Of the dress of the Highlanders of Scotland prior to the fifteenth
century the descriptions available are few and meagre. True, there
are many references to a style of costume which consisted mainly of
a loose outer garment, but these are equally applicable to the wear
of neighbouring countries, and contain no account of the distinctive
features associated with the Highland dress. Probably the earliest
reference to the latter is to be found in the Saga of Magnus Barefoot,
King of Norway, 1093-1103, who led marauding expeditions to the west of
Scotland in the first year of his reign and subsequently. Of his return
from such a raid the historian chronicles:—
People say that when King Magnus came home from his viking cruise to
the Western countries, he and many of his people brought with them a
great deal of the habits and fashions of clothing of those Western
parts. They went about on the streets with bare legs, and had short
kirtles and over-cloaks; and therefore his men called him Magnus
Barefoot or Bareleg.[1]
The word “kyrtlu” probably indicates a garment corresponding somewhat
to the feilebeg or kilt, though it may also indicate one which covered
the upper portion of the body as well, and thus formed a species
of tunic.[2] Still, the description of the distinctive costume of
the Western Islanders at this remote period is extremely valuable,
especially as it is written by one who lived so near the time when
the incidents narrated took place. In accordance with the custom of
fosterage then prevalent in Norway, and continued in Scotland long
afterwards, Snorro Sturleson, the author of the Saga, was reared with
the children of the king’s daughter, and so had opportunity of hearing
and noting the use of the strange costume.
The chartularies of Aberdeen attest the use not merely of the style of
dress that figures in the Saga, but also of a parti-coloured cloth,
which was probably tartan. In these ancient records are notes on early
customs of the utmost importance to antiquaries. They contain, besides
the charters of the lands belonging to the See, the canons of the
Scottish Church, and the statutes of the Church of Aberdeen, framed in
the thirteenth century; it is there provided that “all ecclesiastics
are to be suitably apparelled, avoiding red, green, and striped
clothing, and their garments shall not be shorter than to the middle
of the leg.”[3] Of course, it cannot be held that this conclusively
proves the existence of breacan or tartan, but striped clothing is as
near an approach to an accurate description of it as can be expected
at so early a period. The injunctions indicate a general use of
parti-coloured garments in the northern districts of the country in the
thirteenth century.
The famous clan battle on the North Inch of Perth took place in 1396,
but only the slightest reference is made to the dress of the combatants
in any of the accounts now extant. In the narrative by Abbot Bower, the
continuator of Fordun, it is recorded that the battle was waged
By thirty men against thirty of the opposite party, armed only with
swords, bows and arrows, without mantles or other armour except
axes.[4]
The mantle is doubtless the over-cloak of Magnus Barefoot’s time, and
the prototype of the plaid often so designated by writers of later date.
Borthwick in his _Antiquities_[5] prints the Accounts for 1474 of John,
Bishop of Glasgow, Treasurer to James III., which contain the entry:
“Halve ane elne of double tartan to lyne riding collars to the queen.”
Pinkerton adopts Borthwick’s reading.[6] Pitcairn cites entries, under
date October 1488, of a fabric called “tarter,” and he adds “this is
evidently tartan.”[7] Had the conclusions of these antiquaries as
to the identity of the words been correct, then these would be the
earliest specific references to tartan hitherto discovered in our
records; but that they are not is pointed out by the editor of the
_Treasurer’s Accounts_, who writes:—
Tartar, the name of which bespeaks its Eastern origin, though it was
no doubt imitated by the weavers of Italy and France, is described as
“single” or “double,” according to texture, and as “variant” or shot,
the warp and woof being of contrasted colours. This not uncommon word
has been frequently misread “tartan,” and examples of its occurrence
quoted from the _Treasurer’s Accounts_ as illustrative of the early
use of that material.[8]
The opinion of such eminent antiquaries has misled all subsequent
writers of important works relating to tartans, with the exception of
John Sobieski Stuart and W. F. Skene; even works appearing many years
after the issue of the _Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer_ continue
to perpetuate the old errors.
There is a significant passage in the old Gaelic tale of “Curio,”
describing the giant Anteus, which runs thus:—
Nibidh dono tuighi na craibheach, na pell, no brotrach, na brecan, na
crocend anmanna, fui isin leapaidh sin acht a thaoebh fri sin talmain.
Now he had not thatch, nor branches, nor hide, nor coverlet, nor
breacan [_i.e._, tartan, or tartan plaid], nor skin under him in that
bed, but his side to the earth.[9]
“Brecan,” literally a speckled or variegated cloth, has been employed
in the Gaelic language as synonymous with tartan and the tartan plaid
from earliest times, in evident allusion to the checked or spotted
appearance of the garment. “Breac” signifies parti-coloured or spotted.
It is a Gaelic name of the salmon and of the trout, conferred, no
doubt, on account of their speckled aspect.
A curious fifteenth century reference to “hewyt,” _i.e._, coloured,
striped, or variegated clothing, occurs in a sumptuary law of the Scots
Parliament:—
Item it is statut that na yeman na comonner to landwarts wer hewyt
clathes siddar na the kne na yit ragyt clathes bot allenarly centynal
yemen in lords housis at rids with gentill men thar masters the
quhilks sal haf narow slewis and litil poks.[10]
The introduction of printing naturally tended to produce and to
preserve many descriptions of the Highland dress written in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by Scottish historians and by
travellers from other countries. Of the more important of these, the
earliest in chronological order is John Major (1469-1550), whose work
was originally published in Latin in 1521. He writes:—
Just as among the Scots we find two distinct tongues, so we likewise
find two different ways of life and conduct. For some are born in
the forests and mountains of the north, and these we call men of the
Highland, but the others men of the Lowland. By foreigners the former
are called Wild Scots, the latter householding Scots. The Irish tongue
is in use among the former, the English tongue among the latter. One
half of Scotland speaks Irish, and all these as well as the Islanders
we reckon to belong to the Wild Scots. In dress, in the manner of
their outward life, and in good morals, for example, these come behind
the householding Scots.... From the mid-leg to the foot they go
uncovered; their dress is, for an over garment, a loose plaid, and a
shirt saffron-dyed. They are armed with bow and arrows, a broadsword,
and a small halbert. They always carry in their belt a stout dagger,
single-edged, but of the sharpest. In time of war they cover the whole
body with a coat of mail, made of iron rings, and in it they fight.
The common folk among the Wild Scots go out to battle with the whole
body clad in a linen garment sewed together in patchwork, well daubed
with wax or with pitch, and with an over-coat of deerskin. But the
common people among our domestic Scots and the English fight in a
woollen garment.[11]
From these and other passages in Major’s work it may be inferred that
the chiefs and upper classes of the Highlands alone wore the plaid, or
any woollen clothing whatever, and that the lower orders were prevented
by poverty from obtaining luxuries of this sort. Writing of the clan
battle at Perth in 1396, Major states:—
Thirty men, naked but for a doublet that hung from one side, made
for the field of battle, armed with bow and double-axe; and these
forthwith met the encounter of a like number, armed in the same
fashion.... One of the combatants made his escape from the fight....
And there was not found any man who would take the place of the
runaway; and ’twas no marvel, since to fight for your life, naked but
for a plaid, is no trifle.[12]
In his account of the revolt of Alexander, Lord of the Isles, against
the king, describing the Wild Scots, and particularly Clan Chattan and
Clan Cameron, Major observes:—
They lead a life of blissful ease; from the poor people they take
what they want in victual; bows they have, and quivers, and they have
halberts of great sharpness, for their iron ore is good. They carry a
stout dirk in their belts; they are often naked from the knee down. In
winter for an over garment they wear a plaid.[13]
Perhaps the first indisputable reference to the Highland breacan occurs
in the _Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland_ in August
1538:—