| Dear John: I took a look at your link 
and it is hard to know what you mean by "this tartan" when all I get 
is the compete web-site and index. So I will give you a quick run-down of what I 
know: 1st observation:  the colours as presented on this site 
are not true to my eye  eg. the Sinclair modern hunting is a very dark 
green in real life not a mid green as presented here, and the ancient hunting is 
a mid to light green and not much like the one here.  No doubt the sett 
(specific tartan pattern or thread-count) is accurate.  2nd; the two labelled "Sinclair" are large and small 
sett versions of the same  red Sinclair tartan but, again,  colours 
not quite right. 3rd: the one labelled "Sinclair Dress" , overall 
blue and white, is, from my understanding, a relatively new tartan and was 
designed and promoted in part by the late Robin Lord Thurso.  I have yet to 
see it worn except by Highland Dancers. 4th the so-called "Sinclair Brown" tartan is barely 
recognizable to my eye because the colours here are so un-true.  It is the 
one I wear for my day kilt and even I had trouble recognizing it.  It is a 
wonderful soft brown/green  and light grey-blue.  The source is given 
as Loch Carron which is correct because they are the ones who invented it about 
30 years ago.  They call it "Reproduction" and the story 
(unlikely) given is that a portion of kilt material was recently dug up at 
Culloden and it was similar to the modern version of MacDonald (or some such) 
and they decided to extrapolate the colours to various existing tartan 
setts.  I understand they carried this theme into about 50 other standard 
Clan Tartans.  The Thurso family wears this version quite a bit and Stanton 
Avery, the previous owner of Dunbeath Castle in Caithness, had his staff all 
outfitted in this tartan. Hope this is helpful Rory Dear Friends: Please note that all future messages to me should be addressed to rory.sinclair@home.com . We have a new high speed cable connection and its wonderful! Thanks. Rory |