Significance of white in a tartan

[figheadair]

An article in the Braemar Gathering souvenir programme from a few years ago talks informatively about tartan, giving the less well-informed than we are here a bit of an insight into origins and inspiration for new setts.

The author writes that, at a lecture given on the subject, his authority and knowledge was challenged by one of the audience with the statement that white in tartan signifies it was worn at the Battle of Culloden. Why did he not know?

Hmmm, well...

That's a new one to me. So what do you make of it?

Despite the woefully mistaken and wonderfully romantic ideas, where do people get these notions..?

That's a new one for me too which I'll add to the 'Tartan Myths' mix. It's a bit like the one that claims that a black stripe in the MacDonald of the Isles tartan, and probably others too, was in remembrance of those that died at the Battle of Harlaw in 1411.

Someone obviously started these myths but it's usually impossible to find the source. By contrast, I think I've managed to trace the source of the 'tartan was banned after Culloden/as part of Proscription' myth to an Annex in a book published in 1960.