Free Republic

A scrap of fabric found in a Highland peat bog 40 years ago is likely to be the oldest tartan ever discovered in Scotland...It was found in a Glen Affric peat bog, in the Highlands, in the early 1980s...Using high resolution digital microscopy, four initial colours of green, brown and possibly red and yellow were identified.The dye analysis confirmed the use of indigo or woad in the green but was inconclusive for the other colours, probably due to the dyestuff having degraded.No artificial or semi-synthetic dyestuffs were involved in the making of the tartan, leading researchers to believe it predates...

THE POPE arrived in Scotland to be greeted by an adoring crowd of some 125,000 people in glorious Edinburgh sunshine on his first State Visit to Britain today. It dwarfed protests from less than 100 or so people after flashpoints failed to materialise and mar what turned out to be huge success for the city with coverage of the historic visit beamed to a worldwide audience of around a BILLION people. One lucky schoolboy found himself being hugged by his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in an impromptu walkabout in Morningside before lunch, while others revelled in being able to...

LANSING , Mich., A Michigan lawmaker is requesting a hearing for a bill that would give the state an official tartan, or Scottish-inspired plaid pattern. State Rep. Richard LeBlanc, D-Westland, who introduced an identical tartan bill that failed to gain steam in 2007, said he supports a tartan made by Scottish weaver Kati Meek, 69, of Alpena, Mich., the Detroit Free Press reported Monday. Meek said the tartan includes colors representative of Michigan's forests, lakes, beaches , cherries and snow. "I used Michigan's natural colors. There's some pretty gross tartans, and this I think is one of the more attractive...

‘Tartans are absolutely brilliant’ said Vivienne Westwood. It seems that designers like Henry Holland and Dolce&Gabbana support her belief, as tartans were a main leitmotif at their Fall/Winter ’09 fashion shows. House of Holland Fall/Winter ‘09

Pipes and Drums of FreeRepublic Tartan Day 2009?

Austria claims to have invented tartan kilts Tartan kilts have become fashionable in Austria after archaeologists claimed the country invented them. Many Austrian stores are now selling "traditional Austrian" kilts and sporrans as well as lederhosen. The Austrian claim is based on the discovery of what they claim is the oldest piece of tartan in the world.The host of the Austrian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire is the latest convert to the trend. Armin Assinger turned up at the studio wearing one of the Carinthian kilts. Thomas Rettl, whose clothing company is based close to where scraps...

Rob Roy MacGregor is exposed as a tartan turncoat GRAHAM OGILVY AND KURT BAYER HE WAS romanticised by Sir Walter Scott and glamorised by Hollywood. But a new investigation by one of Scotland’s leading historians has revealed that Rob Roy MacGregor was not so much a tartan Robin Hood as a robbing hood. David Stevenson, emeritus professor of Scottish history at St Andrews University, will claim in a new book that the folk hero was a traitor, spy and fraudster. Stevenson’s most shocking claim is that Rob Roy betrayed his own side by selling Jacobite secrets to the English government....

<p>March 30, 2002 -- Break out the haggis - the Scottish are coming!</p> <p>Actor Sean Connery will lead a brigade of as many as 10,000 bagpipers through the streets of Midtown next weekend to celebrate Tartan Day.</p> <p>Pipers from 30 countries, including Japan, Australia and Pakistan, are expected to fill the air with rich - and occasionally piercing - notes as organizers try to break the world record for assembling the most pipers in one place.</p>