Quote Originally Posted by M. A. C. Newsome View Post
If you are a MacDonald and looking for a predominantly red tartan, why not MacDonald of the Isles red?


Or the similar MacDonald of Sleat?


Both are derived from this portrait of the MacDonald children. The upper tartan Matt posted is a copy of the tartan of the jacket worn by the boy on the left.

The lower tartan Matt posted is a defective copy of the first.



In The Setts of the Scottish Tartans Donald C Stewart says:

"Early last century (the early 19th century) there was manufactured, and given distinguished patronage, a tartan called by the Smiths MacDonald of Sleat, Lord of the Isles. In Old and Rare Scottish Tartans DW Stewart drew attention to the fact that this was a defective rendering of the tartan shown in a painting (The MacDonald Children) at Armadale Castle. In The Costume of the Clans, by the brothers John Sobieski and Charles Edward Stuart (1845) there is a representation of the figures from that painting; not only was the black line omitted, but the narrower stripes are rendered in blue instead of green."

Lord of the Isles Hunting is derived from another Armadale Castle painting.

The green and blue MacDonald of the Isles is from the Vestiarium Scoticum (the famous forgery).

The normal MacDonald tartan, MacDonell of Keppoch, and MacDonald of Staffa and Boisdale and Kingsburgh all either exist in early collections or are based on 18th century relics.

Just in case anybody wondered where all these MacDonald tartans came from...