Visions of Magick Magazine

Having created a tartan using these.
We gave the online public a choice of the
original and the newer one. With more
votes the latter was chosen.
Shades of colours were played around
with and with the final tweaks the result
was what we have today.
A wee history of Tartan.
You’d think this subject would be
straightforward but like much of Scottish
history it is not. Tartan has quite a
confusing heritage, with many countries
including ancient China having produced
forms of tartan weave. China dating back
more than 3000 years.
One of the earliest learnings of Scottish
tartan comes from the Italian historian
Diodorus Siculus (90BC – 30BC) who
wrote “the way they dress is astonishing:
they wear brightly coloured and embroided
shirts, with trousers called bracae and
cloaks fastned at the shoulder with a
brooch, heavy in winter, light in summer.
These cloaks are striped and cheqered
in design, with the seperate checks close
together and in various colours”.
Scotlands earliest traditional form of
tartan is the Falkirk Tartan dating back to
the 3rd century BC.
Original tartan symbolised the region
you belonged to and due to available
natural dyes were more muted greens,
browns, blues and purples. Worn as plaids
(Gaelic feileadh-mór, meaning “great
wrap), these long tartan fabrics were a
source of warmth in the highlands as well
as bedding but in lambing season it was a
great way to keep a poorly lamb warm.
By 1471 James 3rd is noted as using blue
tartan to line his cloak as well as his wifes
dress.
artist unkown
Seen as a Scottish symbol both the kilt
and the tartan were outlawed under the
1746 Act of Proscrption in an attempt to
control the Highlanders who supported
the Jacobite Rebellion. After the Battle
of Culloden and the exile of Scotlands
King Charles E Stewart, the tartan almost
disapeared.
The act was repealed in 1782.
With King George’s visit to Edinburgh
in 1822 this changed. Sir Watler Scott the
Scottish romantasist, poet and author
had become friends with the king since
the publication of his novel Waverley
in 1914. It was Sir Walter Scott who is
credited (historicaly / factualy are 2
seperate things) with bringing back the
tartan, not just as a deffinition for the
Highlands but for ALL original CLANS of
Scotland.
Sinclair_(R._R._McIan)
A great book was released about the
original clan tartans by the fraudulant
Sobieski brothers who to sell the book
alleged they were grandsons of Bonnie
Prince Charlie.
With the arrival of Queen Vistoria
and her husband Albert in 1842, tartan
realy took off. Both the Queen and her
husband adored Scotland its games and
dress. When the Queen and her husband
turned up to the Great Exhibition in 1851
with her young sons, Albert and Alfred,
decked out in full Highland attire, it
made Tartan a world wide phenominom.
Being adopted by schools throughout
the Empire as schoolwear and fabric for
pencil cases and purses.
Regiments took up tartan to distiguish
themselves around the world. Thanks to
litmus dye and modern weaving process
tartan began the explosion that we now
see today.
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