Image: 93rd Regiment (Sutherland Highlanders) and Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) tartan, centred, zoomed out

Description: The tartan of the 93rd Regiment of Foot (Sutherland Highlanders), and later of the Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's). It is Black Watch with proportions slightly changed and the dark "standard tartan blue" replaced by lighter Balmoral blue. Note: Reliable sources conflict when it comes to this tartan; both the Scottish Register of Tartans (record no. 5128 [1]), and James D. Scarlett in Tartan: The Highland Textile (1990, p. 31), citing also Robert Bain's The Clans and Tartans of Scotland (1953 ed.) suggest that this lightened form of Black Watch tartan was specifically for the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders (later Prince Louise's Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, after amalgamation). On the other hand, Peter E. MacDonald's The 1819 Key Pattern Book: One Hundred Original Tartans (1997, at "Sutherland or 42nd" entry) indicates that it was simply Black Watch (also named Sutherland) as made at a particular point in time by William Wilson & Son of Bannockburn, the supplier of most regiments' tartan cloth – i.e. that all units including Sutherland that were wearing Black Watch were wearing the same cloth at any given period, and that this is not a special Sutherland regiment tartan variant. Some time in the 20th century, the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders version of what was then called the Sutherland district tartan (lightened black watch) was changed to have a lightened green instead of a lightened blue; that version is still in regimental use today as "Government No. 1A". This image is exactly full-sett, and can tile horizontally and vertically. Scottish Register of Tartans notes on this pattern: "Threadcount taken from the 1819 Key Pattern Book belonging to William Wilson of Bannockburn, weavers. this sett is worn by the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. The earliest known date recorded here [1797] is from the Wilsons of Bannockburn letters and was recorded by DC Stewart." SRT mis-listed it as "42nd Regiment", so it was hard to find. An even lighter version (with azure blue) is used as the Sutherland district tartan; at SRT's record on that version was a mis-placed note about this regiemental version: "As worn by the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders it is kilted to show the green, whereas with the Black Watch it is kilted to show the blue." This is a usual, mirroring tartan. SRT-provided thread count (in "/" notation): /BB32 K6 BB6 K6 BB6 K32 G30 K6 G30 K32 BB30 K6 BB6/ (or in boldfacing notation: BB32 K6 BB6 K6 BB6 K32 G30 K6 G30 K32 BB30 K6 BB6), where BB = Balmoral blue.
Title: 93rd Regiment (Sutherland Highlanders) and Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) tartan, centred, zoomed out
Credit: Own work
Author: SMcCandlish, made with the old Windows program Textile32
Permission: Public domain
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Zero, Public Domain Dedication
License: CC0
License Link: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en
Attribution Required?: No