St Ninian Tartan

This limited edition tartan was specially created to commemorate the historic visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Scotland on September 16 2010. This day is also known as St Ninian’s Day on the Scottish Catholic calendar. St. Ninian is the man who first brought the Christian faith to Scotland. He is to the Scots what St Patrick is to the Irish or St Augustine of Canterbury to the English. That's why the date of Benedict XVI's visit to Scotland is of such historic importance. The Holy Father travelled on to England where he beatified Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801 -1890).

The design was actually created by Matthew Newsome, curator of the Scottish Tartans Museum in Franklin NC.

He describes as follows:
“The white line on the blue background draws upon Scotland’s national colors (vis-à-vis the Scottish Saltire) while the two shades of green depict the lichens growing on the stones of Whithorn in Galloway in South-West Scotland. After studying in Rome Ninian returned to his homeland and established a monastery (Candida Casa) in Whithorn bringing the Gospel of Christ to Scotland. The other white and pair of red lines reflect the colors of Cardinal Newman’s crest. The thin yellow lines in conjunction with the white reflect the colors of the Vatican.

In terms of weaving and the official recorded thread count the white line intersecting the green background contains exactly eight threads, one for each Catholic diocese in Scotland. The total thread count between pivot points is 452, representing the number of Catholic parishes. { Note that the weaver can adjust the thread count proportionally up or down to vary the repeat size}.