World’s oldest tartan brought ‘back to life’ – CBBC Newsround

You can now wear the world’s oldest tartan thanks to a team of historians and fashion experts.

An original piece of tartan material was discovered in a peat bog in Glen Affric in the Highlands around 40 years ago.

Now, a team of fashion designers from the House of Edgar, alongside a tartan historian, have recreated this special tartan, for anyone to wear.

Peter E. MacDonald, a historian at at the Scottish Tartans’ Authority, who helped with the research, said: “It is quite special to see the tartan remade as it could have been 500 years ago.”

The original tartan was analysed to figure out what dyes were used to make it the colour it was, and how many woollen threads were used to make up the pattern.

They discovered that green, yellow and red dyes were used, which would have come from woad or indigo to create the green, along with other natural dyes.

“I create new tartans every day but this project is truly special – a once in a lifetime opportunity to recreate a piece of history,” said Emma Wilkinson, the designer for House of Edgar who worked on the project.

“Tartan is such an iconic piece of Scotland’s identity and it has been a true pleasure to see this fabric come back to life to be enjoyed for generations to come,” she added.

Tartan is a special type of checked woollen fabric which has great cultural and historic importance to the people of Scotland.

It is made up of horizontal and vertical stripes in different colours, on a coloured background. The interwoven stripes are known as a sett.

Tartan can be used to make kilts, or scarves, and they come in many different colours and designs, to represent different clans, or families.

Originally, clans people used local plants, mosses and berries to dye the wool.

The first mention of tartan was in 1538, but now there are thought to be around 7,000 unique tartans in the world – even former US President Obama and Hello Kitty have their own tartan!