Tartan and the Kilt
The oldest known tartan in Britain was stuffed into a pot of Roman coins near Falkirk, and the kilt you picture is younger than the Union Jack.
Published
Quick Facts
- Oldest known tartan
- The Falkirk tartan, a simple two-tone check from around the 3rd century AD, found in 1933
- Original Highland dress
- The belted plaid or great kilt (feileadh mòr), worn from the 16th century
- The ban
- The Dress Act of 1746, after Culloden, repealed in 1782
- Royal revival
- George IV's 1822 visit to Edinburgh, stage-managed by Sir Walter Scott
- Official record
- The Scottish Register of Tartans, created by Act of Parliament in 2008
- Cloth in a traditional kilt
- Roughly six to eight yards of woollen tartan, pleated at the back
- Tartan Day
- 6 April, marking the Declaration of Arbroath of 1320
- Classic kit
- Kilt, sporran, kilt hose, sgian-dubh, ghillie brogues and a Prince Charlie or Argyll jacket
The tartan in the coin pot
In 1933 a cache of around 1,900 Roman coins turned up near Falkirk, in a pot plugged with a scrap of woollen cloth. That scrap is now the oldest surviving tartan in Britain, dated to the 3rd century AD. It is a plain check in undyed brown and white wool. So tartan was being woven in Scotland long before anyone had thought of a clan. Tartan is the pattern, called a sett, and it is woven in a twill. For centuries it was simply what Highland weavers made from whatever local dyes they had, which is why colours and patterns tended to vary by district rather than by family.
The kilt that began as a blanket
The first Highland garment wasn't a skirt at all. The great kilt, or belted plaid, was a long length of tartan gathered into pleats by hand around the waist and held with a belt. The loose upper part could be pinned over the shoulder or pulled up as a cloak. At night it doubled as a blanket. The smaller, tailored kilt that we recognise today, the feileadh beag, appeared in the early 1700s. A popular tale credits Thomas Rawlinson, an English Quaker ironmaster who ran a furnace in Glengarry, with chopping off the cumbersome top half so his workers could swing hammers in comfort. Historians still argue over whether he really did it, but the story has stuck.
The law that banned a pattern
After the Jacobite defeat at Culloden in 1746, Parliament passed the Dress Act, forbidding most men and boys in the Highlands from wearing tartan and kilts. Highland regiments in the British army were exempt, and the Black Watch tartan, dark blue and green, became a military standby. The ban was lifted in 1782. By then, tartan had lost its everyday role in much of the Highlands, but it had gained something new: it now symbolised romance and loss.
How a king in pink tights made clans out of cloth
In 1822 George IV became the first reigning monarch to visit Scotland in nearly two centuries. Sir Walter Scott organised the event, and he asked clan chiefs to turn out in their tartans. George IV himself wore a kilt, famously with pink tights. Suddenly everyone wanted a clan tartan, and weavers such as Wilsons of Bannockburn were happy to supply one. Some of the tartans were quite new. The Vestiarium Scoticum, published in 1842 by the self-styled Sobieski Stuarts, claimed to record ancient clan patterns and is now regarded as largely invented. Queen Victoria added to the craze after buying Balmoral in 1852, when Prince Albert designed the Balmoral tartan himself, and it is still reserved for the royal family.
Wearing it now
Today the kilt appears at weddings, ceilidhs and Highland games from Braemar to Cowal, as well as on the terraces at Murrayfield on international rugby days. Formal Highland dress means a kilt, a sporran, kilt hose, a sgian-dubh in the sock and a jacket such as the Prince Charlie. Hire shops mean no one has to buy the lot. Tartans come in different shades. Modern uses chemical dyes with bright colours; ancient imitates a faded, softer palette; weathered mimics cloth that has aged in the open air. Kilt makers can choose any of them for the same sett. The Scottish Register of Tartans, kept in Edinburgh by the National Records of Scotland, lists thousands of designs, among them tartans for towns, companies and charities, and new ones are added every year.
Beyond Scotland, beyond tradition
Tartan has never stayed in Scotland. The Royal Stewart pattern was taken up by punks, and Vivienne Westwood's tartan became a signature material of the 1970s and later. Edinburgh's Bay City Rollers had tartan trim on their trousers and jackets and sent a generation of teenagers hunting for it in the shops. Other Celtic nations borrowed the idea too. Wales has its own tartans and district designs, the Isle of Man has its own tartan, and Ireland has the saffron kilt, a 19th-century revival. In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Scots tradition has an Ulster tartan. The ongoing debate is whether you need a clan connection to wear a particular tartan. The usual answer in Scotland is that you can wear whatever you like, and a design doesn't need to be ancient to be loved.
Notable people
- Sir Walter Scott
- George IV
- Thomas Rawlinson
- Queen Victoria
- Prince Albert
- Vivienne Westwood
- John Sobieski Stuart
- Charles Edward Stuart
Keep exploring
Burns Night
Published
The first Burns supper was held by nine friends in Ayrshire, probably in 1801, and it was meant to be a one-off. Now it's a global night of haggis and verse.
.jpg){kind=link}
Morris Dancing
Published
Grown adults strap bells to their shins, whack sticks together and dance in car parks, all to keep a tradition alive that Shakespeare's clown once danced 100 miles.
.jpg){kind=link}
Notting Hill Carnival
Published
Europe's biggest street party began as an indoor event in a London town hall in 1959, started by a woman who fought for Black Britons' dignity.