Article
Strathclyde
Strathclyde, the broad drainage of the River Clyde, was an independent Kingdom of Britons – speakers of a language akin to Welsh – until the 11th century, It had its capital at Dumbarton (‘fort of the Britons’), on the north bank of the river, but most of its territory was to the south, in what is now southwest Scotland. After the sack of Dumbarton Rock by a Viking army from Dublin in 870, the name Strathclyde comes into use, perhaps reflecting a move of the centre of the kingdom to Govan. In the same period it was also referred to as Cumbria, and its inhabitants Cumbrians.
During the High Middle Ages, the area was conquered by the Kingdom of Alba, becoming part of the new Kingdom of Scotland. In 1975, this ancient name was given to the largest of Scotland’s new Regions; stretching from the former Ayrshire in the south, across the west central industrial belt, and parts of Argyll and the Western Isles; Glasgow being its headquarters.
It is also the home of the University of Strathclyde. The Strathcyde tartan is one of the more recent designs and is appropriate for persons living in the historic river valley south of Glasgow and its immediate suburbs – Monklands, Eastwood, East Kilbride, Hamilton, Motherwell and Lanark.
The tartan was designed in 1975 to fulfil a need for a tartan representative of the area. The navy blue and white are said to represent the ‘Scottish sporting colours’.
Choose from one of the Strathclyde tartans listed below:
