St Kilda Kilts & Scottish Gifts

Some Lesser Known Facts About Tartan

• The oldest discovered sample of tartan was found buried near Falkirk and is believed to be 1700 years old.
• Even complex looking tartans normally use a maximum of only six colours.
• In ancient times Highlanders used a single length of tartan both for day wear and as bedding.
• The wearing of tartan was banned in Scotland following the battle of Culloden in 1745. The ban lasted for thirty-six years.
• Many clans only adopted a tartan to honour the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822. The chiefs selected a tartan from manufacturers' pattern books when asked to attend an audience with the king who had requested they wear 'their' clan tartan.
• The London based actor and artist - R R McIan - created two large illustrated volumes (1845) of Scottish figures. He used many of his London based actor friends as models and invented many of the tartans illustrated – these illustrations are still used to this day and have become iconic of \'Scottishness\'. (Many of the illustrations on this site are by R R McIan from these volumes.)
• A Hong Kong based company created a successful range of tartan phone covers.
• Many businesses (both in Scotland and overseas - some with tenuous Scottish connections) have had a tartan designed as their corporate tartan.
• A tartan fashion show "Dressed to Kilt" is held annually in New York – one year it was opened by Billy Connolly wearing a striking blue and yellow kilt – funds raised go to a Scottish charity.
• The first affordable commercial computer software to design tartan was developed by a Glasgow based company (who also designed this website!) and released in 2000.