Cameron of Erracht (Clan)
This is one variant — a specific cloth: this exact thread count and colourway, with its own provenance below. It is one weaving of the sett (the scale-free proportion — the same cloth at any scale or shade), whose colour order is pattern GBRBRKGRGRG.
Sourced from tartans-authority. It is a 11 stripe tartan.
Original link https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tartanDetails.aspx?ref=993
Provenance
Earliest known date: 1793 Designed for the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders raised by Alan Cameron of Erracht in 1793. It was never adopted by the clan. A sample of this tartan exists in the Cockburn Collection (1810-20) in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow.
5 attestations — the source records this cloth was collapsed from (oldest owns this page)
- 1793 — Cameron of Erracht (Clan) (tartans-authority, record)
Originally a military tartan. Alan Cameron of Erracht raised the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders in 1793 and this tartan was designed for them. There is a sample in the Cockburn Collection (1810-1820) in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. The tartan was never adopted by the clan. Woven sample also in Clans Originaux (1880). Sample in STA's Scarlett Collection. Note from history site "The Cameron Highlanders are the only clan-raised unit with their own tartan, which is not based on the government tartan. The tartan worn by the regiment is the Cameron of Erracht. Alan Cameron's mother is believed to have devised this particular tartan. She was the daughter of Ronald MacDonald of Keppoch. The following is from THE SCOTTISH REGIMENTS, 2nd edition, by Dr. Diana Henderson. HarperCollins Publishers, 1996:- "The 79th (Cameron of Erracht) Tartan was unique among Scottish Regiments owing to the fact that it was not derived from the 42nd Government (Black Watch) Tartan. It was created by taking the Macdonald sett, omitting three red lines, and imposing the yellow line of clan Cameron. Tartan flashes used as badge backings and sleeve flashes were typically taken from the intersection of the yellow lines. "The 79th tartan was a source of jealously guarded pride to the Cameron Highlanders. In 1881, when the linking of battalions was taking place, the War Office considered linking the 42nd Royal Highlanders with the 79th Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. The problem was that both regiments would have to wear the same tartan and obviously the 42nd had precedence. The Camerons were asked by telegram, 'Will your regiment adopt tartan of the 42nd Regiment?' Risking disbandment or amalgamation, the curt reply in the negative left the War Office in no doubt that no one interferes with the 79th tartan." - 1793 — Cameron of Erracht Regimental Tartan (house-of-tartan, record)
- 01/01/1831 — Cameron of Erracht (register-of-tartans, record)
Designed for the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders raised by Alan Cameron of Erracht in 1793. It was never adopted by the clan. Further information can be found in 'The Scottish Regiments', 2nd edition, by Dr. Diana Henderson. HarperCollins Publishers, 1996 - undated — Cameron of Erracht (weddslist, record)
- undated — Cameron of Erracht (weddslist, record)
Dataset — provenance for this record, inherited from the source manifest
- source
- Scottish Tartans Authority
- data captured from
- https://github.com/thetartan/tartan-database/blob/master/data/tartans-authority/data.csv
- data date
- 1793 (this record)
- licence
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Capture chain — the hands this data passed through, oldest first; each capture carries its own licence
- Scottish Tartans Authority
the heritage body's archive — its tartan-ferret record browser is retired (links repaired to the SRT, above) - thetartan/tartan-database 2016-2017 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Levko Kravets's frozen compilation — the capture we vendored, and where its CC licence text came from - this dictionary captured 2026-06-10 · commit 5bf86c7566
each re-capture is a git commit to data/sources
Register references
External register numbers recorded for this tartan.
- Scottish Register of Tartans: 495
- Scottish Tartans Authority (ITI): 993
- Scottish Tartans World Register: 993
Thread count
G/16 R2 G2 R6 G32 K32 R2 DB32 R6 DB16 Y/4
One full sett is 280 threads.
Palette
| Colour | Shade | OKLCh |
|---|---|---|
| DB | #082077 #082077 | oklch(30.0% 0.149 265.1) |
| G | #008B2A #008B2A | oklch(55.4% 0.170 145.9) |
| K | #000000 #000000 | oklch(0.0% 0.000 0.0) |
| R | #D60020 #D60020 | oklch(55.2% 0.224 25.5) |
| Y | #8B6E00 #8B6E00 | oklch(55.1% 0.113 90.4) |
Sample pattern
Nearest tartan variants
The nearest existing variants by ΔTartan distance, with this cloth at the top so the swatches line up against it.
Neighbour map
Every grey dot is one of 13621 variants placed by the first two principal components of the ΔTartan feature space (42% of its variance). Red is this tartan; blue dots are its nearest — click one to open its page.
ID: /variants/s11/g8r1g1r3g16k16r1db16r3db8y2~x2/