Advice on MacDonald "Lord of the Isles" Tartan

[figheadair]

Gentlemen, gentlemen, far too much 'can', should', 'ought' and 'allowed' going on. Simple answer, in the vast majority of cases there is no such thing as entitlement to wear a particular tartan, you may therefore wear whatever you want. Whether you choose to and why is another matter entirely.

And so to the question of the identity of the tartans. Tartan history warning

The Lord of the Isles tartan (back line on the red) is so-called because it appeared in the c1750 portrait of the MacDonald Boys where is shown being worn by the younger, Alexander, who later became 1st Baron Macdonald in 1766. The design was first recorded in D.W. Stewart's 1893 where he called it MacDonald of the Isles. Stewart cites the portrait as his source but then conflates the old Lord of the Isles title (confiscated by the Crown in 1493) with that of Baron (Lord) Macdonald. Ever since the tartan has been known by Stewart’s naming although it does not seem to have been widely woven until sometime after 1930.

In the first half of the 20th century there was considerable confusion and not a small amount of misnaming of this sett and the similar tartan without the black stripe now commonly sold as MacDonald of Sleat and worn by the chief of that branch. Stewart thought that the Sleat version must have arisen due to an incorrect copying of the portrait sett but then points out that the black line is obvious in the picture. Whether it arose by error or design, the non-black line version can be traced back to c1800 when it was produced by Wilsons of Bannockburn as Lord Macdonald under which name it appeared in the Cockburn Collection (1810). McIan (1847) and Macleay (1870) used this pattern for some of their characters, the former including it in his drawing of the Lord of the Isles.

Just to confuse things, Stewart’s called his second tartan The Lord of the Isles: Hunting, a pattern he took from a c1765 portrait of Alexander, 1st Baron (Lord) Macdonald, he of the red (black line) sett from an earlier portrait. Stewart rather unhelpfully referred to the sitter as the first Lord Macdonald of the Isles which of course he wasn’t, that was John of Islay (d.1386).

And then to cap it all, the Alan Brothers who produced their ‘one on a theme of’ type patterns which they called Macdonald_Isles.

So what to wear? The choice is yours but if it were me I’d opt for the red sett (black stripe) without worrying about the arbitrary title ‘invented’ by someone in 1893. In much the same way, I wear the hunting sett as a plaid.

[OC Richard]

The Lord of the Isles tartan (back line on the red) is so-called because it appeared in the c1750 portrait of the MacDonald Boys where is shown being worn by the younger, Alexander...

This painting goes to show, in my opinion, that tartans had no significance at that time, due to the two boys wearing five different tartans. (You can just make out the bottom edge of the left-hand boy's waistcoat which does not match his jacket.)

The tartan of the jacket on the left, which has the black line, and a version missing the black line, were both worn by the Isle Of Skye Pipe Band, one for their kilts, the other for their plaids. I loved this tartan-mixing, just what one sees in old portraits.

Another 18th century portrait shows a suit of this quite different "MacDonald tartan." Prince Charles (the modern one) was often seen wearing a kilt in this tartan in his younger days.



About the Allan Brothers' creations, their fake "ancient manuscript" says

MakDonald of ye Ylis... he heth ane blue set, and ane greine sett, quaroff ye blew hathe twa greit panes of blak, and vpon ye ylk borure yroff, and yrby twa gross sprangis of ye samen, and in ye myduard of ye ylk gren sett ane stryp quhite, the maist pairt of half ane fynger breid, ad yn ye mydward of ye blew ane gross spraing reidd.

As with any verbal descriptions of tartan this is open to a wide variety of interpretations. Of course the same men who wrote this fake ancient description also did the admittedly modern illustrations- what's funny is when the two don't match up.

In any case the "ancient manuscript" doesn't say it's a hunting tartan; it's evidently considered the ordinary clan tartan.