Heather Isle Tartan History

The Heather Isle tartan was created and inspired by images on the Western Isles of Scotland. It’s thought that they are an ode to heather covered mountains, and how these change throughout the seasons.

This Scottish tartan is of course not associated with any recognised clan or family in particular. The Heather Isle, however, is the nickname given to the Isle of Lewis, so it is easy to pinpoint the area in Scotland which this tartan originated.

As you might imagine, the Heather Isle tartan incorporates the colour of heather and is a beautiful tartan representation of the flower. The heather green shade makes up the majority of the colour of this Scottish tartan. It incorporates chunky purple stripes, both horizontal and vertical, which form criss-crosses throughout the material.

There are 2 shades of purple forming these lines, which are all outlined by thick black horizontal and vertical lines which end up creating a sort of purple square pattern.

Throughout one of the black horizontal and one of the black vertical lines runs a faint dotted white line, again forming a cross pattern inside the green squared areas of the tartan. On both sides of the horizontal and vertical black lines is a yellow lining, again appearing in a dotted pattern. All of these colours used in the tartan are said to represent the heather throughout different stages of the day and its life. This includes starting out as a green shoot, blossoming into a purple flower and then withering away to black mulch in the winter. The yellow is thought to represent the sunlight and the glow on the flower in both sunrise and sunset, giving the plant and the land a new hue.