Talk about confusing

[Doc Hudson]

A friend mentioned that he was a decendant of Clan Ogilvie, and included a link to a picture of the crest and tartan.

The confusion comes from another site which also shows the crest and tartan.


http://www.scotclans.com/clans/Ogilivie/tartan.html
The photo won't post, here is a link to the page.



The only thing both sites agree on entirely is the Clan Motto: A Fin (To the end)

Any one know why the differences?

[Riverkilt]

Well, that thing the lady is holding is a portcullis, which is,"A strong frame or grating formed of vertical and horizontal bars of wood or iron, suspended by chains, and made to slide up and down in vertical grooves at the sides of a gateway of a fortress or castle, so as to be capable of being quickly let down as a defense against entry or assault. The portcullis allows those inside to see outside, and vice versa, but does not permit ingress or egress."

So guess different versions of design for the crests. Its supposed to be held up by a lady naked from the waist up but draped...whatever that means.

Other tartan may be the hunting tartan.

Don't know if that helps.

Ron

[Jimmy Carbomb]

Ogilvie regular could gag a maggot. We used to have the tartan at USAkilts and... well... they probably still do! Eeek!

The Ogilvie Hunting is actually quite beautiful. In comparison... a table cloth is!



I guess it's like the MacMillan tartans. Yikes!

Viva la difference!

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Ok, the difference in the crests is just artistic lisence. They are depicting the exact same thing, just drawn slightly different, which is perfectly legitimage.

The different tartans are because Ogilvie, like many other clans, has more than one tartan.

The one they are most well known for is Ogilvie of Airlie, which is famous as being the most complex tartan with something like 72 color changes in one repeat of the pattern. Now, with a tartan this large, you need a very big peice to see the whole pattern. Most swatches of the tartan you see are relatively small -- same thing with images on the computer. So if the picture you are looking at only shows part of the pattern, then another picture or swatch shows a different part of the pattern, it can look like you are actually seeing two different tartans.

The Ogilvie tartan you'll most often worn is Ogilvie of Inverurie (sp?) aka Ogilvie Hunting, which is a more usual green adn blue design.

There are other Oglive tartans in addition to these two, many of which look like simplified versions of the Ogilvie of Airlie tartan.

(Personal note, I have a great-grandmother whose maiden name was Storey, which is a sept of the Ogilvie clan. Every now and then I toy with the idea of making a kilt in the Oglivie of Airlie tartan -- just because I can -- but you only seem to ever find it in the ancient colors. And all that orange and light blue just doesn't do it for me. I've seen it in a kilt a couple of times in the modern colors and it looks much better.)

(Another side note -- Oglivie of Airlie is the same tartan as Drummond of Strathallan. Come to think of it, Drummond of Perth is the same as the Perthshire district tartan, and regular clan Drummond is the same as the Grant tartan. Those poor Drummonds with not tartan of their own!)

Aye,
Matt

[macwilkin]

As Matt stated, "artistic liscence" abounds when it comes to crest badge -- you never see the exact same one twice at vendors tents at the higland games, because different companies that produces the badges turn out variants.

A little off-topic, but whenever I see the Ogilvie tartan, I always think of the ghost story about the phantom drummer boy who haunts the Ogilvie castle, and reportedly plays before the Earl of Airlie dies -- I believe the last time he was heard was in the Boer War in 1900, when the Earl was killed in South Africa.

Cheers,

Todd

[Vince]

Not being an expert in this sort of thing, but it appears to me that if you were to rotate either of the tartan photos by 90 degress, they match up. Color differences probably due to imaging.