Tartan facts for kids

Three examples of Scottish tartan.

Tartan is a pattern that has criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in many different colors.

Related pages

Tartan Day, a day set aside for the celebration of the Scottish influence on North America, Australia and New Zealand, but not celebrated in Scotland itself. It is the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath.
Tartanry

Soldiers from a Highland Regiment circa 1744. The private (on the left) is wearing a belted plaid.
The colour of the Clan MacLeod tartan was described in a 1829 letter by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder to Sir Walter Scott; "MacLeod (of Dunvegan) has got a sketch of this splendid tartan, three black stryps upon ain yellow fylde".
John Campbell of the Bank, 1749. The present official Clan Campbell tartans are predominantly blue, green and black.
The world's first colour photograph, made by the Scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell in 1861, was of a tartan ribbon.
David Morier's An incident in the rebellion of 1745. The eight featured highlanders in the painting wear over twenty different tartans.
A man wearing tartan
"Ye principal clovris of ye clanne Stewart" which appeared in the Sobieski Stuarts's forgery Vestiarium Scoticum of 1842
Royal Stewart tartan
The West Virginia University official tartan consists of old gold and blue and is listed in the Scottish Register of Tartans in Scotland
British Airways with Benyhone tartan livery
A German punk wearing a piece of the Royal Stewart tartan, 1984
Coat of arms of the now-defunct Scottish Tartans Society
Clan Crawford tartan