Four Sinclairs, Four Tartans: A Heritage Moment and Your Guide to Tartan Families

With Colorado Tartan Day just around the corner (April 11–12 at the Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont), there's no better time to talk tartans: what they mean, why there are so many variations, and how a chance encounter at a Tartan Day celebration became one member's favorite Scottish heritage story.

A Remarkable True Occurrence

SASC member Jack Moore shared this story with the Highland Herald, and it's too good not to retell.

A few years before Jack and his wife Marcia moved to Colorado, they were active members of the St. Andrew's Society of the Eastern Shore in Maryland, where Jack served as President. One of their favorite activities was representing the Society at Highland games and Scottish events up and down the East Coast.

When the couple headed to Tartan Day in Alexandria, Virginia, Jack wore his Sinclair Ancient Red kilt and Marcia wore a matching sash. He figured his tartan would be one of a kind at the event because the Moore’s had no fellow Sinclair’s in their Society and hadn't met another in all their years on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Jack's Sinclair ancestors hailed from Caithness in the remote northern Highlands, and spotting a kinsman felt about as likely as a sunny day in Wick.

When they arrived at the square and asked where to pitch their Society tent, the answer stopped them cold: "Over by Clan Sinclair." Sure enough, a tent with the Sinclair banner flying was pitched right next door.

One Sinclair spotted Marcia's sash and cried, "Look! There's an ancient Sinclair!" (He apologized profusely.)

But here's where the story gets even better. As the four kilted men gathered together, they realized that each was wearing a different Sinclair tartan: Ancient Hunting, Modern Hunting, Ancient Red, and Modern Red. Four Sinclairs, four tartans, all from the same clan. Their Society newsletter Yours Aye later described the encounter as "a remarkable true occurrence" and "somewhat a rarity." The experience was so meaningful that Jack joined the Clan Sinclair Association and went on to serve as Maryland Commissioner.

 From left to right: Tom Sinclair wearing Ancient Hunting, Dick Sinclair wearing Modern Hunting, Jack Moore wearing Ancient Red, and Shaun Whitney wearing Modern Red.

So Wait, Why Does One Clan Have So Many Tartans?

If you've ever browsed tartan options for your own clan and felt overwhelmed by the choices, you're not alone. A single clan name can come with half a dozen or more tartan variations, and the terminology, Ancient, Modern, Hunting, Dress, Weathered, can be genuinely confusing, especially since these words don't mean quite what you'd expect.

Here's the key thing to understand: the pattern (called the "sett") stays the same across all variations of a clan's tartan. What changes is the color palette. Think of it like the same song performed by different musicians: the melody is always recognizable, but the mood shifts with each arrangement.

The Color Families

Ancient tartans are not, despite the name, necessarily older than other tartans. "Ancient" refers to a color palette designed to mimic what tartans looked like before the mid-1800s, when weavers relied on plant-based and other natural dyes. The colors are softer and lighter: mossy greens, sky blues, a more orange-toned red. If your tartan looks like it's been living in a Highland croft for a century or two, that's the idea.

Modern tartans use the bolder, deeper colors made possible by the introduction of chemical (aniline) dyes around 1860. Bottle greens, rich navies, vivid scarlets — these are the brighter, higher-contrast tartans most people picture when they think "Scottish plaid." Interestingly, the "Modern" color palette is actually older than the "Ancient" one, since the Ancient color trend was a 20th-century effort to recreate the look of pre-industrial dyes. History loves its little ironies.

Weathered (sometimes called "Muted") tartans take this a step further, using faded, worn tones — olive greens, browns, washed-out blues, and reds that lean toward pink. The effect is meant to suggest a tartan that's spent a year on a Highland washing line, battered by wind, rain, and Scottish sunshine (all twelve hours of it).

The Pattern Variations

Hunting tartans swap out brighter colors (especially reds and yellows) for darker greens, browns, and blues. The idea is a tartan suited for the countryside, where blending in was more practical than standing out. Clans whose standard tartans were already predominantly green (like the Black Watch or Clan Gunn) often don't have a separate Hunting variation because, frankly, they didn't need one.

Dress tartans go the other direction entirely. They typically replace a main color with white, creating a brighter, more formal-looking tartan. These have long been popular in Highland dancing and formal occasions. The MacLeod clan, in characteristically Scottish fashion, decided to use yellow instead of white for their Dress tartan… because rules are for other people.

Mix and Match

These categories can combine, which is how you end up with tartans like "Ancient Hunting" or "Modern Dress." An Ancient Hunting tartan, like the one Tom Sinclair wore in that photo, uses the softer natural-dye color palette and the muted greens of the Hunting pattern. A Modern Dress tartan would pair the bold chemical-dye colors with the white-accented Dress pattern.

The bottom line? There is no "right" or "wrong" tartan for any occasion. It comes down to personal preference, and as Jack Moore's story proves, variety is part of the fun.

The Clan Behind the Cloth: A Wee Bit About the Sinclairs

Since Jack's story brings us to the Clan Sinclair tent, it's worth knowing a bit about this remarkable family. The name comes from the Norman-French "Saint-Clair," and the family arrived in Scotland during the reign of David I in the 12th century. They were granted the Barony of Roslin in Midlothian in 1280, and through marriage gained the Earldom of Orkney and later the Earldom of Caithness, thus making them one of the most powerful families in Scotland's far north.

The Sinclairs are perhaps best known for two things: Rosslyn Chapel, the ornately carved 15th-century chapel near Edinburgh that captivated the world (and Dan Brown readers) with its supposed links to the Knights Templar and Freemasonry, and Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, who is reputed to have sailed to North America nearly a century before Columbus. Whether or not that voyage happened exactly as legend has it, the Sinclairs' seafaring reputation was well earned and their coat of arms features ships, and their castle at Girnigoe sits dramatically on the Caithness cliffs above the North Sea.

The Clan Sinclair motto is "Commit Thy Work to God," their badge features a cockerel, and their war cry, Girnigoe! Girnigoe!, echoes the name of their clifftop castle stronghold. Today, the clan chief is Malcolm Sinclair, 20th Earl of Caithness, and Sinclairs (along with associated names like Budge, Clyne, Groat, Lyell, Mason, and Caird) are found

worldwide.

Find Your Match at Colorado Tartan Day

Jack Moore's story is a perfect reminder of why events like Colorado Tartan Day matter. You never know who you'll meet under the clan tents, what connections you'll discover, or which tartan will catch your eye.

This year's Colorado Tartan Day takes place Saturday, April 11 and Sunday, April 12 at the Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont, and admission is free. You'll find clan tents where you can research your genealogy and chat with clan representatives, plus live Celtic music, historical re-enactments, a Children's Glen, food trucks, and more.

Whether you already own a kilt in your family tartan or you're still trying to figure out which branch of the tartan family tree is yours, Colorado Tartan Day is the perfect place to start or to deepen that connection. And who knows? You might just have your own "remarkable true occurrence."

Don't know your tartan? The clan tent volunteers are wonderfully helpful, and online resources like the Scottish Register of Tartans (tartanregister.gov.uk) and ScotlandShop's Tartan Finder can help you search by surname. Remember, even if your name isn't directly linked to a clan, you may have a sept connection  (smaller families historically associated with larger clans who shared their tartan).

Already know your tartan but wondering which version to wear? As our Sinclair friends proved, there's no wrong answer. Pick the colors that speak to you and wear them with pride.

Many thanks to Jack Moore for sharing his Heritage Moment with the Highland Herald. Have a Scottish heritage story of your own? We'd love to hear it. Send it our way for a future issue editor@coloradoscots.org!

For more information about Colorado Tartan Day, visit coloradotartanday.com.