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On District Tartans . . .
Tartans can represent things other than clans and families.  Tartan today can represent businesses and corporations, special interest groups, and even events.  One old tradition in Scotland is that of the district tartan -- a tartan which represents a place rather than a family.  To learn more about district tartans, click here.

There are district tartans for just about every area in Scotland.  Of interest to the MacQuarries are the two Mull district tartans.  The older is from the pattern books of William Wilsons & Sons of Bannockburn.  Wilsons was the first commercial weaver of tartan material.  They had a monopoly to supply tartan to the Highland Regiments in the latter half of the 18th century.  In their 1819 Key Pattern Book they record two versions of the Mull tartan.  It is first recorded as Number 53, or MULL or GLENLYON.  It is one of the simplest of the district tartans woven by Wilsons.  A slightly different thread count is given in District Tartans by Dr. D. Gordon Teall of Teallach and Dr. Phil Smith Jr. than in The 1819 Key Pattern Book as reprinted by Peter MacDonald.  Wilsons also recorded another tartan in the 1819 pattern book, Number 2/53, or Mull with Yellow.  In this thread count, the band of light blue is replaced by an even more narrow band of yellow.  The thread count is Y/1 G8 K/10.  Peter MacDonald notes that this pattern went completely out of use during the first half of the 19th century. 

There has recently been designed another Mull district tartan, called the Mull Millennium tartan (or "Mull-ennium").  It was designed by Rosalind Jones and Peter MacDonald and registered with the Scottish Tartans Society in 1998.  It is called the first geological tartan because the colors represent the features of the Isle of Mull.  According to a promotion sheet from Celtic Originals picked up at the Iona Abbey gift shop, "The Isle of Iona is represented by green and white for its famous green and white marble.  Navy blue surrounds representing the sea dividing Iona from Mull.  The Isle of Mull is embodied by five colors representing a cross section from Fionnphort in the west through to Glen More at Mull's centre.  Starting with the beautiful pink Caledonian Ross of Mull granite, grey follows for the Moine schists at Bunessan and the Jurassic shales at Carsaig.  Black represents the Tertiary basalt lava flows which overlie Mull's ancient basement rocks.  Yellow depicts Mull's unique ring dyke, finally dark green represents dolerites and gabbros found in Mull's mountainous heart."  Proceeds from the sale of the Mull Millennium tartan raise funds for Isle of Mull charity projects.  You can purchase items in this tartan from various retail outlets on Mull or from Celtic Originals. 

There are some other district tartans that are of interest to the Clan MacQuarrie.  Though the Irish have never had a named tartan system as in Scotland, recently they have been getting in on the act, and The House of Edgar has introduced a series of tartans for each of the Irish counties.  As the MacQuarries have association with the MacGuires of Ireland, it is only fitting to recommend a district tartan for the MacGuires as well.  Though you can find the name in many parts of Ireland, the MacGuires are most strongly associated with County Fermanagh.  The Fermanagh tartan is pictured below, as woven by The House of Edgar.  It was designed in 1996 by Polly Wittering of the House of Edgar.

Fermanagh

Lastly, the influence of the Clan MacQuarrie can be seen in the design of the Australian district tartan.  This tartan was designed in 1984 by John Reid.  It was the winning design in a competition held by the Scottish Australian Heritage Council.  He based it upon the MacQuarrie tartan in honor of Governor Lachlan MacQuarie, with colors inspired by the Australian outback. 

Australia

For more information on district tartans, see the Compendium of District Tartans, by Matthew Newsome and James Bullman, available at www.District-Tartans.com.