MacAlister (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 RGGRWRWRWRGRWRWRGRWRWRGRWRWRBRWRGGRGGRWRBRWR.
Part of the MacAlister tartan — the named design grouping this sett with its other cloths.
Sourced from tartans-authority. It is a 44 stripe tartan.
Original link https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tartanDetails.aspx?ref=1465
2 attestations — the source records this cloth was collapsed from (oldest owns this page)
- pre 1845 — MacAlister (Clan) (tartans-authority, record)
This was the Scottish Tartans Society record for the Smith version of MacAlister and it ties in with D C Stewart's of 1950. The STS notes were as follows: "This plate is taken from the manuscript of William and Andrew Smith's 'Authenticated Tartans of the Clans and Families of Scotland'. The Smith's sources included the findings of George Hunter, an Army clothier, who toured the Highlands in search of old tartans prior to 1822. MacAlisters are descendants of Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles. Contemporary accounts of Flora MacDonald (1746) suggest that MacAlisters wore the MacDonald tartan at that time. The MacAlister tartan was certified by the chief in 1845. " - 01/01/1850 — MacAlister (Smith 1850) (register-of-tartans, record)
This was the Scottish Tartans Society record for the Smith version of MacAlister and it ties in with D.C. Stewart's of 1950. The Scottish Tartans Society notes were as follows: 'This plate is taken from the manuscript of W and A Smith 'Authenticated Tartans of the Clans and Families of Scotland'. The Smith's sources included the findings of George Hunter, an Army clothier, who toured the Highlands in search of old tartans prior to 1822. MacAlisters are descendants of Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles. Contemporary accounts of Flora MacDonald (1746) suggest that MacAlisters wore the MacDonald tartan at that time. The MacAlister tartan was certified by the chief in 1845. '
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
- pre 1845 (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: 2265
- Scottish Tartans Authority (ITI): 1465
- Scottish Tartans World Register: 1465
Thread count
R/16 G2 DG4 R4 LB2 R2 W2 R2 LB2 R4 DG6 R2 W2 R12 LB2 R2 DG24 R2 LB2 R32 LB2 R2 DG24 R2 LB2 R12 W2 R2 DB8 R2 W2 R4 DG6 G2 R4 G2 DG6 R6 W2 R2 DB4 R2 W2 R/16
One full sett is 456 threads.
Palette
| Colour | Shade | OKLCh |
|---|---|---|
| LB | #B5BBDE #B5BBDE | oklch(79.9% 0.050 277.6) |
| DB | #082077 #082077 | oklch(30.0% 0.149 265.1) |
| G | #289C18 #289C18 | oklch(60.6% 0.191 141.6) |
| DG | #006818 #006818 | oklch(45.0% 0.142 145.0) |
| W | #F7F7F7 #F7F7F7 | oklch(97.6% 0.000 89.9) |
| R | #D60020 #D60020 | oklch(55.2% 0.224 25.5) |
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/s44/r8g1dg2r2lb1r1w1r1lb1r2dg3r1w1r6lb1r1dg12r1lb1r16lb1r1dg12r1lb1r6w1r1db4r1w1r2dg3g1r2g1dg3r3w1r1db2r1w1r8x2g2408144-dg1806142/