not the tartan I thought

[OC Richard]

I imagine that I'm a fairly good tartan-spotter.

And when I saw a kilt in the right-hand tartan on Ebay I thought "that's Holyrood with a white ground, probably called Dress Holyrood or something".

When the two were compared, one might think that, no?

No. Googling "dress Holyrood" only produced dresses made in Holyrood tartan.

Then on accident I came across the same tartan (below, right) Holyrood with a white ground...but it's called Weathered Blue Stewart.

Makes me wonder if Holyrood with a white ground is called Weathered Blue Stewart, why not call Holyrood with a blue ground Weathered Blue Stewart Hunting? (Weathered Blue Stewart Blue wouldn't work! After all you wouldn't name a city The City of Daly City, would you?)

[Silmakhor]

Can't answer your question, but the white based tartan is lovely. Wearing a pair of LL Bean pajamas in it as I type this ;)

[figheadair]

It's all about making money. For a long time there was only one supplier of Holyrood and so they made all the money. Calling it Blue Stewart would not have had the same appeal.

[Tomo]

Lochcarron do refer to is as a dress tartan:



As they created the Holyrood tartan in 1977 - perhaps they would be best placed to explain the differences... I suspect the name is simply to differentiate it from other Stewart tartans and to cash-in on the Royal connection (although they could hardly call it Balmoral) but at the same time broaden the appeal with a wider association with Edinburgh...

[OC Richard]

Interesting, and House of Edgar calls their version "Blue Dress Stewart Muted"

https://www.houseofedgar.com/product...lue-dress-mtd/

To me it doesn't look any more "muted" than Lochcarron's version.