Fictional Characters
Heroes, tragic characters, and beloved characters of legend and lore have been given tartan tributes.
Click any picture to navigate to the page of interest for more information about this tartan or its associated day.
Puccini's Madama Butterfly
Feb 8
Opera Day
Black, white and red represent the traditional colours of the Geisha, black for the hair, white for the powdered skin and red for the painted lips (the solid red pivot importantly symbolising the blood of Butterfly's suicidal death strike).The two shades of pink with the muted khaki green represent withering cherry blossom (in Japanese culture the transient nature of cherry blossom is richly symbolic, the intense beauty and abrupt death, being associated with mortality).
Sherlock Holmes
May 22
Sherlock Holmes Day
The creator of Sherlock Holmes was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was born in Scotland with Irish ancestry, hence the blue and green in the tartan. The lighter blue with the brown edging represents the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland, the gold strip to show that Sherlock Holmes was one of the leading detectives of London.
Merrilees
Aug 15
Sir Walter Scott's Birthday
An inversion of the Dress MacPherson (Stuart Davidson). Was being produced in 1829 as a fashion tartan named 'Meg Merrilies' after Sir Walter Scott's fictional gypsy character in 'Guy Mannering' (written in 1815).Over time and in the absence of anything else, it has come to be regarded as the tartan for that family name
Telfer, Jamie of the Fair Dodhead
Aug 15
Sir Walter Scott's Birthday
By designer Blair Urquhart, the tartan colours evolved from the Telfer tartan (green) and also include representations of the costs of conflict (red), the recovery of Jamie's livelihood (gold), as well as the surrounding landscape of Ettrick and Teviotdale.
Dennis and Gnasher
Mar 17
debut of "Dennis the Menace"
Comic strip character Dennis revels in doing naughty or mischievous things and is at odds with his parents, the local police, his neighbours and the "softies" of his neighbourhood. Supposedly, the idea and name of the character came from a British music hall song with the chorus "I'm Dennis the Menace from Venice".
Sherlock Holmes
May 22
Sherlock Holmes Day
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, born this day, May 22, 1892, has said that the famous detective was originally inspired by Joseph Bell, a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh for whom Doyle had worked as an assistant. Like Holmes, Bell was famous for his ability to draw broad conclusions from minute observations.
Sherlock Holmes
May 22
Sherlock Holmes Day
Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes story first appeared in print in 1887 and continued to be published for the next forty years, until shortly before the author’s death. During this time, the detective had countless adventures, usually accompanied by his loyal friend and assistant, Dr. Watson. ​
Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead
Aug 15
Sir Walter Scott's Birthday
In a Border Reivers ballad, recorded by Sir Walter Scott and others, Jamie Telfer is about a poor farmer whose livelihood is threatened by English raiders and only averted by timely intervention of neighbouring clans, but not without losses to his valiant helpers. Painting: Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead (painting by Sheila Mullen, 1998)
Robin Hood
Aug 17
Robin Hood Festival Days
Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore who, according to legend, was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. Traditionally depicted as being dressed in Lincoln green, he is often portrayed as "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor" alongside his band of Merry Men. Robin Hood became a popular folk figure in the late-medieval period, and continues to be widely represented in literature, films and television.
Oct 12
Never Grow Up Day
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A mischievous boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang, the Lost Boys, interacting with mermaids, Native Americans, fairies, pirates, and occasionally ordinary children from the world outside Neverland.
The Wild Hunt of Odin
Dec 21
The Season of Yule
Grim is another name for Oden or Odin, in Old Norse Óðinn, a god from the Scandinavian Viking mythology. Helsingland is an old spelling of Hälsingland a landscape/region in the middle of Sweden. Many place names in Britain reflect the influence of Norse mythology.