District Tartans?

[###KILTEDKIWI###]

could they wear a Cunningham tartan

Mate, as a Cunningham, people have no idea what the tartan is, and have even had comments like "is that a MacDonald?" and other various types of tartans.

My old lady (mother) is/was a Mcleod, and when i was getting my kilt built, quite frankly stated " I hope its not that ghastly (changed terminology) red one"...

Note that the Ayrshire tartan may be worn by anyone with connections to the districts of Cunningham, Kyle and Inverclyde.

Bet an educated Montgomery wouldnt wear it...

[Morris at Heathfield]

1) It's a connection. However, most anyone who recognized the tartan would assume you were a Cunningham, or at least a descendant of one. As for criticism, there's probably no way to predict it, or even to prevent it. For every person who might raise an eyebrow at your wearing of the Cunningham tartan, there's probably another person who will insist you're wearing the Ramsay tartan.

2) Clan and district tartans tend to be kept separate, but there are exceptions. A case in point is the Angus tartan, designed some time around the turn of the (20th) century. No one's really sure if it was intended as a family or district tartan, so it's used as both. (Note: Angus was known as Forfarshire at the time; however, the tartan might have been named after the Earldom of Angus.) The district association seems to be the most prevalent, however. On the other hand, the Campbell of Cawdor tartan was used as a district (and military) tartan for Argyll before it came to be associated with the Cawdor branch of the family. Now the family association has prevailed.

3) Campbells shouldn't mind others wearing the Black Watch tartan because, according to the experts on the subject (the late James Scarlett and Alastair Campbell of Airds), the Campbells wear the Black Watch tartan.

[macwilkin]

1) It's a connection. However, most anyone who recognized the tartan would assume you were a Cunningham, or at least a descendant of one. As for criticism, there's probably no way to predict it, or even to prevent it. For every person who might raise an eyebrow at your wearing of the Cunningham tartan, there's probably another person who will insist you're wearing the Ramsay tartan.

2) Clan and district tartans tend to be kept separate, but there are exceptions. A case in point is the Angus tartan, designed some time around the turn of the (20th) century. No one's really sure if it was intended as a family or district tartan, so it's used as both. (Note: Angus was known as Forfarshire at the time; however, the tartan might have been named after the Earldom of Angus.) The district association seems to be the most prevalent, however. On the other hand, the Campbell of Cawdor tartan was used as a district (and military) tartan for Argyll before it came to be associated with the Cawdor branch of the family. Now the family association has prevailed.

3) Campbells shouldn't mind others wearing the Black Watch tartan because, according to the experts on the subject (the late James Scarlett and Alastair Campbell of Airds), the Campbells wear the Black Watch tartan.

Morris,

In regards to your second point, the Cumming Hunting Tartan is also the old Buchan District tartan, and the Hunting Macpherson is the also the Badenoch tartan -- both were lands of the respective clans that controlled them.

Regards,

Todd

[Dall_Piobaire]

Question on the Ayrshire district tartan. That is a smart tartan, but I thought I read that it was just approved in the late nineties. I thought Kilmarnock was included in the Ayrshire district? Is that just because of the redistricting? What district was Kilmarnock in before it was redistricted, or was it?

I'd love opinions on combining that with my Boyd tartan. Don't have a link to it though, sorry!

[Phil]

I have to admit that, like Jock, District tartans were complete strangers to me before I joined here. The first non-clan tartan I ever came across was when a work colleague who was in the Tartan Army bought himself an ex-hire "Flower of Scotland" kilt. His choice was dictated by what the shop had that would fit him and he never considered his clan for a moment.
It is nice that there are tartans available nowadays to fit every eventuality but, as Jock says, they are a total irrelevance to us Scots people - yet another fact like Borders families never having been clans and Irish people never having worn kilts that seems to cause immense difficulty here and raise recriminations against the person who has the gall to even hint at it.

[Bugbear]

I have to admit that, like Jock, District tartans were complete strangers to me before I joined here. The first non-clan tartan I ever came across was when a work colleague who was in the Tartan Army bought himself an ex-hire "Flower of Scotland" kilt. His choice was dictated by what the shop had that would fit him and he never considered his clan for a moment.
It is nice that there are tartans available nowadays to fit every eventuality but, as Jock says, they are a total irrelevance to us Scots people - yet another fact like Borders families never having been clans and Irish people never having worn kilts that seems to cause immense difficulty here and raise recriminations against the person who has the gall to even hint at it.

I tried to bring this up in another thread, but I think it didn't quite come across too well, or even may have made someone angry. Over here, in the US, a lot of us aren't raised with that same sense of clan. We do, however, end up being raised with a strong sense of our region or state and even city. Sometimes it's a group or even sports team. The concept probably doesn't translate very well, but this focus on distric tartans might be in part just from trying to understand the concept of a clan tartan as a non-Scot.

I have no desire to throw any of that in the face of the Scottish people, or to tell the Scots how to wear their own national dress. I also don't know what to do about any of this if someone has a kilt in a distric tartan hanging in the closet, or a kilt in any other non-clan tartan, like the one hanging in my closet. Sometimes it feels like the rubberband is being stretched too far to try to find a connection to something from "way back when."

I don't think we can include any of the non-traditional types of kilts in this, so they don't count.

[Phil]

I have no desire to throw any of that in the face of the Scottish people, or to tell the Scots how to wear their own national dress.[/i]

Well said, and I, similarly, would never presume to tell anyone what they should or should not wear. That is entirely a matter for themselves and not one they should ever have to justify to anyone else. I am sure that few, if any clan members would object to someone wearing their clan's tartan. For myself I am less comfortable with tartan being used in other ways than highland dress but that, again, is only my view.

[am1745]

A lot of the clans in the north east of scotland wore the Huntly District tartan at Culloden, and it is a really nice tartan too but very expensive or i would buy some!!

[Jock Scot]

All this talk of district tartans is very interesting and somewhat theoretical and I think that, in some cases, their ancestry is actually older than some of the older clan tartans, I stand to be corrected on that point. However, in real life, certainly in the highlands, they are almost irrelevant. I know of no one here that would consider wearing a district tartan,other than in a pipe band, even if anyone knew that they actually exist and very,very few do.

[macwilkin]

All this talk of district tartans is very interesting and somewhat theoretical and I think that, in some cases, their ancestry is actually older than some of the older clan tartans, I stand to be corrected on that point. However, in real life, certainly in the highlands, they are almost irrelevant. I know of no one here that would consider wearing a district tartan,other than in a pipe band, even if anyone knew that they actually exist and very,very few do.

I'm sorry, but I respectfully disagree Jock, as someone who wears two district tartans: one to honour the land where my immigrant ancestors settled, and the other which is actually my clan tartan.

To myself (and others I daresay) they are hardly irrelevant, but symbols of my pride in my ancestry and the accomplishments of my ancestors in their new country -- soldiers, farmers and educators, active in various civic, patriotic and fraternal organisations, Presbyterians, etc.

Please remember that for those who have no connection to a clan, but rather a connection a geographic location in Scotland, the district tartan is just as relevant.

Respectfully,

Todd