Alba, a colourful nation

Colourful clothing has long been important to the Scots. The Romans referred to the Celts' habit of wearing mantles with small squares in many colours. However, the manufacture of Clan tartans with clearly identifiable colours and designs did not come into being until at least the late 17th century with the advent of standardised dyes and imported chemical mordants. Until that time, particular colour schemes had more to do with regionally available plant dyes than with clan membership.

Harris Tweed (Clò Mór or Clò na Hearadh in Gaelic), a cloth handwoven from local wool by the islanders on the Isles of Harris, Lewis, Uist and Barra in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, is arguably the best known and finest cloth produced in Scotland. Traditionally, the weed was dyed using slow-growing rock lichens, known as crottle, painstakingly scraped from the rocks on which they grew. These lichens produced a wide range of red, orange and brown hues. Crottle required no mordant to chemically bind it other than a pre-soaking of the cloth in graith (putrid urine), hence the distinctive and unforgettable aroma of an old genuine Harris tweed! Until recently, most weavers' homes in the Western Isles would have had a piss-pot outside the door and all visitors were expected to donate generously.

The lichens in the blip are growing on a tree in my garden and are not the ones used to dye tweed. Zoomify to fully appreciate the colours and textures.