Did you know ...

[ChattanCat]

An average worsted wool kilt weighs around six pounds.
The most popular tartans are the Stewart tartans, Black Watch, Dress Gordon and the Flower of Scotland.
The oldest tartan is the Falkirk tartan, which dates to around AD245 and was discovered in a jar of coins near Falkirk.
The first named clan tartan was Murray, in 1618.
The first tartan on the Moon was the Macbean, worn by Alan Bean on Apollo 12 in November, 1969

[James MacMillan]

Scottish Freemasonry is now officially recognised as being the oldest in the world and is now recorded as a Guinness World Record.

There are an estimated 20,000 U.S. nationals living in Scotland.

[pipesndrumsnun]

Cool!

[Jennifer D]

Scotland needs a minimum of 25,000 immigrants a year to keep up with the low birth rate, deaths and emigration. (Maybe they'll offer some nice incentives...)

[highlander_Daz]

Scotland is the only country in the world wher you can expect to be punched if your on fire

[Bugbear]

Hmmm, space tartan.

[Tattoo Bradley]

No surprise on the "most popular" tartans. Then, this group would be the ones to know that.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

An average worsted wool kilt weighs around six pounds.
The most popular tartans are the Stewart tartans, Black Watch, Dress Gordon and the Flower of Scotland.
The oldest tartan is the Falkirk tartan, which dates to around AD245 and was discovered in a jar of coins near Falkirk.
The first named clan tartan was Murray, in 1618.
The first tartan on the Moon was the Macbean, worn by Alan Bean on Apollo 12 in November, 1969

I'm with you for all of the above except the Murray tartan being a named tartan in 1618. I'd need to see some evidence for this.

You didn't specify which Murray tartan, and there are several. The most commonly seen is the Murray of Atholl tartan, which is a variation of the Black Watch tartan, so we would expect it to post-date the design of the Black Watch, which wouldn't be any earlier than 1725, but the final design that we are all familair with probably dates to a couple of decades after that. And indeed, the earliest example of the Murray of Atholl tartan does appear in the Cockburn collection from 1810.

The Murray of Elibank tartan first appears in the collection of McGregor-Hastie, which was put together between 1930 and 1950, so that's even more recent.

The Murray of Tullibardine tartan is much older, with examples of it dating to the eighteenth century.

Perhaps the oldest so-called "Murray" tartan is the tartan worn by Mungo Murray in a portrait painted by Michael Wright c. 1670. However, there is no evidence that this tartan was named "Murray" at the time, or indeed even had a name! (There really is little to no evidence for named tartans at all existing in the seventeenth century). It is called "Mungo Murray" simply because it is worn by him in this portrait. Regardless, it is not considered a "Murray clan tartan," but rather a portrait/artifact tartan.

Even considering the Mungo Murray portrait tartan, that still doesn't get us back to 1618. So I'd need to see some more evidence for this claim.

Aye,
Matt

[beloitpiper]

Scotland is the only country in the world wher you can expect to be punched if your on fire

HAHAHAH! Oh Smeaton, you're one crazy guy.

[highlander_Daz]

Al Qeada must be crazy if they think they can bring religious terror to Glasgow, as far as I know they dont even have a football team!

Sorry Mods dont know this type of humor is allowed, make the ones who seek to terorise us look silly etc. feel free to hit the big red button