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Click the tartan to view its entry in The Scottish Registers of Tartans which includes registration details, restrictions, and registrant information.

 

Unregistered tartans may link to one of the web's online design environments for similar information.

 

For any questions about reproduction of designs or weaving of these tartans, please contact the registrant directly or via this website.

Guinea Pig Day

"There was a little Guinea-pig,
Who, being little, was not big;
He always walked upon his feet,
And never fasted when he eat."

~ Nursery Rhyme

One of only two tartans in the world ever designed for guinea pigs (gearra-mhuc in Scottish Gaelic), this tartan is a Glen Plaid tribute variant of the original "Guinea Pigs for Deborah" tartan designed by Carol A.L. Martin. This tartan takes the same classic warm colors of guinea pig breeds from the original tartan and transforms it into a Glen Plaid (short for Glen Urquhart plaid), a pattern with a woven twill design of small and large checks, often favoured for jackets and trousers, and an excellent choice for camouflaging any guinea pig fur shedding that might be occurring in the summer season. Finding a pig in a pub having a pint is no longer as alliteratively unrealistic as one might suppose. A microbrewery in Madrid Spain, Cervezas Guinea Pigs! now has a guinea-pig inspired specialty beer menu (with appropriate label bottle art) that should cause "popcorning" (the happy leaping about of young guinea pigs) in all but the most jaded. The menu includes a Scotch Ale Wee Heavy, appropriately and onomatopoeiaically named Mc Cui for the distinctive whistle of cavia porcellus, the guinea pig! Slainte, Cheers and a Wheek Wheek! 🐹 🥕 🍺 🍿

One of only two tartans in the world ever designed for guinea pigs (gearra-mhuc in Scottish Gaelic), this newly designed tartan is a Glen Plaid version of the original "Guinea Pigs for Deborah" tartan which was designed by Carol A.L. Martin.  


The Glenguineapigs for Amble tribute tartan takes the classic colors of guinea pig breeds from the original tartan and transforms it into a tartan of Glen Plaid (short for Glen Urquhart plaid), a  fabric with a woven twill design of small and large checks, often favoured for men's jackets and pants.


The name is taken from the valley of Glenurquhart in Inverness-shireScotland, where the checked wool was first used in the 19th century by the New Zealand-born Countess of Seafield to outfit her gamekeepers, though the name glen plaid does not appear before 1926. Glen plaid is sometimes nicknamed the Prince of Wales check, as it was popularized by the Duke of Windsor when Prince of Wales.


In a serendipitous manner, the glen plaid version of the tartan brings to mind the "agouti" banded colouring in fur in mammals (rather than solid colouring) which appears in many guinea pig breeds.


For more on the various guinea pig breeds,  click the well dressed guinea pig, shown here appreciating a pie and a pint, in a cap with a bit of glen plaid-like tweed to complement his fur. 


And for an entire Facebook page devoted to guinea pigs in the fine arts, see Guinea Pigs in Art - A Pictorial Gallery.

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