wearing other family tartan rather than your own

[seanachie]

I am now entering a place that I really struggle with and I don't believe I am alone up here in the Highlands.

I am being really honest here. I don't like people with no connection to a clan wearing clan tartans, I don't like people wearing several different tartans of several different clans, I don't like people wearing clan tartans whilst not giving a damn about them and I don't like people from outwith Scotland who care little about our culture and just regard the tartan kilt as a way to show off for personal satisfaction.

Now I realise full well that I can do little about it and when all said and done we are not going to war over it! Could I change the situation? No I can't. Would I want to? Yes I would, if it were possible and it isn't!

What I do respect highly, are those that are sympathetic to my Country's culture and take the trouble to find out at least a little bit about it. I do respect those that try to fit in with our traditions in spite of having little or no connection to Scotland. I do respect those with Scots roots that want to maintain a connection. And last and most certainly not least, I have huge regard for those outwith Scotland that wear their National, State, University, Service etc. tartans as kilts, instead of Scots Clan tartans.

I don't think that many of you will be too surprised by my comments, but I hope beyond hope that you will forgive this Highland Scot for his honesty.

I respect your opinion, and appreciate you honestly, this happens to be the only kilt that I own in a clan tartan. As to this comment:

I don't like people wearing clan tartans whilst not giving a damn about them and I don't like people from outwith Scotland who care little about our culture and just regard the tartan kilt as a way to show off for personal satisfaction.

I will just say I did read as much as I can on the history, I did make a request from the clan to wear it and I have always tried to wear it appropriately and never misrepresent myself whilst wearing it and to share what limited knowledge I have. So while we can share an honest difference of opinion I just want to be sure to say I have never tried to disrespect your culture or wear the kilt as a way to show off.

Thanks for your willingness to share your thoughts and perspective. It is very helpful in learning and understanding.

[davidlpope]

What I do respect highly, are those that are sympathetic to my Country's culture and take the trouble to find out at least a little bit about it. I do respect those that try to fit in with our traditions in spite of having little or no connection to Scotland. I do respect those with Scots roots that want to maintain a connection. And last and most certainly not least, I have huge regard for those outwith Scotland that wear their National, State, University, Service etc. tartans as kilts, instead of Scots Clan tartans.

Jock,

Thanks for your kind words and your honesty. Your country's history and culture have a unique way of engendering interest and admiration in those of us who are far removed from our Scots ancestors. I don't buy into all of those "the blood calling us home" cliches, but it is true that Scotland's history and my portions of Scottish ancestry encourage much greater devotion in me than all the other "mongrel strains" that I'm descended from. Funny how that works...

I appreciate your input on this forum, your unique "Highlander's eye" towards the things we discuss, and your willingness to share your experience and knowledge in all things kilted. Thanks.

David

[Alan H]

Jock, my friend, I ask this question in all sincerity. How "connected" is connected? I mean, nobody in the Highlands will inquire as to my connection with any clan and its tartan. I understand that. But in the world of "it's just not done, Old Boy" just HOW connected does one need to be to a Clan to not raise eyebrows?

....for example...ME

I wear the MacNaughton tartan. i throw in a MacNaughton kilt at the Games and at some point I will have a "tank" in MacNaughton.

Now, what is my connection with that clan? In 1730 one John McKnight emigrated from Ulster to the colonies. That mans son opened McKnights Tavern in Alexandria, Virginia. He had a daughter, Martha McKnight, who was one of the matriarchs of her time. Marth McKnight is my great great great great great great great grandmother on my mother side.

I don't know for sure that John McKnight is in fact related to the Scottish MacNaughtons. It's highly likely, as a whole lot of MacNaughtons moved to Ireland at various times, in fact the current chief resides there, and his family has been on Irish ground since the late 1700's.

From John McKnight onward, people have intermarried whomever was around, so that in the end I am a Northern European Mongrel with a whole lot of French Canadian heritage on my paternal grandfathers side and a 230 year old, twelve generation, razor-thin connection to the MacNaughtons on my maternal granmothers side.

......and I wear a MacNaughton kilt.

SO..... If I were to move to Inverness, let my family heritage be known, and went out one fine Sunday afternoon wearing my entirely wonderfully-made-of-the-finest-wool-and-workmanship MacNaughton kilt......would that raise eyebrows? Would I be worthy of an "That's just not done,Old Boy".?

[Alan H]

I should be clear with you, Jock...it's only fair.

I ask the question of you out of curiosity. However, if and when I visit Scotland, based on your answer, perhaps I shall leave my MacNaughton kilts at home, and wear Holyrood and Capercaillie and the Scottish national tartan instead!

However, I live in California, where I daresay I will offend no one by wearing a MacNaughton kilt and no eyebrows will be raised. I pay dues to the Clan Society, I write for the Clan Newsletter, I've been a convener of the Clan tent, I'm passing familiar with the family history, etc. etc. I would say I'm at least a respectful and reasonably educated kilt wearer. So I will continue to wear my MacNaughton kilts, HERE IN CALIFORNIA no matter what you write.

But as I said, based on your response, I would definitely think twice about wearing them should I visit Scotland in the future, should you suggest that "Alan, it's just not done, Old Boy".

Cheers, Jock and I await your answer!

[Jock Scot]

Alan H.

Firstly I would be delighted to see you in Inverness.Now then to your point.

You see there must be many in the Highlands in particular and Scotland in general with a known clan connection equally as distant as yours, so the thing is that we just don't wear our pedigree on our sleeve. We wear the tartan we wear and every one else just accepts that particular tartan is IT. Now when you pop over to Inverness and wear your MacNaughton tartan I would not dream, nor would any one else, of asking you to justify it. Frankly no one is interested. It is only on websites like this is that all this detail is so important.To us a clan tartan says it all, there is nothing else to be said.

Now if you were resident here for a year or two, your other tartans might be let loose on us! As an American you will be expected to do something out of the ordinary and as your other tartans are not Clan ones, then you would get away with an "oh right, humm a bit excessive isn't it?" type thought. NOT EVER a spoken comment.Again the local populace are not interested in the minute detail of thread counts, colour shades, when the tartan was introduced, who designed it, what does it represent etc.. Nevertheless the good old Highland curiosity will come to the fore and for example if they know that you and I are friends, then your unknown tartan will come up in the conversation with me, eventually, and a very discreet question about it may well be woven into a conversation, but not for many years down the line.The recipient of this snippet of information will eventually pass that information on to others and as I have said before, it will take twenty years, at least, before those in the area know the tartan's name, but YOU the owner will not have directly told any of them!

Now because I am mildly interested in tartans and as I know how many of you chaps on this website operate and whilst you and I were sharing a wee dram together alongside the river Ness I might enquire what tartan you are wearing, on the other hand I probably wouldn't. What I would not want would be a two hour lecture on your connection to it and the detail of the tartan.Other than that we just observe quietly and think our thoughts.

I meant to put this in earlier, but forgot. The Highland Scot has a cultural thing that many non Scots do not understand fully, although many pay lip service to it and that is trust. Now the Highland culture is BIG on trust and whilst many of you will nod your heads and say to yourselves; "Yes so am I" , with the greatest of respect you are actually getting nowhere near how a Highland Scot regards it.

So let us take Alan as an example, fine upstanding fellow that he is. He arrives in Inverness proudly wearing his MacNaughton tartan, there is no doubting which clan he is batting for then! Next day, Alan wanders out of the hotel wearing another tartan, now the doorman, the man at the desk,half a dozen others will see that now Alan is batting for another team altogether! They may not know it is a fashion tartan, but it is to them another clan's tartan of some sort. It is in our Highland nature to go "hold on, who is this chap? Batting for two teams? Can we trust him? Humm we will need to watch this fellow, all may not be as it seems".

Now anyone who knows our history will be well aware that treachery is a major part of our national past and without a doubt extreme caution is still a natural instinct for the Highland Scot when judging a person.Too much blood,too many tears have been shed, too much pride has been lost in the past to forget so quickly and the legacy is an instinctive cautious, verging on the reluctant, giving of trust at any excuse..

As I have said earlier, one tartan sends one strong and constant message to one and all. Two tartans could say something very different to a Highland Scot and the benefit of the doubt is not easily conceded.

[DeWayne Ross]

This has been a very interesting read, I’m glad I decided to read it.

Lots of emotion connected to the wearing of the Kilt. If there wasn’t it would have died out long ago and we would see them only in paintings and in museums. Personally I am very happy to see strong feelings on the subject.

I am an American of Scottish ancestry; I can trace my line father to son all the way back to the first Scot in my line exiled to the new world for his Jackobite views and participation. I bear the surname that that he bore. For me there is a sense of pride, respect, and connection in the Clan Tartan. I am a member of the Clan Ross Association and I would not consider wearing another’s out of respect for those that have gone before me in my ancestry and for those of other Clans.

I also have a couple of casual kilts; they are made of digital camouflage. I could not imagine wearing wool Tartan casually in this day and age.

Living in the Pacific North West I have seen many things here from the Utili-kilt to the Steam punk kilt, from the black leather box pleats with zinc studs to military pleated Black Watch. When I go to the Games it is easy to tell the pride in ancestry from the new age fashion statement.

I think there will always be this rift, we are only human.

If you have a connection to one or more Tartans, be proud. You know who you are.

[Gryphon noir]

As with many who have already commented, I wear tartans that I have some connection with. Isle of Skye, because some of my family are said to have gone there [haven't located any, but it's a beautiful tartan anyway!]; Weathered Gordon because as my great grandfather was apparently fond of saying "We've always been Gordons!"; Ancient Hunting Matheson because I don't really like the red Matheson tartans [but there's family connection].
Some day, I'd like to have a Huntly or another Gordon variant.

There is one point that as designer of my own tartan, I had anticipated. What if somebody likes my tartan and wants to wear it? In registering the Stephen - Mathieson tartan [SRT # 10108] I wrote under "restrictions" that anyone by the name Stephen or Mathieson who hailed from the northeast of Scotland [almost certainly a relative in any case], anyone with a family connection or an affinity to the family, be it through friendship, marriage, etc., would be welcome to wear it.
In fact, I'd be flattered.

[Micric]

Jock,

You have put in a lot of miles replying to this thread. I just want to thank you for taking the time and making the effort to clarify "How it is" from a Highlander's point of view.
I can see it now though;...........a queue of forum members, all with our arguments for personal justification, wanting to know if in Your eyes we are justified in wearing a certain tartan!
That, or pretending it doesn't matter what anyone thinks, and yet still desparately wanting to be justified in the choices we have made.
What a miserable lot we might be!

Like you said, you don't want a 2-hour lecture on our arguments/credentials! It's not you anyone needs to convince,...but we do often need to convince ourselves. :-)

Thanks again.
R.

[Irish Jack O'Brian]

I am new to this forum and have very much enjoyed reading all the kilt lore. I came here in hopes of discovering more about my own Scottish heritage, and perhaps to explore the idea of getting a tank woven in the tartan of my relatives, the Sutherlands.

My family is part of the Texas Alabama Settlement – 23 families that came to Texas from Alabama in the 1830’s. The most Scottish of those families was the Sutherlands, but we are all connected by intermarriage, so I thought to honor that part of the tribe by wearing their ancestral tartan. Naive in the extreme I now recognize.

As I approach my 70th year, I realize that I will probably never make it to Scotland. And while I appreciate Jock Scot's honest feelings, I wonder if it’s a place I would feel very comfortable. Real Highlanders silently adjudging my motives. Would I need to produce an affidavit from the clan chief that I am permitted to wear the tartan? It will never happen that I will request such permission. First, as an American, I owe no allegiance to hereditary aristocracies. And secondly, while I’m sure that Lady Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland, and her son the heir to the Earldom, Lord Alastair Strathnaver, are nice enough folks (I appreciate that he took the name of the village that his forebears put to the torch during the Clearances), the history of the Sutherlands in Scotland is not one I particularly want to be connected with.

On the other hand, the history of my Sutherland cousins in Texas is one that I do want to be connected with and the reason I wanted to wear the Sutherland tartan.

The gentleman in the blue shirt on the right is William DePriest Sutherland VI. He is holding William DePriest Sutherland VII.



Many families with my real surname live throughout Scotland, especially Aberdeenshire and the Shetland Islands. There is not however a tartan; lowlanders, I suppose. So the solution I see is to design a tartan for my family name and make it available to my Scottish kin.

[Jock Scot]

IRISH JACK O'BRIAN.

There is a Sutherland tartan that is, as far as I am aware, freely available to all. Whilst I can quite understand your feelings about the Duchess of Sutherland and her family, I cannot see that you could have any argument with today's family.

You have Scots roots and you are happy with the Scots connection then no problem. In truth just buy the tartan and get on with it! Most people do these days it seems. In passing, as I understand it, most Clans do not require any documentation to "prove" your pedigree, however Clan Sutherland may have their own rules on that subject. It won't hurt to find out will it?No local Highland Scot will ever comment on the tartan you choose to wear; that I can assure you

If I may say so you have more than a passing knowledge of your Clan's past and I for one wish you the very best with whatever you decide to do and if you buy that tartan then there can be no objection from any Highland Scot that I know. I really do hope you can make it over as that part of Scotland, sad history though there is, is a beautiful part of this Island.