MacPherson
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 RKWRBKBKBKYGRBRBRGYKBKBKBRWKR.
Sourced from logan-1831. It is a 29 stripe tartan.
Original link /posts/logans-scottish-gael/
Provenance
James Logan recorded the MacPherson sett in 1831, on page 406 of the Table of Clan Tartans in The Scottish Gaël — the earliest systematic published collection of clan setts. Logan gives the stripe widths in eighths of an inch, measured across the cloth and reflected about each end (a half-sett):
¼ red · ¼ black · ¼ white · 5½ red · 2 azure · ½ black · ½ azure · ½ black · 2 azure · 3 black · ½ yellow · 4 green · 5½ red · 1 azure · 5½ red · 1 azure · 5½ red · 4 green · ½ yellow · 3 black · 2 azure · ½ black · ½ azure · ½ black · 2 azure · 5½ red · ½ white · ½ black · ½ red
Rendered at 8 threads to the eighth-inch that is R/2 K2 W2 R44 A16 K4 A4 K4 A16 K24 Y4 G32 R44 A8 R44 A8 R44 G32 Y4 K24 A16 K4 A4 K4 A16 R44 W4 K4 R/4 — the eighths are the captured data, and the threadcount is derived from them at that stated factor. How many threads an eighth of cloth held depends on the weave's density, so the factor is a display calibration, not Logan's count; the sett's identity lives in the proportions, which the eighths record directly. Logan named his colours rather than dyeing to a standard, so the palette here is the Dictionary's modern reading of his names.
See Logan's Scottish Gaël for the full table and method.
Related setts
Later records of the MacPherson name adjusted Logan's counts: MacPherson; MacPherson #10; MacPherson #2; MacPherson #3. Compare their thread counts with Logan's above.
Dataset — provenance for this record, inherited from the source manifest
- source
- Logan, The Scottish Gaël (1831)
- data captured from
- https://archive.org/details/scotishgalorcel02logagoog
- data date
- 1831 (this record)
- licence
- Public domain
Capture chain — the hands this data passed through, oldest first; each capture carries its own licence
- James Logan, The Scottish Gaël (first edition) 1831 · Public domain
the printed Table of Clan Tartans, vol. II pp. 401-408, plus the Duke of Sussex plate - Internet Archive scan
the digitised first edition the transcription was made from, cross-checked against the OCR - Tartan Dictionary transcription — Logan's Scottish Gaël 2026-06 · CC BY-SA 4.0
by-eye transcription of the Table of Clan Tartans and the Duke of Sussex plate — depths in eighths of an inch, rendered at 8 threads per eighth (a display calibration anchored by the Register's Abercrombie ×8 stripe-for-stripe match); method and match report in the linked post - this dictionary
each re-capture is a git commit to data/sources
Thread count
R/4 K4 W4 R44 T16 K4 T4 K4 T16 K24 LY4 G32 R44 T8 R44 T8 R44 G32 LY4 K24 T16 K4 T4 K4 T16 R44 W2 K2 R/2
One full sett is 918 threads.
Palette
| Colour | Shade | OKLCh |
|---|---|---|
| T | #00879F #00879F | oklch(57.4% 0.102 216.1) |
| G | #008B2A #008B2A | oklch(55.4% 0.170 145.9) |
| K | #000000 #000000 | oklch(0.0% 0.000 0.0) |
| W | #F7F7F7 #F7F7F7 | oklch(97.6% 0.000 89.9) |
| R | #D60020 #D60020 | oklch(55.2% 0.224 25.5) |
| LY | #DCBC32 #DCBC32 | oklch(80.0% 0.150 95.2) |
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/s29/r2k2w2r22t8k2t2k2t8k12ly2g16r22t4r22t4r22g16ly2k12t8k2t2k2t8r22w1k1r1~x2/