Oldest surviving tartan recreated

With today being Burns Night I seems appropriate to post something with links to traditional Scottish life and culture, and few things, if indeed anything, are mores emblematic of Scotland than tartan.

The oldest surviving example of a Scottish tartan, dated to some point in the sixteenth century, has been recreated. The piece of cloth was found a while ago in a peat bog in Glen Affric and its design and colour scheme has now been reproduced.

There are accounts of the piece and its recreation from Sky News at Glen Affric Tartan: Experts recreate Scotland's oldest tartan

The V&A Dundee website has an article about the Glen Affric piece in connection with the recent exhibition at the V&A Dundee which can be seen at Scotland’s oldest tartan discovered by Scottish Tartans Authority

and from Yahoo in connection with the same V&A Dundee exhibition Tartan at New research finds Glen Affric peat bog discovery is Scotland's oldest tartan

The Independent wrote about the piece at Oldest tartan in Scotland to go on public display for first time

There are also similar articles from the Smithsonian Magazine at This 16th-Century Cloth Is Scotland's Oldest-Known Tartan

and from Popular Science at Slàinte mhath! The oldest piece of Scottish tartan fabric has been identified.

The history of tartan is a complicated one, with not a few relatively modern misinterpretations or misconceptions creeping in along the way.

There appear to be two decent online accounts of its development from tartan manufacturers Kinnnaird Worldwide at History of the Tartan

and from Kinloch Anderson at History of Tartan and Highland Dress

From these accounts it appears not to be entirely clear if ‘tartan’ in early references simply meant a type of cloth produced in the Highlands rather than what we understand by the term today. However the Glen Affric survival does indeed look like what was clearly recognised by the eighteenth century and has been ever since as tartan.

The articles linked to cite references to purchases for King James III and his Queen Margaret in 1471, to the fact that King James V wore ‘tartan’ in 1535 for hunting and in 1538 purchased three ells of ‘helland tartan’. His daughter Queen Mary I wore tartan when visiting the Highlands in the 1560s. A 1587 reference could well indicate something like the later idea of a specific Clan tartan.

The recreated Glen Affric design has bright, natural, colours, a counter blast to the all too frequent modern perception that for most of the population in the past clothing, and indeed life in general, was monochromatic.