewart	Sutherland
Thompson	Wallace	Wilson	Young
			Have a teddy bear made in your choice of tartan! Click here for details
Russell / Mitchell / Galbraith

FREE TARTAN PICTURES!
Over 200 different tartans - click here

     What Clan are you?    Registered Clans

Armigerous Clans        Tartan Images

  History of Scottish clothing         What is tartan?

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