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Currie of Balilone Tartan Celebrates 183rd Birthday Today
Today, Curries around the world celebrate the 183rd anniversary of the debut of the Currie tartan. The date coincides with the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822. George IV was the first reigning monarch to visit Scotland since Charles II in 1650. George's visit saw the birth of the modern image of Scotland, orchestrated by Sir Walter Scott who had persuaded George that he had legitimate Jacobite lineage. Highland dress suddenly became immensely fashionable and lowlanders across Scotland rushed to discover highland ancestry so they could sport the suddenly trendy kilt in a variety of dashing new tartans. In preparation for the grand Highland Review which paraded through the streets of Edinburgh, Lord Alexander MacDonald, 10th Baronet of Nova Scotia, Chief of the MacDonalds of the Isles, granted to James Currie of Balilone and Garrachoran, the right to use the Lord of the Isles tartan as the basis for his own family tartan. This grant was reconfirmed 34 years ago this month on August 22, 1971 to the last of the Balilone line of Curries, Col. William McMurdo Currie by Lord MacDonald, the Right Honourable Godfrey James Macdonald of Macdonald, High Chief of Clan Donald. The grant states:
“I, Godfrey James Macdonald of Macdonald, Lord, Macdonald, take pleasure in granting to you the right to use the Lord of the Isles Tartan, with certain heraldic differences, as your own Family Tartan. The difference to consist of two tinctures from your own Coat-of-Arms, namely Black and Gold, the same to constitute a guard to the darker green square of the basic Lord of the Isles Tartan. This is done in recognition of you as the present Representer of the Highland Family or Clan of Currie, anciently Clan MacMhuirrich, who of old were the Historians to the Lords of the Isles. This confirms an earlier grant of August 1822 made by Sir Alexander of Sleat, 10th Bart and 2nd Lord Macdonald giving to your great-great-grandfather, James Currie of Balilone and Garrochoran the right to this aforesaid Tartan.”
In 1992, Col. released the previously restricted tartan to Robert Currie, president of the Clan Currie Society, to be made available to all members of the worldwide Clan Currie Society.
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