Clan Primary Image Mac Bean

Scottish Clans

MacBean Tartans & Clan

Clan Motto Touch Not A Catt Bot a Targe

Who Wears MacBean Tartan? - Associated Names

First of all to explain why there are so many tartans, way over 2000 in fact. There are an awful lot of Scottish clans to start with and on top of this each clan can have many different tartans and names associated with it.

  • Bean
  • Bain
  • Binnie
  • McBean
  • McBain
  • MacBain
  • MacBane
  • MacBayne
  • MacBeath
  • MacIlvain
  • MacIlveen
  • McElvain
  • MacVain
  • MacVane
  • MacVean
  • MacAlbea

Nuestras tiendas MacBean Tartans & Clan From Curtains to Clothing, use the filters below to navigate through everything we offer in MacBean Tartans

Macbean Tartans

7 variations

Each tartan can have multiple variations, the most common of which are Ancient, Modern, Weathered, Hunting and Dress

About tartan variations

  • Ancient
  • Modern
  • Weathered
  • Hunting
  • Dress

Ancient Tartan

Before 1860 fabrics were coloured using animal and vegetable dyes. This produced the softer colours typical of the Ancient tartans, mossy greens and sky blues, a more orangey red and some would say showing off the pattern to much greater effect as as the contrasts are much brighter than the Modern tartans. The pattern or sett remains the same across all variations of a single tartan, and only the shades or tones vary.

Helpful Advice

Post 1860 chemical dyes replaced the natural animal and vegetable dyes and the Modern Tartans were born with their stronger and bolder colours. The soft greens and blues become bottle green and navy blue, reds are scarlet.

Modern Tartan

Before 1860 fabrics were coloured using animal and vegetable dyes. This produced the softer colours typical of the Ancient tartans. Post 1860 chemical dyes replaced the natural animal and vegetable dyes and the Modern Tartans were born with their stronger and bolder colours. The soft greens and blues become bottle green and navy blue, reds are scarlet.

Helpful Advice

The Modern tartans are often the more subtle combinations such as the classic Black Watch Modern

Weathered Tartan

Before 1860 fabrics were coloured using animal and vegetable dyes. This produced the softer, more earthy colours typical of the Weathered tartans, reminiscent of bolder colours subjected to wind, rain and sunshine producing beautiful faded tones, olive greens and browns, and very light blues with reds that are more pink than red.

Helpful Advice

Some mills refer to the Weathered tartans as Muted.

Hunting Tartan

The Hunting Tartans are the camouflage tartans and some clans don't have these variations because they are already predominantly green or brown and don't need amendment to blend in with nature's colours. The Black Watch or Gunn tartans are examples of these, whereas a tartan such as the Fraser is predominantly red and would not provide much cover for men out hunting.

Helpful Advice

One thing to remember if you are ordering your tartan to match an existing kilt or accessory is that although the sett and colours are the same, there can be a slight difference in colour from one mill to the next. This is purely down to yarn dying so if you need an exact match we suggest you order a swatch to double check.

Dress Tartan

The Dress Tartans were designed as the name suggests for celebrations and highland dance. The sett or pattern of the tartan remains the same and the main colour is changed to white, or extra white is added to the pattern to give it a brighter, more "fancy" appearance. The Scots do like to bend the rules and occasionally instead of white thread, yellow is used and this is where the rather wild MacLeod Dress Modern and Barclay Dress Modern came from.

Helpful Advice

One thing to remember if you are ordering your tartan to match an existing kilt or accessory is that although the sett and colours are the same, there can be a slight difference in colour from one mill to the next. This is purely down to yarn dying so if you need an exact match we suggest you order a swatch to double check.

Clan Origin Primary Image Mac Bean

Desde el principio

MacBean Clan Historia y Orígenes

Macbean modern 10oz wool tartan swatch

Explorar la historia de Clan MacBean

Cómo empezó todo

Territories

Inverness in the Highlands.

Clan Chief

The last Clan Chief of Clan MacBean was Hughston McBain of McBain who died in 1977.

Que hay en el nombre MacBean?

MacBean originates from 'son of Bheathan,' the Gaelic word for 'Lively one.'

Clan Origin Location Image Mac Bean

Kinchyle

Kinchyle is an area located on the shore of Loch Ness, it was formerly owned by Clan MacBean and is their historic seat. The family owned the lands until 1759 when they were forced to sell in order to pay off their outstanding tax bills. Within the lands of Kinchyle is the Clan MacBean Monument, which is inside the grounds of the McBain Memorial Park. The monument and memorial park were funded by Hughston McBain, the former chief of Clan MacBean. At the start of the 20th Century, Hughston was doing research into his genealogy and discovered there had been no clan chief for the past 200 years. After contacting the Lord Lyons of Arms, Hughston was appointed Chief of Clan MacBean in 1959. He then went on to purchase some of the Kinchyle lands in order to pay respects to the previous members of his clan, this is what is now known as McBain Memorial Park.

MacBean goes to the moon

The fourth man to walk on the moon; Alan Bean, carried a piece of MacBean tartan with him on the Apollo 12 mission to the moon in 1969. Alan recently auctioned off the out of this world fabric but we still have plenty in stock if you want to get your hands on a more terrestrial version.

Clan Motto: Touch Not A Catt Bot a Targe (don't mess with a Wildcat unless you have a shield)
 


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