Tartan fabrics from "less well-known" mills...

[Colin]

I have a 16 oz kilt in the Ancient Watson from Marton Mills and I have owned a few kilt sin their Balmoral line of Poly/viscose. I like the materials that come out of Marton Mills and I would gladly order a kilt in their wool again.

[wvpiper]

but it seems most folks hadn't had any interaction with either Batley or
David

Would that be N. Batley?

[O'Callaghan]

Marton Mills is a well known tartan mill. They are in the county of Yorkshire, England, and the actual company name is Viking Technology Ltd., i.e. Marton Mills is their trade name. Batley is a well known town in that part of England, so I'd guess that's where your other mill is as well, although I've never heard of them.

[Alan H]

I've looked over n. Bately tartans, and I would recommend if you purchase from them, that you get their 16 ounce stuff. My feeling was that Batleys 16 oz was comparable to Locharrons 13. I would NOT buy their polyester-viscose for a kilt, it's just too light. It'd make a great sash, bagpipe bag cover, vest, tablecloth, clan banner or other sort of item, though.

[ForresterModern]

I have two kilt in Lochcarron 16oz, 3 in Marton Mills 16oz, one in 13oz HoE, one in 13oz Strathmore, as well as fabric in 16oz Dalgleish and 15oz Strathmore, and a kilt in the original movie Braveheart 16oz tartan (well, fabric at least) I think from Islay weavers. Never felt a tartan from Batley, but have compared their tartan colors to comparable tartans from other weavers and never liked the color palate they tend to use. Lochcarron is tight with an almost coarse feel and a clean selvedge, Marton Mills is equally if not even more coarse also with a decent selvedge (at least on the fabrics I have), HoE is firm and smooth with an imperceptable selvedge, Strathmore is luxurient and smooth with an imperceptible selvedge in both fabric weights, Dalgleish is even more soft at hand but tightly woven with a nice selvedge. The Braveheart from Islay is very thick, loosely woven, fuzzy and has a hemmed edge, so probably does not come with a kilting selvedge of any kind. Barb T currently has some of the 16oz Fraser & Kirkbright Maple Leaf tartan waiting on queue to be sewn up for me----it being predominantly merino I would expect it to be even a bit softer than the Dalgleish or Strathmore, but I have not personally felt it myself.

Glen Affric is a specialty weaver that does most of the custom work on rare/registered but otherwise not woven tartans for Scotweb. When I did a google search for glen affric weavers there were only a handful of hits, all from either scotweb, xmarks, or some foreign language sites. I have never seen their fabric even mentioned on any kiltmakers website other than Scotweb. Glen Affric, I believe, is a place in the Inverness region of Scotland, but the only info I could find on weavers in that area were for James Pringle Weavers.

[turpin]

Not to contradict AlanH, but I have a Batley 13 oz and I quite like it. Compared to a Lochcarron 11 oz, it is noticeably heavier.