Earliest Documented Tartan: Falkirk Tartan

Tartans seen on kilts as we know them today were not always in use. Likewise, they did not always represent clans.

This is the "Falkirk Tartan". Other names include "Border Tartan", "Border Check", "Border Drab", "Northumbrian Tartan", "Shepherd's Plaid" and "Shepherd's Check". It is not associated with any clan, family, sept or name, (although some individuals with the surname "Shepherd" - or other variants of the surname - confuse it as a tartan of the Shepherd surname) but is associated with the Anglo-Scottish border. The earliest unearthed cloth sample of this tartan/plaid/check dates back to Iron Age Scotland somewhere between 200 A.D. and 300 A.D.

It consists of a waft and weft sequence of 15 threads of "light thread" and 15 threads of "dark wool". The terms "light and dark" were used for this tartan, as the "white threads" were not bleached, but rather threads made from untreated raw white sheep's wool, and the "black threads" were typically either just untreated raw black sheep's wool, or white sheep's wool dyed in any particular natural organic dye that had a particular very dark colour. The light threads could thus often come out looking "off-white", "yellow", or "greyish", and the dark threads could often come out looking any number of very dark colours, from "dark grey", to "dark green", to "dark blue", or "dark brown". Such is how this pattern earned one of it's namesakes, "Border Drab", as the pattern didn't look like any "particular colour", but simply just "rather drab looking". This same tartan woven in a houndstooth weave usually conveyed a person's status as "unwealthy" ("peasant" / "poor man" ).


About kilts and tartans, though. Let's delve into a little etymological/historical correction, as I often find myself doing. Too many people have false ideas about kilts and tartan as they are know, compared to oh so long ago.

Today, we call the patterns "tartans", and the garment a "kilt". However, neither of these words are Gaelic in origin.
The word tartan stems from the French word "tiretain", which refers to "woven cloth". A modern English word for the weft and waft weave sequence of stripes in a tartan is "sett". The "sett", however, only refers to a single repetition of the sequence. On subsequently larger samples of cloth, depending on the size of the sett, the sett could be repeated vertically and horizontally any number of times.

The word "kilt" stems from a Scandinavian verb (not a noun), "kjalta" [KYAHL-tah], which means "to tuck up". It's much akin to the American slang verb "to hike up", as in "to hike up one's skirt". This comes from the time when the "Great Kilt", or "Fèileadh Mòr" [FEL-luh MOR] was the standard everyday men's highland attire. The fèileadh mòr was a large square of cloth of which the wearer laid on the ground over a belt. The belt would have to be at waist level, but the bottom edge of the cloth roughly at knee-cap level. The would then pleat the cloth by hand through the middle. With actual tartans, there is an "art/technique" to this so as to "replicate" the pattern in the pleats. But in the "pre-tartan" days, this didn't matter, and the wearer could pleat it as they pleased. Then, with a basic long linen shirt on, they would lay down on the cloth so that the belt underneath was at their waist level, and the bottom edge of the cloth at their knee-cap level. They then wrapped the bottom half of the cloth around their lower body. People will argue that it should always be right-flap first, then left. But the early medieval Gaels didn't care. Typically, the order of which side was folded over first depended on unconscious reflex based on their dominant hand. Although, even this was not uniform. From here, they would proceed to fasten the belt around (now would be the grandest opportunity for a Gael to take a nap, even bundling up the upper half into a makeshift pillow). When they were ready to finish the process, they would simply stand up; done! Although, from here, there were a multitude of ways in which the excess upper cloth could be converted to be worn without ever removing the garment, usually having different functions for either formality, or even protection against the elements. One such way, if it were a warm day, and the legs needed venting, was to take the corner of one or both front flaps of the upper fabric (currently hanging down), and pull it up, and "tuck it up" behind the belt, thus allowing less fabric to hang in front, and providing more ventilation on hot days. "Kjalta", however - the word from which "kilt" came - is Scandinavian. And while "kjalta" is a verb, not a noun, it also refers to a similar but different pleated garment worn by the Norsemen. The traditional "English" translated word for kilt is "plaid" (which people today sometimes call the tartan patterns). Plaid stems from an English mispronunciation of the Gaelic word "fèileadh", which save for the mispronounced English "plaid", currently has no known original translation (the true meaning of the word is lost in time).
(Contrary to popular belief, the Gaels did not wear their fèileadh mòr into battle. They would entirely remove the garment before battle, wearing nothing else except their linen shirt, possibly a chain shirt or leather or plate-mail breast plate over it (depending on their wealth), and "boot-like footwear" fashioned from thick, rugged animal hide, secured to their legs with rope and twine. Weapons of choice were whatever they had on hand. Anything from an archery bow, a spear, a short sword or claidhmhòr - "claymore" - a mace or flail, or even a knife, pitch fork, or pole/staff. It all depended on the fighter's wealth and resources).

The kilt often seen today, in Gaelic, is known as the "fèileadh beag" [FEL-luh BEG], or sometimes "breacan" [brek-KAHN]. In English, this translates to "small kilt / little kilt", or "walking kilt". It is only a "lower body garment" that's wrapped around and secured at the waist. It's flat in the front, and pleated in the back, and the pleats are sewn into the place. And it should be mentioned that the fèileadh beag was not invented until the early 18th Century by an English Quaker from Lancashire, England, named Thomas Rawlinson. The fèileadh beag was invented out of need for a more practical garment for soldiers and blacksmiths to wear. Also, contrary to popular belief, for soldiers, the kilt was originally meant for informal military dress. It became formalized much later towards the 19th and early-20th centuries.

The original kilt - the fèileadh mòr - was never at any time meant to be a formal garment, or a battle garment. It was meant as an everyday garment to practically "live in". The Gaels would wear it all day. They would sleep in it, walk in it, work in it, play in it, dance in it, do everything shy of bathing and fighting battles in it. They almost never took it off. And they often had but one. And let's put one thing straight right now: Yes, it's true, traditionally, Gaels wore NOTHING under the kilt. But the claim that a true Scotsman today should do the same, no matter what, when wearing a kilt of any kind, otherwise he is not a true Scotsman... Is a foolish concept. Even the Scottish Tartans Authority - the primary authority and governing body of tartan registration and kilted tradition in Scotland - considers such a practice childish and unhygenic. Personally, if you want to lounge about in your kilt at home with nothing underneath, go ahead. That's your business. But when you're in public, a certain discretion should be maintained at all times over when such a practice is both practical, hygenic and appropriate. Kilts are beautiful things. But this isn't the medieval ages - or even Iron Age - anymore.

Moving on...

Women wore a similar garment to the Great Kilt, as well, known as as "arisaid" [AR-uh-SAWJ].

Children's garments often depended on the family's wealth and status.

Back to tartans;
Tartans today are best known for their representation of individual Scottish Clans and families. However, it wasn't always that way. They originally represented "regions" or "counties". What happened, though, was when Clans began to amount wealth, territory, and power, whatever weavers running business within their territory would be claimed by those clans. These weavers would only personally know how to weave one, two, maybe three different tartans, and usually the ones pertaining to that region (which is why many tartans only have a few minor differences between each other; some clans - particularly allied clans - shared territory. But if only one or a few tartans were in the weaver's repertoire of skills, they would simply make changes, such as changing the stripe sizes, and stripe colours, to differentiate. The MacLaren Tartan, for example, is identical to the Ferguson of Atholl Tartan, except that the MacLaren Tartan has a yellow stripe where the Ferguson of Atholl Tartan has a white stripe. Both are variants of the Atholl District Tartan. Similarities can be seen in the Murray of Atholl Tartan, which is in fact he original manifestation of the Atholl District Tartan).

Long ago, however, there were no "real tartans". This tartan here - Falkirk - was simply a "standard pattern" worn on almost every garment by every person. Some historical illustrations and documentations describe great kilts and arisaids with simply "plain, solid colourless, raw/untreated fabric with but a few thin stripes of red, blue, green or black, sewn in only in parallel vertical patterns".

This tartan, here, however, is the earliest documented "tartan", as mentioned, dating back to Iron Age Scotland, somewhere between 200 AD and 300 AD.

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Enjoy, and I hope you enjoyed the long winded but insightful correctional history lesson.

Slàinte mhòr!
Seumas