District Tartans

As the name suggests, District tartans represent geographical areas – as small as a town and as large as an American State, a Canadian province and even a country. If outside Scotland, they may be used to reflect the area’s Scottish heritage and also as a brand for tourist related products.

In some parts of the world they’re used to emphasise an area’s ancient Celtic roots – the weaving of tartan patterns was an earl Celtic art form of over 3,000 years old.

In Scotland itself, District tartans for towns, cities, areas and even lochs and glens are part historic and part modern and designed to enhance civic pride and generate a unique brand for tourists to the area. They also offer an ideal non-political cultural tool to celebrate and foster relations between countries – good examples are the Russian Scottish tartan and the Chinese Scottish tartan, both of which have proved extremely popular.

Here are just eight from the Tartan Ambassador studio.