Fergusson Tartan History

The Origins of the Scottish clan of Fergusson are unclear and mysterious. However their royal family tartan pattern nods to some legends of their name.
It’s thought that the name Fergusson can be traced back to various different areas in Scotland. Whilst a lot of Scottish clans can be traced back to just a single ancestral line, it’s thought that the Fergusson name probably could not, as Fergus in Gaelic means angry, bold and proud, which can be used to describe many Scots from these times.

A branch of the Fergussons from the Argyllshire area claim to be descendants of a former Scots king from Dalriada – Fergus Mor mac Erc. It’s because of this that the Fergusson shield bears a boars head. Other Fergussons claim they descend from early Scots in Ireland, like Fergus Prince of Galloway who lived in the early 12th Century.

One of the most well-known Fergussons was Robert Fergusson, who was an Aberdeen bank clerks son, and also an aspiring poet.

He wrote a body of work which was thought to inspire Robert Burns, who was later granted permission to erect a monument in the name of his idol.

The clan tartan itself is a very royal looking pattern, with royal blue and red standing out against the green and black backdrop. The main colour of the cloth in the Fergusson family tartan is green, which is patterned with thick black chunks decorating the cloth both horizontally and vertically to form a series of squares. Intermittently, there are also some royal blue chunks which appear to run alongside the black, creating sporadic blue squares, with darker, navy outlines in places. Each of the blue chunks is outlined both horizontally and vertically by thin red lines, bringing the blue areas to the fore. This is set off with a final display of thin black stripes which appear to criss-cross in the green areas of the pattern.