Recently I received an email from a re-enactor who was wondering which tartans we know of that date to pre-Culloden. In researching my response to him, I came up with a list of what I believe to be all of the tartans which we know of that have a pre-1746 date in Scotland. If anyone has any tartan they think should be added to this list, please email me at tartans@scottishtartans.org . Following is the initial question, and my response:

I have a tartan-related question for you that I hope you can help me with. I'm trying to put together a list of tartans that have been documented to have existed prior to Culloden. Right now, all I know of is the MacLean Hunting, and perhaps the Campbell Hunting/Black Watch . Can you help? I need the list to pass on to a merchant that is putting together a small, but growing selection of true Great Kilts (60 inch wide/heavy weight wool), and your help would aid not just him, but also those trying to assemble period authentic reenactors costumes.

I'll be glad to help. I would suggest to your friend that if he wants to put together an authentic selection of tartans for historic dress, he should really be more concerned with the appropriateness of the color selection than the specific design. It has been proven that prior to the late 18th century no care was given to maintain specific setts or regulated patterns of the tartans. So for historic dress purposes, a tartan designed in 1998 would be just as appropriate as one designed in 1598 as long as the colors used were authentic colors obtainable with natural dyes.

That being said, there is nothing wrong with wanting to offer actual tartan pattern that can be shown to date from prior to a given time. It's just a bit of extra work. ;-)

I'm curious as to how long your friend is planning on making these plaids. No longer than 4 or 5 yards I hope? Is he weaving the material himself or is he using commercially available material? This will limit his tartan selection. Also, is he using double width material or is he using two lengths of single width?

On to the tartans. You mention already the Hunting MacLean and the Campbell or Black Watch (not Hunting Campbell as you called it, it is the plain Campbell clan tartan).

Contrary to popular belief, the Hunting MacLean tartan is not as old as it seems. It's first appearance was in the book Vestiarium Scoticum by the infamous Sobieski-Stuart brothers published in 1845. While that book claimed to be a reproduction of a 16th century manuscript, it was later proven to be a hoax. The older evidence that people site is from a 1587 granted to Hector MacLean, heir of Duart, the fue duty payable in the form of 60 ells of cloth in white, black and green colors.

I'll quote D. C. Stewart from his book The Setts of the Scottish Tartans on the matter:

"Much has been made of the documentary evidence for the antiquity of the Hunting MacLean. While this establishes the production by MacLeans of cloth, white black and green in colours, as early as the sixteenth century, there is nothing in that evidence to indicate the nature of the design, supposing the three colours to have been woven together into a tartan. . . . Unfortunately, the first appearance of the design was in the Vestiarium Scoticum, where the documentary evidence referred to was also first quoted. It is open to suspicion that the tartan was invented to support the evidence, and that the evidence was then produced to support the tartan. Whatever the truth may be, the documentary evidence, while certainly supporting the claim to antiquity made for the tartan, equally certainly does not establish it. It would indeed be wonderful to have an unquestionable clan or district tartan of as early a date as 1587. For that very reason we would require more and better evidence than the present case affords."

So, while the colors of black, green, and white are certainly appropriate for cloth from the late 16th century in the western Isles, using this documentation as our source, one would be incorrect and misleading to say that the actual Hunting MacLean tartan can claim that early date. Your friend may still sell his plaids in this tartan--indeed it is a very attractive one--but he should not claim this tartan to be any older than the date we can claim for it, and that is 1845.

The Black Watch also has a very complicated story. We know the tartan was implemented for use by the Highland Companies in 1725. Where it was derived from is up for debate. Some say it was an original design, new at the time. Some say it was an older Campbell tartan. Others argue that it was woven as the basis of several diverse tartans already in use at the time.

For the first hypothesis, the tartan is said to have been invented by Lord Crawford, who formed the Regiment. Uniform of dress was desired, and not wanting to pick one clan over another, he designed a new tartan. If this account is true, it upsets the Campbell claim that their clan first used this tartan.

For the second hypothesis, we must consider that several of the original battalion were commanded by Campbells, and since it was customary for regiments to wear the tartan of their leaders, when a uniform tartan was desired for the company, the Campbell was selected because of the prominence of that name among the commanders. However, there is no evidence that the Campbells wore this tartan or anything similar prior to this time.

The third hypothesis is based on the fact that a large number of tartans have as their basis the "Black Watch" pattern. Without going into too much detail, tartans exhibiting this pattern can be shown to date back at least to 1715 (from a MacRae kilt worn at Sherriffmuir). Other tartans with this design, such as Gordon and Forbes, are known to date from later than the Black Watch and were based on it.

So, as for the origin of this tartan, we simply don't have enough proof to say. However, we do know it was adopted for use in 1725, and so meets your friend's criteria for pre-Culloden tartans.

Those two tartans being discussed at length, I will now endeavor to add to the short list of pre-Culloden tartans. As a cautionary note, I will warn that the list is short. Tartan is almost unheard of in the documentary record prior to the 16th century. References after that date are usually imprecise. But they do indicate a wide variety of design. For example, in the seventeenth century campaign of Viscount Dundee, descriptions we have show Glengarry's men as wearing "scarlet hose and plaids crossed with a purple stripe". Locheil is mentioned as wearing a coat of three colors. MacNeil of Barra is said to wear a plaid whose colors "rivaled the rainbow." In a 1635 portrait of Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochow, he is shown in a belted plaid of solid red, not a tartan at all. George Buchanan wrote in Rerum Scoticarum Historia in 1581 that the Highland Scots "delight in variegated garments, especially stripes, and their favourite colours are purple and blue. Their ancestors wore plaids of many colours, and numbers still retain this custom, but the majority now in their dress prefer a dark brown, imitating very nearly the leaves of the heather, that when lying upon the heath in the day, they may not be discovered by the appearance of their clothes . . ." In 1704 the Laird of Grant commanded that all of his tenants were to be prepared to report to battle dressed in red and green tartan of broad stripes (no specific pattern is mentioned).

So what about the specific tartan patterns for which we can claim a pre-Culloden date? There are a few, and it should be stated that just because a tartan pattern can be shown to exist at an early time, it does not mean that the modern clan or district association existed then. Also, not all of these tartans are produced by the mills today, and when they are, it will be with modern dyes showing modern colors. We know the colors used in the early nineteenth century and before were slightly different.

We will begin at the beginning with what is called the Falkirk tartan or the Shepherd's Check. This is the oldest known piece of tartan cloth to be found in Scotland. It dates from the mid third century (some have it as late as 325) and consists of equal width stripes of a light and dark natural wool in a twill weave.

After this design, there is a great chasm in dates, the next oldest dating from the late sixteenth century. For most tartans, the earliest we can hope to document them is from 1819 or slightly earlier, from the pattern books of Wilson's of Bannockburn, first commercial producer of tartan material.

The Dunblane tartan was first illustrated in 1850 by W. & A. Smith. However, it was taken from a portrait at Hornby Castle in Yorkshire of Peregrine, 2nd Viscount Dunblane, who died in 1729, thus the tartan would date from prior to that year.

The Fraser tartan may be of pre-Culloden date. It is said to come from a portrait of Robert Grant of Lurg (1678-1777). I'm not sure of when the portrait was painted.

The Huntly tartan (same as the red MacRae) dates prior to 1717. By 1745 it was in common use among many of the clans in the Huntly area, MacRae, Gordon, Ross, Brodie, Forbes, and Munro. A variation of it was worn by Prince Charles Edward Stuart when a guest of the MacRaes in 1745.

The Lennox tartan dates to prior to 1600. It was reproduced by D. W. Stewart based on a portrait of a lady supposed to be the countess of Lennox, mother of Henry Darnley, second husband to Mary, Queen of Scots and father of James VI.

A MacDonnell of Keppoch tartan (though not the one normally seen today) was copied from a relic of 'the '45' that was given by Keppoch to Prince Charles Edward.

The MacDonald of Kingsburg tartan has an interesting story. It is taken from the only remaining fragment of a waistcoat given by MacDonald of Kingsburg to Price Charlie after Culloden. Charles thought the colors too bright, so he exchanged the coat with a Malcolm MacLeod. MacLeod was later captured by Government forces, but he had previously hidden the waistcoat in the cleft of a rock. More than a year later he was released, and went to retrieve the coat, finding only a small portion that had survived undamaged. This portion is now in the Advocate's Library in Edinburgh.

The MacIan tartan may be of pre-Culloden date. A portrait of Alastair Ruadh of Glengarry shows him in this tartan, and he was pominant during the '45.

There is a MacKintosh tartan very similar to the one in production now that was supposedly worn by Prince Charles Edward Stuart.

A version of the MacRae Hunting tartan comes from a fragment of a kilt worn at the battle of Sherriffmuir in 1715.

The Murray of Tullibardine tartan is said by James Grant to have been "adopted and worn by Charles, first Earl of Dunmore, second son of the first Marquis of Tullibardine . . . in1679 [he] was lieutenant-Colonel of the Royal Grey Dragoons. . ."

There are many many varaitions on record of the Royal Stewart or the Prince Charles Edward Stuart tartan. These are based on a tartan said to have been worn by the Prince himself.

The Jacobite tartan is first illustrated by the Smiths in 1850, but the pattern was taken from a silk scarf made in 1712.

There is a Robertson tartan (not the one normally seen today) that currently belongs to the Clan Donnachaidh (Robertson) Society which was given by Prince Charles to a Robertson during the '45. This is almost identical to the MacDonell of Keppoch design mentioned above.

D. C. Stewart lists at the end of his tartan list a few tartans that were actually worn on the Culloden battlefield. Of these, one is manufactured and sold today as the Culloden tartan. It was taken from a coat worn by a member of the Prince's personal suite.

The Sutherland district tartan (very different from the Sutherland clan tartan) dates from the early 18th century. It has the same sett as the Black Watch, but is traditionally woven in lighter colors, azure replacing the dark blue.

The Ulster district tartan dates from the late 16th or early 17th centuries. It was found buried near an Ulster farm in 1956, worn as trews as part of a suit of clothes, dating from between 1590 and 1650. The colors had stained to various shades of brown, but it was believed to have been a four-color tartan made of red, dull green, dark brown, and orange or yellow. It is most often woven and sold today in a distinctive brown and mustard color, reflecting the centuries it spent buried. Sometimes one can find it in what are believed to be the original colors.

Outside of these, there are a few tartans which may be of old date, but more proof is needed. D. C. Stewart says, "Next to the Rob Roy , [the Gow tartan] is the most primitive tartan we have." By this he means primitive in design, not date. Although the simplicity of these two designs, Rob Roy and Gow, does allow one to speculate that they were in production at an early time, it cannot be proven. The Rob Roy is simply the Falkirk tartan woven in red and black.

The Dundee district tartan, though not woven as such prior to 1819, is similar in design to the tartan of a jacket that is said to have been worn by Prince Charles at Culloden in 1746.

The Kennedy tartan may be of old date. D. W. Stewart (D. C.'s father), says, "the design has been accepted by the Kennedys in Carrick, many of whom adopted it [in the eighteenth] century as an emblem of their Jacobite sympathies." However the tartan was not recorded until 1847 by Robert McIan.

The Dress MacRae tartan is not of old date, but D. C. Stewart affirms that it is an "indirect reconstruction of a tartan used for hose, about 1715, by MacRaes of Conchra, Lochalsh."

The Montgomery tartan is another example that D. W. Stewart believes to be old. He suggests that it was adopted by the Montgomeries of Ayrshire about the time of the Union in 1707. His son, D. C., writes, "If this is correct, it must be one of the earliest genuine Lowland tartans we have." More proof is needed, however.

The Stewart of Atholl tartan is claimed to come from a relic of the '45 but I am unsure of how convincing the proof is.

The Caledonia tartan, worn by any without a clan, was popular in the eighteenth century, but no one is really sure how far back its origins go.

Of course there are many many more tartans of old date that exist only in museums and private collections, but have no clan affiliation or name. This is to be expected as such affiliations are a modern notion. One famous example is the Christina Young arisaide tartan woven in 1721. Our own Scottish Tartans Museum in Franklin, NC, has a sample of an unnamed tartan dating to 1725. There are more like these, none of which are woven commercially today, however.

These are just the ones that I have immediate access to. Nowhere have I seen so far an exhaustive list of which tartans can be said to date from prior to 1746, but it would not surprise me to see such a list put together soon.