Cardinal Keith O'Brien and piper Louise Marshall Millington unveil the world's first papal visit tartan
Cardinal Keith O’Brien and piper Louise Marshall Millington unveil the world’s first papal visit tartan

A new tartan to mark Pope’s visit to Scotland has been unveiled.  This limited edition tartan was designed by Matthew Newsome and created in conjunction with two Scottish companies – Ingles Buchan of Glasgow and Clan Italia of Falkirk.

Mr Newsome said he drew on Roman Catholic and Scottish history to create the blue, white, green, red and yellow design. The meaning behind these colours is:

  • White line on blue field – represents Scotland’s national colours
  • Green – reflects lichens growing on stones of Whithorn in Galloway
  • White lines with red lines – the colours of Cardinal Newman’s crest
  • Yellow lines with the white – reflecting colours of the Vatican

Cardinal O’Brien said: “It’s a great honour to be able to hand over the first ever tartan created for a papal visit as a thank you to all the Holyrood parliamentarians who have been so overwhelmingly supportive of this visit, knowing it means so much to the Catholic community and many others in this country.

“I also intend to gift the tartan to the Holy Father only a week from today.

“What could give him a greater Scottish welcome than a new tartan created in honour of this historic visit?”

The Papal Tartan
The Papal Tartan

The Pope is due to begin his visit on Thursday, 16 September in Edinburgh where he will be received by the Queen before celebrating Mass at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow.

5 thoughts on “New ‘Pope’s’ Tartan Unveiled

  1. UK says:

    Is it possible for me to purchase a tie in the papal/St Ninian’s tartan for my husband who is of Scottish ancestry and a life long catholic. I would like to buy one for him for a birthday/commeroration of the Holy fathert’s visit.

    Many thanks

    Ann Robertson

  2. Hi Ann

    We have been speaking to Ingles Buchan who wove the tartan. They have been inundated with people asking about the Papal tartan. It’s even made the news:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11343139

    So hopefully we’ll be hearing some time soon when the’ve woven some more so we can sell some products in this tartan

    Amanda

    http:www.scotclans.com

  3. Ronnie Collins-McCarthy says:

    Is it possible to buy a scarf of this for my mother in law

  4. amandamoffet says:

    Hi Ronnie

    Not just yet – Ingles Buchan are currently weaving a new batch of the papal/St Ninian’s tartan. This will then be put on sale. The price will be slightly more than the other tartan scarfs as a donation is made to the church.

    Amanda

    http:www.scotclans.com

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