All in the (Robertson) Family (the tartan, not the TV comedy)

[NHhighlander]

https://pricklythistle.shop
They describe their operation as "the only weaving mill located on the mainland Highland region of Scotland"
So far, I've had as much luck contacting them as you have with the Clan. No response.
(they operate right across the Cromarty Firth from where the characters in my novel are. They "might" help me with local color - or not.)

[OC Richard]

https://pricklythistle.shop
They describe their operation as "the only weaving mill located on the mainland Highland region of Scotland"

Thanks for that link.

What a strange page.

I had to wade through self-promoting verbiage about politics, causes, and activism to find out about the weaving.

"Climate Stripes" fabric? Oh dear me.

[NHhighlander]

What a strange page.

LOL

I had to wade through self-promoting verbiage about politics, causes, and activism to find out about the weaving.

Yeah. I don't mind causes (I actually do mind people who don't care, but mostly try leave them alone, as experience shows they do get fierce when roused out of their comfort and privilege), but, really... My patience broke and I gave up, mostly because of their "cutesy redacted" four letter word in every page (there must be people that like that. Shudder), as I couldn't figure out what they sell, if anything, for how much. Any website for any business in the planet shows, front and center, product, prices, conditions (sometimes these latter are hidden, a red flag, to start walking away) except this one.

I got there as part of a last ditch effort to get my wife some Scot-ish apparel, as I am following sage and wise advise to drop the arisaid, and these people seemed to know about female tartan stuff that didn't look like an artificial, forced attempt to reinterpret male garb.
They do have a shop in Inverness, I guess we'll drop by, when, and if, we ever get there.

What saddens me most, though, is this thing about being "the only weaving mill located on the mainland Highland region of Scotland." Not at all because what they say or do, or their peculiar way to run a business page, leave and let live I say, but because there are no others. Somewhere in their story they tell on how they got started with some abandoned looms, from a company that went under. I wonder what treasures and resources going to waste are going to the dumpster as Dalgliesh kicked the bucket. Peter MacDonald has stopped taking orders, the last to handweave commercially, if I understood it right.

I don't know much about social/cultural ecosystems, but my experience regarding handmade paper is that once what was a vital, thriving craft is completely taken over by machines or leisure dilettantes or arts degree programs, really weird things start to happen, as we lose the meaning and the human connection between the object, the maker, and the user, the kind of stuff at the very base of humanity, of community, that three-parts exchange. Prickly Thistle seems to get some of this, and in that I say, more power to them!

"Climate Stripes" is but a sign, an indicator, that tartans are in trouble, in ways that might matter, or not. We call ourselves a "community of kilt wearers." Mostly, everything seems and looks normal, we don't need to worry. Yet, for another example, the Tartan Registry fee jumped to 150 pounds from 70 pounds last October, as they crossed their 10,000 count. I feel that the last steps to de-humanize the connection between the object and its makers is winning, turning the whole thing into a game of profit, remove or forget the human except as a client, and even then. Dalgliesh gone. Do you really believe all that tartan cloth at pretty good prices is woven in the UK, when so much profit is available when having lower paid slaves overseas do the work? Who's next to go under?

[SF Jeff]

I HAVE checked all the sources I know of (without visiting Pakistani websites). That includes:

Lochcarron
House of Edgar
Marton Mills
Strathmore
DC Dalgliesh (access blocked, but "someone" owns the website)
Have I missed any?

There is/was a mill in Vancouver called West Coast Woolen Mills. I don't think they are around any longer but you might try a web search for them. They had a beautiful tartan named Caledonian Maple.

I think one of the members here now owns the Dalgliesh inventory.

[jsrnephdoc]

There is/was a mill in Vancouver called West Coast Woolen Mills. I don't think they are around any longer but you might try a web search for them. They had a beautiful tartan named Caledonian Maple.

I think one of the members here now owns the Dalgliesh inventory.

I'd wager that the people who run Lochcarron would have information on that topic, but probably also would not be at liberty to converse on it.

I DID try a web search for "who now owns DC Dalgliesh" that produced an article on the BBC website dated in 2011, stating that DC Dalgliesh had been "saved at the last minute," but also official notices of "Winding Down" from Spring 2025 that contained NO information about what would happen to the company's equipment or inventory. My "Lunar 2" kilt fabric was woven by them just last year.

I also did a web search for "West Coast Woollen Mills" in Vancouver. THAT produced a smarmy and bogus "warning" that my Mac was infected with 13 viruses (there are exactly ZERO viruses in the wild that can infect modern macOS computers).

In the end, probably the route most likely to be successful will be a three step process:

1. Make certain the Clan Donnachaidch chieftain wouldn't be offended by mere clan members or surname "owners" wearing the White Line tartan
2. Find some other people interested in owning kilts made from it (to share the expenses)
3. Get House of Edgar or Marton Mills to weave it.
4. Sort out how individual customers or kilt makers will make the purchase(s). Probably that actually should be step TWO