Oldest known Scottish tartan ‘brought back to life’ for people to wear

[MacKenzie]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...-bog-recreated

[OC Richard]

That's really cool.

Well done Peter!

What a contrast your process was to the secretive way Dixon Dalgliesh handled the find of the tartan fragment on Culloden Moor in 1946.

What I wonder is, is there any way to take a modern piece of tartan cloth and replicate the effect of being buried in a peat bog for 400 years? Has anyone recently buried tartan in a peat bog for any length of time to see what happens?

EDIT:

I started thinking of other tartan garments found in bogs, for example the tartan skirt of The Huldremose Woman.

She was discovered in a bog in Jutland in the 19th century. She's thought to date from between 160 BC and 340 AD.

Her clothes are exceptionally well preserved. Modern scientists who examined tartan skirt say there were three colours, dyestuffs that produce blue, that produce yellow, and the third unknown.



Her tartan scarf was dyed using unknown dyestuffs in the reds and yellows spectrums.

Here's the surviving costume (left) with two guesses as to the original colours.

BTW the capes are sheep fur.

[DAB16]

Hello,

It may be '... Scotland's Oldest Tartan' we must not forget Plaid was worn by the Celts (Britons) before they migrated to the lowlands of present day Scotland.

I have ancestors from Dundee and according to a photo in the Dundee Courier, Tartan was worn in a Shawl and predominantly by females. Kilts were not popular with the civilian populations until c. 1900 when the knife pleated kilt started to become accepted as Celtic National Dress by the civilian people of Scotland and Ireland. I believe, the unpopular box pleated kilt was the predecessor to the knife pleated kilt and was worn since c.1820 by the civilian populations.



Darren A Burfield-McCarthy

[figheadair]

That's really cool.

Well done Peter!

What a contrast your process was to the secretive way Dixon Dalgliesh handled the find of the tartan fragment on Culloden Moor in 1946.

Thank you Richard.

As you probably know, there was not tartan fragment found buried at Culloden and which Dalgleish supposedly used as the basis for their Reproduction range. Some years ago I wrote to Kenny Dalgleish asking for details of the alleged piece which, given its importance would surely have been photographed, discussed in the media and preserved in a museum. The reply was a deafening silence.

[OC Richard]

Thank you Richard.

As you probably know, there was not tartan fragment found buried at Culloden and which Dalgleish supposedly used as the basis for their Reproduction range. Some years ago I wrote to Kenny Dalgleish asking for details of the alleged piece which, given its importance would surely have been photographed, discussed in the media and preserved in a museum. The reply was a deafening silence.

Oh no however can that be?

He stated

Judge then the importance of the peat-gatherer's find and with what care it was cherished.

Here indeed was the key to much lost and sketchy knowledge and to D C Dalgliesh, who obtained this piece of cloth on loan, among conditions laid down were two, namely that it be insured for 2,000 pounds and that it be lodged nightly locked in a safe.

Maybe it's still locked in that safe! Maybe he had to return it to the peat-gatherer!

[MacKenzie]

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...tan-180983670/