Glamis Castle Prince Charles Edward Stuart tartan

[Jock Scot]

I have to be honest here, to my uneducated artistic eye, I really don't find those tartans that you show above, one bit pleasing. Far, far too busy for me.

[OC Richard]

I really don't find those tartans that you show above one bit pleasing. Far, far too busy for me.

Yet, they're all the same tartan as the world's most popular tartan, Royal Stewart, except with a narrower red band. Royal Stewart's wide swath of red gives the eye a resting-place true enough.

But to me Royal Stewart is spread too thin. There's a happy place where a tartan design is closely-knit enough to have visual strength, yet not congested.

A candidate for the epitome of congested overly-busy tartans has got to be Drummond of Strathallan.

My old Pipe Major called tartans like this "test pattern tartans" (for those old enough to remember test patterns).



Most successful fall somewhere in the middle between dense complexity and simpleminded naivete.

[figheadair]

A candidate for the epitome of congested overly-busy tartans has got to be Drummond of Strathallan.

And that tartan has its basis in the one designed for the Royal Company of Archers' original uniform.