Oldest Scottish tartan ever found was preserved in a bog for over 400 years

Peter MacDonald, head of research and collections and John McLeish, chair of The Scottish Tartans Authority and James Wylie, an assistant curator at V&A Dundee, examine the faded tartan.

The world's oldest surviving Scottish tartan is over 400 years old and, though now faded, once sported green, brown, red and yellow, a new analysis of the centuries-old fabric reveals.

The tartan was found in a peat bog in Glen Affric — an area in the Scottish Highlands carpeted with woods, lakes and moorland — in the 1980s, but this is the first time that scientists have examined it with dye analysis and radiocarbon testing.