Councillor in effort to find new official local tartan

A DUNDEE councillor is planning a campaign to create an official tartan for the city.

Kevin Cordell believes Dundee’s emerging image needs a tartan to complement it — and the introduction of one could be good for tourism.

He has approached council officers about the idea and been told that the city has had two tartans in the past but both were unofficial.

It’s also believed that the designs for them may have been lost.

Now, he hopes to get local schoolchildren involved in helping to design a new official tartan for Dundee.

Mr Cordell said his idea was in its early stages but told the Tele: “There are many tartans registered with the name but our city doesn’t appear to be utilising them. But tartan is one of Scotland’s most iconic symbols and known worldwide. For every event — think Commonwealth Games or Ryder Cup — we have a tartan.

“Companies, countries, regions and football teams all have tartans.

“It has become one of the greatest branding tools available but what about Dundee?”

He believes tartan could be sold as a souvenir for visitors arriving on cruises.

The city currently has two main tartans associated with it, according to the council — the Dundee Tartan and Discovery Tartan.

Mr Cordell discussed the matter with council officer Ray Marra, who told him: “The Dundee Tartan is quite striking, with a lot of yellow in it, as I remember, and the Discovery is based on The Black Watch Tartan, with a thin yellow line in it.

“We used to use the Discovery Tartan on ties and head scarves as civic gifts.” He said, however, that a nowdefunct city centre business — Sutherlands — may have been the only producer, as the council had been unable to source it since the shop closed.

He added: “As for the Dundee Tartan, we have never used it in the time I’ve been here, some 18 years, and I have never seen it listed in any catalogues of tartan gifts.”

Brian Wilton, a consultant for the Scottish Tartan Authority, said it would be “a pity for the Dundee Tartan to be forgotten, as it was made in 1819 by Wilsons of Bannockburn, at a time when Dundee was a weaving centre”.

He added: “If elements of the old tartan could be incorporated in some way into a modern design, it would be a great way of connecting Dundee’s past with its present and future.”