Tartan Day NYC 2025: Carnegie Hall Event

[OC Richard]

What tartan do they wear? Was it custom designed for the band?

Yes, it's a bespoke tartan designed for the band when they were called "Pipers' Trail Pipes & Drums".

https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/ta...ails?ref=11049

Personally I think they should have gone with the 50th Edinburgh Military Tattoo tartan, which would make for more colourful uniforms

https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/ta...tails?ref=4960

The CGI Tartan Register image certainly doesn't do this tartan justice, it's beautiful, take a look https://www.edintattoo.co.uk/news/we...-tattoo-tartan

The Pipers Trail tartan is dark blue with narrow white stripes, and the band's doublets are dark blue with narrow white piping.

It's always nice to have a contrast between the jackets and the kilts.

[jsrnephdoc]

Yes, it's a bespoke tartan designed for the band when they were called "Pipers' Trail Pipes & Drums".

https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/ta...ails?ref=11049

Personally I think they should have gone with the 50th Edinburgh Military Tattoo tartan, which would make for more colourful uniforms

https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/ta...tails?ref=4960

The CGI Tartan Register image certainly doesn't do this tartan justice, it's beautiful, take a look https://www.edintattoo.co.uk/news/we...-tattoo-tartan

The Pipers Trail tartan is dark blue with narrow white stripes, and the band's doublets are dark blue with narrow white piping.

It's always nice to have a contrast between the jackets and the kilts.

I'll guess you already know this, but if you search for a tartan by name on the STA website, then click on its small placeholder image, you'll get a much larger image that yields a far more detailed impression of what it would look like "in the cloth." Here's the result of that for Peter MacDonald's 50th Anniversary tartan:

At the moment, I'm exploring a "Robertson (Struan)" variant that I find much more pleasing than the "stoplight red" most common "Robertson" red. While the pattern is quite different from the 50th Anniversary tattoo tartan, the color palette is similar, and I think MUCH more interesting than the usual Robertson Red:

My guess is that this pattern could be exploited for VERY handsome kilts pleated to the stripe. Unfortunately, however, it seems THIS Robertson variant is woven primarily (if not ONLY) by DC Dalgliesh, and they seem just to have exited the business of weaving/selling tartan!

Of course, with your trained graphic designer eye you might point out that this might require VERY brilliant red (NO WAY) or green (possible), or (more likely) blue Argyll jackets for pairing.

Any thoughts on that?

[OC Richard]

I'm exploring a "Robertson (Struan)" variant that I find much more pleasing than the "stoplight red" most common "Robertson" red. While the pattern is quite different from the 50th Anniversary tattoo tartan, the color palette is similar, and I think MUCH more interesting than the usual Robertson Red:

That's nice! But I always want to see woven cloth if possible. CGI images never seem to do justice to the actual cloth.

I'm not sure which tartan you mean by "the common Robertson red".

The book The Setts of the Scottish Tartans gives four Robertson tartans. Three of the four have significant amounts of red.

One is said to be "in early collections" and is around half red and half blue & green. It has a white line.

Another is from Logan (1831) similar but without the white line.

Then there's the Allen Brothers one, like several of their tartans a simplified version of the one in current use in their time. It has a slightly higher proportion of red.

EDIT: I looked online and I'm seeing mostly the Logan (1831) version of Robertson. The older one, with the white line, is nicer I think, but the Struan one you posted is better yet.

[jsrnephdoc]

That's nice! But I always want to see woven cloth if possible. CGI images never seem to do justice to the actual cloth.

(and)

I looked online and I'm seeing mostly the Logan (1831) version of Robertson. The older one, with the white line, is nicer I think, but the Struan one you posted is better yet.

That is indeed what most people think of when they're thinking of "the" Robertson tartan. Of course, the mills are successfully exploiting "ancient colors" vs. "modern colors" for both "hunting" and "dress" (red) versions.



Here's the clan chieftain, my Dad, my sister, and two other women (I think one is the chieftain's wife), at a clan gathering in Pitlochry probably in the late 1990s. It looks like my dad has acceptable taste in socks My sister's kilt skirt and sash are "muted," but the clan Chieftain and my Dad are in the most common version of the red tartan:






Sadly, NONE of the mills list the Robetson (Struan) tartan among their stock weaves, but Barb Tewksbury tells me it wouldn't be too difficult to get a custom weave done by H o E.

And I should mention that if one visits one of the well respected kilt RETAILERS (in the U.K. or the U.S. and just searches for "Robertson," up comes more than 40 choices, but that's same tartan from different mills, or single vs. double width weaves, or dark or muted or weathered color palettes, or different fabric weights.

[OC Richard]

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo Pipes & Drums is indeed in the USA right now! Performing in Washington DC and presumably then up to New York.

https://www.facebook.com/TheRoyalEdi...MilitaryTattoo

[jsrnephdoc]

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo Pipes & Drums is indeed in the USA right now! Performing in Washington DC and presumably then up to New York.

https://www.facebook.com/TheRoyalEdi...MilitaryTattoo

I've received confirmation from the band's headquarters that they will indeed be marching. That's AMAZING news. I'll stand in the rain if necessary to listen to them. I did ask their rep to try to include Black Bear (with shouting drummers, of course), and the Skye Boat Song in their performances while marching (the latter not because of Outlander but because it was a favorite of QE2.