Highland Tartan protection campaign being spearheaded by Prickly Thistle owner
A new campaign aimed at ensuring Highland-produced tartan is legally protected and secures a larger share of the global tartan market has won the backing of the region’s Prickly Thistle.
The new campaign is seeking to ensure the creation of an official Act of Parliament similar to the 1993 Harris Tweed Act.
Their hope is that this Highland Tartan Act would legally recognise and protect this iconic cloth when woven in the region.
At the moment only a tiny fraction of the Highland tartan produced is actually woven in the Highlands itself.
Prickly Thistle, which began on the Black Isle and has a small mill in Evanton in Easter Ross, is the only weaving mill on the Highland mainland.
And its owner, Clare Campbell, is spearheading the campaign to secure some form of legal protection Highland tartan, in the hope it could ultimately fuel the creation of other micro mills elsewhere in the region - in much the same way that the Harris Tweed Act helped that industry to thrive.
As part of the new campaign lovers of Highland tartan are being urged to buy an “Angel of Reparation” patch which would be available to add to existing tartan products retrospectively. The Angel has been embroidered onto tartan woven in the Highland region.
Clare said: “Many people all over the world wear tartan but won’t know that the only the tiniest amount of ‘Highland Dress’ is actually made here, in the Highlands. We want our ‘Angel’ to help redress the balance and give us our recognised place to be a larger part of this global industry.
“Over the last six months many conversations have been held to respectfully understand how others who may be affected feel about it and with those who will need to be involved feel about the idea.
“We want to ensure we add to the future story not just for the Highlands but for all of Scotland.
“It has been a rollercoaster of tartan journey over the last six years at our mill [since it opened] but what a privilege to be part of a campaign like this, and we hope anyone who is Scottish or just loves Tartan will want to get on board.”
The first “poster girl” for the Angel campaign is none other than Dolly the Sheep. Fibres from the famous cloned Scottish ewe have been sewn into the first patch and presented to Karen Walker, Dolly’s ‘dad’ who is one of the leading scientists behind the stem cell breakthrough, that was a world first.
Karen Walker said, “I am thrilled and very proud to be able to provide a little piece of Dolly wool to support the future Highland tartan industry. I hope Dolly’s iconic status helps spread the word and makes this exciting project another piece of important Scottish history.”
The patch depicts an Angel playing tartan-clad bagpipes and has been created by Highland pop surreal artist Michael Forbes.
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He said: “The Angel is a symbol of hope and rebellion. I took inspiration from a stained glass window panel at Fort George, a site that’s so tied to the banning of Highland Dress. The fort was built to quash rebellious Jacobites after the 1745 Battle of Culloden and the Act of Proscription brought in to ban the wearing of Highland “garb”, the playing of pipes and the speaking of Gaelic.’
“Our ‘Angel of Reparation’ wears tartan and plays the bagpipes, adorned by the Scottish primrose which is a hardy little flower, blooming in wild rugged places – just like the us Highlander Scots. The design of the patch is symbolic on many levels and I hope people will adopt her with pride and a bit of rebellion too!.”
Like Dolly, the Angel patch will be cloned and available to pre-order in January when a new not-for-profit Highland Caim Dion Trust is fully live. Meanwhile all are invited to subscribe to email updates via their website www.hcdtrust.org. Funds generated from the angel will seed-fund the efforts to secure this historic Tartan Act.