This tartan is a colour modification of MacLean of Duart. Believed for many years to have been recorded in ‘Clans Originaux’ (Paris, 1880) as Murphy and later renamed ‘Tara’ (1967). Later research suggests that none of the tartans included in Clans Originaux are Irish.
Loosely based on garments discovered in a bog at Flanders Townland near Dungiven in County Londonderry in 1956 by a Mr William G Dixon. Materials were scientifically attributed to the end of 16th century. The garments comprised remnants of tartan trews, tunic, belt and coat. In the Paton Collection.
THIS is Wilsons’ No 155 from the 1819 but this count from a c1830-40 Wilsons’ sample named Caledonia in a Scott Adie pattern book photographed by the Scottish Tartans Museum in Franklin North Carolina. Reputed to have been worn by members of the ill-fated Darien Expedition to America in 1698. This is a common tartan for people that don’t have a specific tartan.
