Clan Primary Image Ettrick

District

Ettrick Tartans Page

With our HQ in the Scottish Borders we are a little biased regarding this area but if you visit the Ettrick Valley, formerly in the county of Selkirk, and now part of the Ettrick and Lauderdale District, you will have to agree that it is very beautiful. The Royal House of Stewart had hours of fun hunting the huge area covered by the Ettrick Forrest. Sheep-raising, encouraged particularly by James V, led to virtually the complete destruction of the old forest of birch and oak, and the area today is mainly pastoral although in recent years many young plantations have been established. It is a sparsely populated area of uplands with 'laws', 'rigs' and 'knowes' rising to 2000 feet and above. The precise circumstances relating to the design of the Ettrick tartan are not known, but it was included in book 4 of Wilsons of Bannockburn, Pattern Collections, dated c. 1900.


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Ettrick Tartans

1 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.

Ettrick Valley

From the start

Ettrick Tartan Origins & History

Ettrick Valley 190802 104506

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How it all started

Territories

Ettrick is a small village in the Scottish Borders, just outside of the town of Selkirk.

Clan Chief

The Ettrick tartan is a district tartan and therefore does not have a Clan Chief.

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The precise circumstances relating to the design of the Ettrick tartan are not known, but it was included in book 4 of Wilsons of Bannockburn, Pattern Collections, dated c. 1900. There are two Ettrick Tartans, one named Ettrick made up of red and black and one named Ettrick Forest made up of green and brown.

Ettrick Valley

Ettrick Valley

With our HQ in the Scottish Borders we are a little biased regarding this area but if you visit the Ettrick Valley, formerly in the county of Selkirk, and now part of the Ettrick and Lauderdale District, you will have to agree that it is very beautiful. This rural area is full of uplands with 'laws', 'rigs' and 'knowes' rising to 2000 feet and above. The Royal House of Stewart had hours of fun hunting the huge area covered by the Ettrick Forrest. The old forest of birch and oak was largely wiped out by sheep-raising, encouraged particularly by James V, and the area today is mainly pastoral although in recent years many young plantations have been established. The Ettrick Valley is not only famous for it's beautiful landscape, Sir Walter Scott spent time in the area and James Hogg, celebrated Scottish poet and novelist spent his life here, becoming known as the Ettrick Shepherd.

In early 1298, Wallace was proclaimed Guardian of Scotland at the ‘Forest Kyrk’. Tradition and history places this as Selkirk whose early spellings of Scheleschirche means the Kirk in the Forest. Selkirk was the capital of Ettrick Forest and the one place of importance in Scots hands at the time. At this time Wallace and his band were using Ettrick Forest to harry the English garrisons holding Roxburgh and Jedburgh Castles.

Ettrick is Eadaraig in Gaelic.


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