MacLachlan
This is one variant — a specific cloth: this exact thread count and colourway, with its own provenance below. It is one weaving of the sett (the scale-free proportion — the same cloth at any scale or shade), whose colour order is pattern RKRKBGBKRKRKR.
Part of the MacLachlan tartan — the named design grouping this sett with its other cloths.
Sourced from register-of-tartans. It is a 13 stripe tartan.
Original link https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tartanDetails.aspx?ref=2581
Provenance
Earliest known date: 1850 T. Smibert produced a book entitled, 'The Clans of the Highlands of Scotland' in 1850 which is widely regarded as an accurate source for the tartans illustrated within it. Smibert had access to the patterns of Wilson's of Bannockburn who had been weavers 'since the '45', and to the works of Logan and the Sobieski brothers. Of the three distinct versions of MacLachlan tartan, Smiberts rendering is the one woven today, and it would appear to have a longer history than might be gathered from the date of its first publication.
6 attestations — the source records this cloth was collapsed from (oldest owns this page)
- 01/01/1831 — MacLachlan (register-of-tartans, record)
Blue & green lightened to show sett. A colour variation of Black Watch. Same as Norwich No.3. Scottish Tartans Authoirty notes: T. Smibert produced a book entitled, 'The Clans of the Highlands of Scotland' in 1850 which is widely regarded as an accurate source for the tartans illustrated within it. Smibert had access to the patterns of Wilson's of Bannockburn who had been weavers 'since the '45', and to the works of Logan and the Sobieski brothers. Of the three distinct versions of MacLachlan tartan, Smiberts rendering is the one woven today, and it would appear to have a longer history than might be gathered from the date of its registration. In their 1850 book 'The Clan and Family Tartans of Scotland' W and A Smith of Mauchline wrote: 'There are several Fancy MacLachland Tartans in the market, but we have no hesitation in giving this as the genuine Tartran. A lady of very high rank obtained the cloth for us from a member of the family - besides which, it has been confirmed by all the authorities we have consulted.' Lochcarron sample. - 1831 — MacLachlan (Clan) (tartans-authority, record)
Blue & green lightened to show sett.. A color variation of Black Watch. Same as Norwich No.3. STS notes: T. Smibert produced a book entitled, 'The Clans of the Highlands of Scotland' in 1850 which is widely regarded as an accurate source for the tartans illustrated within it. Smibert had access to the patterns of Wilson's of Bannockburn who had been weavers 'since the '45', and to the works of Logan and the Sobieski brothers. Of the three distinct versions of MacLachlan tartan, Smibert's rendering is the one woven today, and it would appear to have a longer history than might be gathered from the date of its registration. In their 1850 book "The Clan and Family Tartans of Scotland" William and Andrew Smith of Mauchline wrote: "There are several Fancy MacLachland Tartans in the market, but we have no hesitation in giving this as the genuine Tartran. A lady of very high rank obtained the cloth for us from a member of the family - besides which, it has been confirmed by all the authorities we have consulted." Lochcarron sample. - 1850 — MacLachlan Clan Tartan (house-of-tartan, record)
- undated — MacLachlan #2 (register-of-tartans, record)
James Logan The Scottish Gael, 1831. - undated — MacLachlan 3 (weddslist, record)
- undated — MacLachlan (weddslist, record)
Dataset — provenance for this record, inherited from the source manifest
- source
- Scottish Register of Tartans
- data captured from
- https://github.com/thetartan/tartan-database/blob/master/data/register-of-tartans/data.csv
- data date
- 1831 (this record)
- licence
- Crown copyright
Capture chain — the hands this data passed through, oldest first; each capture carries its own licence
- Scottish Register of Tartans · Crown copyright
the living register — still published by National Records of Scotland - thetartan/tartan-database 2016-2017 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Levko Kravets's frozen compilation — the capture we vendored, and where its CC licence text came from - this dictionary captured 2026-06-10 · commit 5bf86c7566
each re-capture is a git commit to data/sources
Register references
External register numbers recorded for this tartan.
- Scottish Register of Tartans: 2582
- Scottish Tartans Authority (ITI): 732
- Scottish Tartans World Register: 1593
Thread count
R/32 K4 R4 K4 R4 K32 DB32 G6 DB32 K32 R32 K4 R/4
One full sett is 408 threads.
Palette
| Colour | Shade | OKLCh |
|---|---|---|
| DB | #082077 #082077 | oklch(30.0% 0.149 265.1) |
| G | #008B2A #008B2A | oklch(55.4% 0.170 145.9) |
| K | #000000 #000000 | oklch(0.0% 0.000 0.0) |
| R | #D60020 #D60020 | oklch(55.2% 0.224 25.5) |
Sample pattern
Nearest tartan variants
The nearest existing variants by ΔTartan distance, with this cloth at the top so the swatches line up against it.
Neighbour map
Every grey dot is one of 13621 variants placed by the first two principal components of the ΔTartan feature space (42% of its variance). Red is this tartan; blue dots are its nearest — click one to open its page.
ID: /variants/s13/r16k2r2k2r2k16db16g3db16k16r16k2r2~x2/