Murray of Atholl Stripe pleats

[SlackerDrummer]

Anyone else confused why the pipers plaids in this pic:

1. Look to be Muted Murray when the kilt is Modern?
2. Are somehow folded on the Bias?
3. Have no pleats in them?

I'm not claiming to know everything about pipers plaids, but they're very different from plaids I've seen.

Cause that's the way they've always done it?


source

[usonian]

In this thread Peter MacDonald mentioned that most of the Atholl Highlanders' plaids are actually quite old, fabric woven by Wilsons' circa 1840.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

In this thread Peter MacDonald mentioned that most of the Atholl Highlanders' plaids are actually quite old, fabric woven by Wilsons' circa 1840.

***. You beat me to it. I actually like the look of the plaid and kilt in slightly different color schemes, having seen them worn thus by the Atholl Highlanders.

[crash]

So Matt and Usonian, looking at Usonian's pleating of the Athol it occurs to me that Colquhoun would be pleated to the same red stripe on the green?

[RockyR]

Cause that's the way they've always done it?

I was used to seeing the more 'contemporary' version... the fully and carefully ironed, pleated and sewn one:



Above images courtesy of the Tartans Authority.

And another courtesy of a google image search:

[SlackerDrummer]

I was used to seeing the more 'contemporary' version... the fully and carefully ironed, pleated and sewn one:

I know what you meant, Rocky. And I wasn't trying to be a pratt. It's just that apparently that is how the Atholl Highlanders have always worn them.

Technically, though, are they "piper's plaids" if worn by the regiment and not the pipers?

[creagdhubh]

Apparently, many of the plaids are far older than the kilts (in the gorgeous, Murray of Atholl tartan) the Atholl Highlanders wear. Some of the (newer) plaids match the kilts better than others, though 'matching' isn't necessarily important with uniform regulations of this private army.

This is all according to a response made by an actual Atholl Highlander when I questioned him (whilst attending the Atholl Gathering) about the plaid colour scheme differing from that of their kilts. I have seen them on parade, as well as the Duke of Atholl's inspection at Blair Castle in beautiful Blair Atholl, several times. The year in which I posed the question regarding the plaids and kilts to one of the Atholl Highlanders, was in May of 2007, just a couple of months shy of my own clan's annual gathering 'up the road' from Atholl in Badenoch.












Cheers,

[figheadair]

With the exception of the front left plaid in picture 2 all the others are Wilsons' cloth c1830-40. It amazes me that so little care is taken of such a unique resource. During the piping competitions some plaids are used to cover the general public's seating in the Ball Room :0I

[creagdhubh]

It amazes me that so little care is taken of such a unique resource. During the piping competitions some plaids are used to cover the general public's seating in the Ball Room :0I

Oh dear!