Scottish Tartan Kilt Colours & Their Meanings
An in-depth guide to ancient, modern and weathered tartan variations
By Gordon Nicolson
When you sit down to select a premium cloth for a bespoke handmade kilt, you are entering a world with thousands of unique designs. As exciting as that may be, choosing from the wide range of tartan colours can confuse people at first.
Beyond the family surname or clan association, you’ll see common tartans labelled as Ancient, Modern, Weathered, Hunting, Muted, or Dress. As a kilt expert and tartan designer, I want to clarify exactly what these terms mean.
What do tartan variations actually mean?
Tartan variations are different colour palettes or dye shades applied to the exact same woven pattern, which we call the sett. The underlying geometry, lines and thread counts remain identical. Terms like Ancient, Modern or Weathered simply describe how light, dark or faded the colours look on the finished clot
Weavers introduced this colour classification system during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the highly commercialised Victorians began manufacturing Scottish tartans on an unprecedented scale. This helped customers navigate different palettes, allowing them to determine a tartan’s historical inspiration or visual weight.
What is a Modern tartan?
Modern tartans are much darker and richer in appearance. The blues and greens are deep and navy-toned, while the reds are intensely vibrant.
This style emerged as chemical dye technology advanced past the traditional method of using local berries and lichen. All of a sudden, weavers could access intense, synthetic colours that were previously impossible to produce reliably. So when Wilson's of Bannockburn designed the clan tartans, they used these vivid, standardised chemical hues to formalise the patterns, creating the bold look we still recognise as the modern standard today.
Modern tartans such as the Black Watch, Blue Buchanan and Holyrood, are highly accessible and look incredibly sharp for a formal evening event. The only slight drawback from a design perspective is that because the tones are so deep, the fine details of the woven sett can sometimes get lost when the dark colours cross over one another.
What are Ancient Tartans?
As opposed to the darker palette of modern variations, Ancient tartans are much lighter and brighter in tone. Sky blues and soft greens take centrestage, with pops of orangey red thread woven throughout many styles to mimic the natural colourings used by traditional kiltmakers.
Originally, the red dye used in these tartans was made from limestone rock lichen or ripe berries, long before the arrival of the intensely rich, deeply saturated hues we achieve today with modern, permanent dyeing processes. Muted yellows also make a regular appearance in Ancient tartan kilts, with soft mustard tones adding a beautiful historical warmth to the pattern.
These tartans were very much the colour of choice in the 50s and 60s, with their stark differences in colours allowing the sett to be clearly seen and appreciated.
Some of the most popular Ancient tartan kilts seen today include the Campbell, Mackenzie, MacDonald and of course, our namesake, the Nicolson Ancient. They’re a great fit for spring and summer weddings, outdoor gatherings, or daytime events where you want a softer, more heritage-driven aesthetic.
Hunting Tartans Explain
When it comes to Hunting tartans, the name really does speak for itself. As the tartan industry expanded in the mid-nineteenth century, weavers began to develop fabrics for practical outdoor pursuits and sport. Because of this, Hunting tartans focus heavily on camouflage tones, introducing rich greens and browns to replace the bright base reds or blues of a standard clan design.
Many of our clients prefer these earthy tones for everyday wear, as they tend to have a more relaxed, contemporary feel. You’ll often see these combined with other descriptors, such as MacDonald of the Isles Hunting Ancient or Stewart Hunting Modern.
What are Dress Tartans?
Dress variations were originally created for formal evening wear, black tie functions, and court events. The defining feature is usually the introduction of clean white bands into the background of the design to give the kilt a crisp, bright edge against a black dinner jacket, such as the Prince Charlie.
Incorporating white is the general standard, but it is not a universal rule. Take MacLeod Dress for instance, it features no white at all, but instead swaps out the traditional green and blue for a brilliant, eye-catching yellow. While designs such as MacDonald Dress Modern and Gordon Dress Modern incorporate plenty of white bands, making them ideal for a groom or a guest looking to stand out at a formal black-tie wedding.
What are Weathered Tartans?
Following a similar design philosophy to hunting cloth, weathered variations are a highly popular, contemporary development among Scottish tartans. Their goal is to suggest how an original wool kilt would look after decades of exposure to the rain, wind, and rugged Scottish elements.
In designs like Black Watch Weathered or Buchanan Weathered, we replace the primary background colours with muted brown tones and fade the vibrant reds and greens right down to a quiet, earthy hue. It completely transforms the look of the cloth, giving it an instantly vintage, weathered character that looks incredible when tailored into a bespoke handmade kilt.
An interesting biological quirk I often notice in our Canongate shop is that because men are statistically more likely to experience colour blindness than women, many guys naturally perceive bright ancient designs in a way that closely mirrors these rugged, weathered palettes.
Muted Tartans Explain
If Ancient is too bright and Modern is too dark, Muted tartans are Goldilocks, sitting comfortably in the middle of the two. They offer a sophisticated, jewel-toned look with a slight touch of Hunting tones mixed in.
The colours are beautifully subdued, keeping the sett perfectly legible without being overly loud. It is a fantastic option for a contemporary kilt, though you will find fewer Muted variations available among the standard clan lists compared to the Ancient or Modern options. Some of our best-selling Muted tartans are the MacDonald Muted, Ross Hunting Muted and Gunn Muted.
What are Irish County Tartans?
Irish County designs are arguably, fairly muted shades heavily reliant on browns, greens and reds. They are purely district based and don't break down into colourways like clan tartans do. That said, they’re certainly worth discussing as part of the topic of tartan colouration.
Irish County tartans have a certain earthy quality and don't go down the loud, vibrant look of Scottish tartans. The setts are also much simpler overall and focusing on clean, broad blocks of colour rather than the highly intricate, multi-layered lines seen in traditional Highland weaves.
Options like County Cork, County Donegal, and County Galway make for an incredibly handsome kilt, particularly for clients looking to honour their Irish heritage.
What are District Tartans?
A district tartan is a tartan associated with a geographical area rather than a particular family or clan.
Some Scottish district tartans are available in a range of colourways, such as Ancient (Crieff Ancient), Modern (Lennox Modern), and Muted (Roxburgh Red Muted).
Some of them are also adopted as clan tartans, such as the Murray of Atholl tartan, or the Cumming tartan which has been adopted as the Buchan district tartan. Interestingly, the Argyll district tartan is Campbell of Cawdor...not Campbell of Argyll.
Need Help Choosing the Right Tartan Colours?
With over 13,000 designs registered on the Scottish Register of Tartans, the options are practically infinite. But that’s where we can help.
If you want to see how these different colourways look in person and find the right weight of cloth for your project, pop into our shop on the Canongate or our hire hub on the Royal Mile, where a member of our friendly team will help you select the exact shade that suits your style.
