Quote Originally Posted by gilmore View Post
Granted clan tartans evolved after the clans' heydey, but does that mean they are not hoary? I think not. A few date from the mid-18th century, and many if not most are now close to 200 years old. That is certainly more ancient than most people can trace their own pedigrees.
Yes, the tartans are that old, but they were not in those days considered CLAN tartans, because the concept as we know it now did not exist. They were tartans in style of the Campbell's weavers, or the tartan worn in this or that area. In the turmoil of the mid-18th century, do you really think weavers didn't weave whatever they and their customers wanted (not to mention family weavers)? And who was going to stop someone from wearing whatever tartan cloth they wanted and could obtain? Just because a particular sett is 200+ years old, does not mean it has been a clan tartan for that time.

I really don't have a dog in this hunt, since I am not a member of any clan beyond the USMC, and at the moment I wear that tartan or a "universal" one because those are the kilts I have. But it seems silly to this Welshman that the Scots are defending a custom invented by the Sassanach

Geoff Withnell