Scottish regiments did not wear tartan decoratively. Each pattern identified a specific regiment as precisely as a cap badge, and most are no longer issued.
Government tartan — the Black Watch
The dark blue, green and black sett is the oldest military tartan in service, worn by the Black Watch since the regiment was raised in 1739 to police the Highlands. It is often simply called Government tartan, or Government 1.
Its darkness was the point. It was designed to be inconspicuous in heather and shadow.
The variations
Most other Highland regiments took the Government sett and overstriped it:
- Gordon Highlanders — Government tartan with a yellow stripe.
- Seaforth Highlanders — Mackenzie tartan, Government with white and red.
- Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders — Government with white lines.
- Cameron Highlanders — Cameron of Erracht, a genuinely different sett rather than a variation.
British Army Issue Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Tartan TRF Patch NEW
Shop Highland regimental TRFs →
What happened in 2006
When the Royal Regiment of Scotland was formed, it adopted Government 1A tartan across all battalions — a single pattern replacing six.
Battalion identity moved to the hackle in the Tam o' Shanter instead. The tartan no longer tells you which battalion you are looking at; the hackle does.
Genuine British Army Old Pattern Wool Tartan Scottish Tam O`Shanter Badge Pa
Dicing
The red-and-white chequered band around a Glengarry is called dicing, and it is not universal — some regiments wore a diced band, others plain. It is one of the quickest ways to identify an unlabelled Glengarry.
Plumes Army Issue White Hackles For Balmoral Glengarry & Various Headwear
Buying tartan items
Shade varies enormously between makers and eras. A 1970s Government sett and a modern one will not match, and neither is wrong. If you are matching something you already own, ask us before ordering.
Trews, kilts and who wore which
Not every Scottish regiment wore a kilt. Lowland regiments — the Royal Scots, the King's Own Scottish Borderers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers — wore trews, tartan trousers, and would tell you firmly that they were not Highlanders.
Highland regiments wore the kilt in dress orders and trews for other duties. So the same regiment could appear in either, which is why photographs alone will not always tell you what you are looking at.
The Glengarry and the Tam o' Shanter
Two distinct pieces of headwear that get confused constantly. The Glengarry is the folding boat-shaped cap, often with a diced band and ribbons at the back — a dress item. The Tam o' Shanter is the soft, wide, floppy bonnet worn in the field, and it is what carries the hackle today.
A Balmoral sits between the two: similar to a Tam but smaller and neater.
Reading a diced band
The chequered band around a Glengarry is not random. Red, white and green dicing, red and white dicing, or no dicing at all each belonged to particular regiments, and the pattern of the squares varied too.
It is one of the most reliable ways to identify a Glengarry with no badge in it — and one of the details reproductions most often get wrong.
Why the shades never match
Military tartan was woven by many mills over two centuries, and no two runs came out identical. "Government tartan" from 1900, from 1960 and from today are recognisably the same sett in noticeably different colours.
Neither is incorrect. But if you are matching trews to a kilt, or completing a set for a display, the difference will show. Tell us what you are matching to and we will describe what we actually have rather than let the photograph decide for you.
Telling tartans apart when you cannot see the whole cloth
On a small item — a glengarry, a flash, a strip of trim — you may have only a few inches to go on. A few things narrow it quickly:
- The base colour. Dark blue-green ground points to the Government sett and its variations; a red ground points elsewhere entirely.
- The overcheck. The additional coloured line running through the pattern is what distinguishes most of the Government variants from one another. Find it and you have narrowed the field enormously.
- The scale of the sett. The repeat size differs, and on a small piece it is often the only usable measurement.
Caring for wool tartan
Tartan items are wool, usually old, and often the most valuable thing in a collection of Scottish kit. Treat them accordingly: never machine wash, never tumble dry, and keep them out of sunlight, which fades the reds first and turns a sharp sett muddy.
Moths are the real enemy. Wool tartan stored in a warm loft for a decade is a food source, and moth damage on a tartan is unrepairable in any way that does not show. Store clean, store cool, and check on it.