Irish

County Cork Tartans & Clan

Who Wears County Cork 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.

Agnew
Ahern
Barret
Barrett
Barry
Bateman
Begg
Begley
Boland
Bradshaw
Brody
Burke
Cagney
Callaghan
Canty
Coakley
Coffey
Coleman
Collins
Condron
Corcoran
Cosgrave
Costello
Courtney
Cowley
Coyle
Cronin
Crowe
Cruise
Curran
Dargan
Deasey
Decourcy
Dinneen
Donnegan
Donoghue
Dowdall
Driscoll
Dugan
Fitzgerald
Goggin
Harrington
Hartigan
Hartnett
Healy
Hennigan
Horgan
Kearney
Lucy
Lyons
McAuliffe
McCarthy
McDonough
McSheehy
McSherry
McSweeny
Murphy
Nangle
Noonan
O'Callaghan
O'Curry
O'Daly
O'Deheny
O'Donovan
O'Driscoll
O'Hoolaghan
O'Hurley
O'Keeffe
O'Leary
O'Looney
O'Mahany
O'Mahony
O'Regan
O'Riordan
O'Ronayne
O'Scannell
O'Sullivan
O'Tourney
Roche
Rynne
Tuohy

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County Cork Tartans

1 variations

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

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County Cork

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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From the Start

County Cork Clan Origins & History

How it all started

Cork began as a monastic settlement, founded by St Finbar in the sixth century. However the ancestor of the modern city was founded between 915 and 922, after the vikings attacked the great Monastery in the town. The vikings began to settle and this made this area a major trading community. The Viking leader Ottir larla is particularly associated with raiding and conquests in the province of Munster until the viking demise in Ireland in the 11th century. Cork was free from invaders up until the 17th century then the English invaded. Once with Cromwell, then the Tudors and then William of Orange, throughout these years the religious tension between the country began.

Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle is believed to date back to around 1200, when a stone fortification was first built on the site. This was destroyed in 1446, and rebuilt by Cormac Láidir MacCarthy, King of Munster, shortly afterward. Legend has it that prior to this, 4,000 Munster men were sent to help Robert the Bruce fight the English at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. In repayment, the Stone of Scone was split in half and sent to Blarney Castle in gratitude, where it was incorporated into the battlements. The castle was besieged, and later captured by English Parliamentarian forces in 1646, although it was later restored to the new Earl of Clancarty, Donough MacCarty. However, Blarney Castle was confiscated from the 4th Earl of Clancarty by William of Orange, and the castle proceeded to change hands multiple times after that. It was eventually purchased by the governor of Cork City, Sir James St John Jefferyes in 1688.