Tartan of the Month - April

[Morris at Heathfield]

I suppose I can make a couple of guesses and one non-guess.

Use: indeterminate
Date: 1790-1820
Location: Atholl

I don't really have any strong reasons for my guesses, just slight hunches.

[figheadair]

I suppose I can make a couple of guesses and one non-guess.

Use: indeterminate
Date: 1790-1820
Location: Atholl

I don't really have any strong reasons for my guesses, just slight hunches.

Not sure which are the guesses and which the non-guess but they're all off the mark.

Use: Can by surmised.
Date: Too late by 40-50 years at least.
Location: Probably too far east.

[Ryan Ross]

Why aren't these things ever as easy as "Somebody was making a vest and had this left over; for some reason, it never got thrown out"? Heh...

I really have no idea about it, save the obvious things that have already been brought up.

It's a neat old piece of cloth, though... probably a fairly rare one too, I should think, based on its presence here and the supposed age.

[Morris at Heathfield]

Not sure which are the guesses and which the non-guess but they're all off the mark.

Use: Can by surmised.
Date: Too late by 40-50 years at least.
Location: Probably too far east.

The non-guess was the first one, although I suppose "indeterminate" is itself a hypothesis.

All right, new guesses:

Use: belted plaid (if for no other reason than to eliminate it from the list of possibilities)
Date: ca. 1746
Location: Appin

I feel like I'm playing Battleship.

[MacBean]

I love puzzles, but have no idea how to proceed on yours. They're just too hard! West of Athol? Grant, Fraser?

[figheadair]

The non-guess was the first one, although I suppose "indeterminate" is itself a hypothesis.

All right, new guesses:

Use: belted plaid (if for no other reason than to eliminate it from the list of possibilities)
Date: ca. 1746
Location: Appin

I feel like I'm playing Battleship.

F4!

No, seriously, you're very close.

Use: Probably, certainly a plaid.
Date: Give or take 20 years.
Location: Certainly west of the Highland Fault Line.

I'll run up a little paper on the piece and get it up loaded this week.

[Morris at Heathfield]

"Certainly" sounds like it might be far. Outer Hebrides?

[figheadair]

It's just about the end of the month and I'm heading for the hills tomorrow so here's the answer.

http://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/Unn...ury_Plaid1.pdf

I've a treat for May.

[Danwell]

So in actual fact, the piece of tartan is of indeterminate use, estimated date and unknown location?

How can anyone say that anyone else's answers are incorrect if the person who wote the paper relied on "gut feeling" and conjecture?

[figheadair]

So in actual fact, the piece of tartan is of indeterminate use, estimated date and unknown location?

How can anyone say that anyone else's answers are incorrect if the person who wote the paper relied on "gut feeling" and conjecture?

Because some of the answers were way off the mark. Knowing what something isn't is often easier than being able to say exactly what it is. So for example; it's not a sample swatch (#2), definitely not as late as c1790-1820 (#11) because the structual techniques had completely disappeared by then.

Sometimes though one has to make an educated guess but deduction based on observaton, in this case of similar artefacts and knowing something of the original collector's work, is probably more credible than simply sticking a pin in the map so to speak.