DC Dalgliesh

[Adrian]

It is sad that D C Dalgliesh has gone into administration and has disappeared from the marketplace, the assets are in the process of being sold by the administrators. Not all is lost, I have managed to purchase the stock of yarn and the tartan samples - there's a 20ft shipping container that is now crammed. I'm in discussions with a Scottish contract weaver and continue to be in contact with the administrators. With a bit of luck some of these tartans will be produced again. Hopefully later this year will have managed a pilot weave of 6 tartans.

[OC Richard]

I have managed to purchase...the tartan samples - there's a 20ft shipping container that is now crammed.

I wonder if the piece of cloth dug up on the Culloden battlefield will be in there somewhere.

(Sorry to be a bit cheeky but in truth its whereabouts are a mystery.)

[Jock Scot]

I wonder if the piece of cloth dug up on the Culloden battlefield will be in there somewhere.

(Sorry to be a bit cheeky but in truth its whereabouts are a mystery.)

I wouldn't hold your breath.

[figheadair]

I wonder if the piece of cloth dug up on the Culloden battlefield will be in there somewhere.

(Sorry to be a bit cheeky but in truth its whereabouts are a mystery.)

That'll be because it never existed.

[OC Richard]

That'll be because it never existed.

Stranger things have happened! Who knows, it might turn up someday.

DC Dalgliesh did state that it was "on loan" through from whom isn't stated. Was the peat cutter who found it the owner? In England such dug finds are property of the Crown, no?

The conditions of the loan are stated, viz being insured for 2,000 pounds and locked in a safe each night, but the duration of the loan is not.

So the questions are
1) did the cloth fragment ever exist?
2) if it did, who was considered the owner?
3) if DC Dalgliesh had the fragment on loan, was it ever returned to the owner?
4) if it exists, where is it now?

The fragment was said to resemble a MacDonald tartan, though which of the several MacDonald tartans isn't stated.

[Troglodyte]

In England such dug finds are property of the Crown, no?

Not just England, the whole of the UK including Scotland.

But the law is for 'treasure' not everything or anything you might find, and is there to prevent people secretly digging up Saxon, Viking or Roman sites, finding 'treasure' in the form of gold and jewels and flogging it off on the black market. Think of the Sutton Hoo find or the bags of Roman gold coins that make the news.

When found items become the property of 'The Crown' by default, it is to put them into state guardianship or protection - the monarch, the government and the people have equal and joint responsibility and custodianship, but none has individual ownership. Being property of the Crown quite importantly protects it from a potentially greedy government.

Laws in the UK are usually the same across the United Kingdom, but the legal system allows for cultural or traditional differences locally - which is why a law might be named slightly differently and suffixed with 'England and Wales' or 'Scotland' accordingly and is restricted to that location. Despite common perception, Scotland has retained much of its pre-union independent identity in the form of laws, currency, public holidays etc.

The treasure-trove laws appear very sensible, in that they protect 'finds' of antiquities of national and historical importance and counter any finders-keepers claims. A centuries-old scrap of tartan in a peat-bog may have little commercial value, but it is priceless to historians - which, as Indiana Jones might rightly say, belongs in a museum.

[figheadair]

Stranger things have happened! Who knows, it might turn up someday.

DC Dalgliesh did state that it was "on loan" through from whom isn't stated. Was the peat cutter who found it the owner? In England such dug finds are property of the Crown, no?

The conditions of the loan are stated, viz being insured for 2,000 pounds and locked in a safe each night, but the duration of the loan is not.

So the questions are
1) did the cloth fragment ever exist?
2) if it did, who was considered the owner?
3) if DC Dalgliesh had the fragment on loan, was it ever returned to the owner?
4) if it exists, where is it now?

The fragment was said to resemble a MacDonald tartan, though which of the several MacDonald tartans isn't stated.

I sought clarification along those lines from them some years ago. I also questioned whether the piece had been verified at the time (late 1940s) by the National Museum - it was not, and whether it was photographed. Unsurprisingly, given that this has all the hallmarks of a marketing hoax, I never received a reply.

[OC Richard]

I sought clarification along those lines from them some years ago.

I also questioned whether the piece had been verified at the time (late 1940s) by the National Museum - it was not, and whether it was photographed.

Unsurprisingly, given that this has all the hallmarked of a marketing hoax, I never received a reply.

This story does have an Allen Brothers ring to it.

However to give the Brothers due credit, had they been pressed to produce the cloth they would have done- literally.

[Patty Logan]

So what happens to their exclusive tartans? I can’t find the PEI(Canada) tartan anymore

[RGM1]

It is sad that D C Dalgliesh has gone into administration and has disappeared from the marketplace, the assets are in the process of being sold by the administrators. Not all is lost, I have managed to purchase the stock of yarn and the tartan samples - there's a 20ft shipping container that is now crammed. I'm in discussions with a Scottish contract weaver and continue to be in contact with the administrators. With a bit of luck some of these tartans will be produced again. Hopefully later this year will have managed a pilot weave of 6 tartans.

Would be interested in enough Fleming tartan to make a fly if you happen to have some. Barbara Tewkesbury made me a beautiful 8 yard kilt out of material received two weeks before they closed up shop. I can provide picture if needed to identify.