Yellow and blue tartan

[Benning Boy]

At the Scottish Tartan Authority website http://www.tartansauthority.com/ in the upper right corner of the page appear a series of changing images of men and women wearing tartan. One of these, it looks like a 19th century portrait, depicts a yellow and blue tartan. I see no other colors in it. Can anyone identify it, does anyone know what the name of this tartan is?


I once saw in an old book a 19th Century image of Indian native troops, I've long forgotten the unit designation, wearing a yellowish and blue tartan. Anyone have an idea of what it might have been?


A yellow and blue tartan seems appropriate for wear here in Kansas, where there is so much golden wheat and blue sky. Can anyone suggest a tartan in colors that might seem Kansas-ish? I've toyed with the idea of designing my own. Any thoughts?

[Downunder Kilt]

If you mean this photo, gentlemen on the left as we look at it


This is MacLachlan dress, I believe, but I am not sure if the blue colours as seen in the print are actually blue or in fact black. Someone may know more about the tartan and chime in. Cheers

[Benning Boy]

Correct. It's the guy on the left. Thanks for the full picture. I was getting awfully frustrated trying to pick out the details in the changing images at at the Tartan Authority site.

What is the yellow and blue tartan?

[Downunder Kilt]

It is MacLachlan dress, If you punch that into Google and go to images you will find some have it as black and yellow, and one from a site that shows a blue and yellow from Lochcarron but I could not get it up on the Lochcarron site. See here http://lochcarronweavers.co.uk/tarta...s_ancient.html
I think it is an old link.

[Benning Boy]

Thanks again Downunder. The pic you posted, even when enlarged is very low-rez on my screen. It took me a while but I finally figured out it's MacLachlan. I searched the Tartan Authority site for it, and found examples in yellow and black and yellow and purplish blue. Both sample had sort of a dirty look to them, the yellow being more of a tan. Perhaps that's just my monitor, but it is a very good monitor. I didn't check for on-line images in general, but will give it a try. The Locharran link is helpful. None of the images I've seen so far show the tartan as vibrant as it is in the old portrait. I've long thought a tartan in maize yellow and sky blue would well symbolize Kansas, where so much wheat and other grains are grown, and where you don't have to look up to see brilliant blue skies. Perhaps when the time comes to have the Kansas kilt I want made, I can just order MacLachlan woven in brighter shades, more like in the portrait. For all the basketball fans out there, maize and sky blue were the original school colors of Kansas University, before Harvard and Princeton decided KU should be more like them.

[Domehead]

MacLachlan: Y & P/B c1870-72; K. MacLeay's The Highlanders of Scotland

MacLachlan: Y & K 1842; John & Charles Sobieski Stuart Vestiarium Scoticum

Likely, the VS version was purported "historic", as many from this MS were. Thus, the purple / blue alternative is a "Chiefly" or weavers choice.
Currently, Y & K is regarded as "Dress".

However...
1. William Wilson & Sons of Bannockburn 1819 KPB includes a "chequy" of scarlet and green, attributed "MacLachlan" & "No.99 or Small MacLachlan", which is indicative of "MacGregor K & S" & "Robin Hood", et al.

2. T. Smibert, 1850 The Clans of the Highlands illustrates a MacLachlan as a color variation on the Govrn't Sett and asserts antiquity from a female progeny.

3. D.W. Stewart, 1893 in Old and Rare claimed a "fancy" sett MacLachlan from the elusive Craignish Collection - something Peter E. MacDonald would know considerably more about.