www.clanlivingstone.info

I thought that you all might be interested to know, given the discussion that has taken place on the forum about the Livingstone tartans, that a National Register of Tartan is to be set up. The Enterprise Minister, Jim Mather, announced this yesterday during a visit to textile companies in the Borders. It is hoped that the register will be in place by the spring of next year, and the minister said that the Court of the Lord Lyon and the National Archives of Scotland would play a crucial role in setting up, operating and facilitating access to the register. There is a synopsis of the article from the Herald of today's date in which this news appeared at www.theherald.co.uk. Regards to you all, Jill

Jill, I'll be very interested to see how this turns out!

Interesting news Jill. All the more need to reach a consensus on what constitutes our earliest tartan. The early Livingstone tartan illustrations from two comprehensive tartan books published in 1938 sourced from tartan manufacturers certainly come close to matching our classic tartan worn by most Livingstones throughout the world. But of course there are variations. Donald

I am glad that you brought this to our attention Jill as this is great news for anyone concerned with clan tartans. THere seems to be a great resurgence of interest in Scotland in the relevance and antiquity of tartans. I found myself, not an expert on highland tartans by any means, catapulted into a tartan debate some time back, when one of our illustrious forum members referred to tartans as basically romantic nonsense. Evidently this comment was too much for a member of the Stewart clan who countered with a passionate defence of highland tartans. Pity this exchange did not make it to our forum for all to enjoy. regards D