There are great similarities between the MacKenzie tartan and the MacDonald of The Isles tartan and I've come to the conclusion that the former is a copy of the latter. I believe that the tartan which we know today as MacDonald of The Isles is in fact an old district tartan which was well known to the the Earl of Seaforth and when he created the tartan for his new regiment, The Seaforth Highlanders, he was instructed to use the Goverment tartan (Black Watch) as the base so he added red and white lines to mimic his district tartan. The MacKenzies acquired their lands after the demise of the old MacDonald Lords of The Isles and I believe that this old district tartan was later called 'MacDonald of The Isles' due to this historical fact (almost certainly by the Sobieski Stewarts as it is first recorded in their Vestiarium Scoticum collection). Acording to the Scottish Register of Tartans is has never been regarded as a MacDonald clan tartan and if a MacKenzie clan tartan ever existed why did they later chose the military one to fulfill this role?