page_title: Harris Tweed
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Harris Tweed / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The lichen Parmelia saxatilis (L.) Ach.; photographed in Lost Cabin Trail, Black Hills, Pennington Co., South Dakota, USA.
context_page_description: Harris Tweed is a tweed cloth that is handwoven by islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, finished in the Outer Hebrides, and made from pure virgin wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides. This definition, quality standards and protection of the Harris Tweed name are enshrined in the Harris Tweed Act 1993.
context_section_description: For centuries, the islanders of Lewis and Harris, the Uists, Benbecula and Barra have woven cloth by hand, calling it clò-mòr in the original Gaelic or 'big cloth'.
  Originally, this handmade fabric was woven by crofters for familial use, ideal for protection against the colder climate of the North of Scotland. The cloth was often traded or used as barter, eventually becoming a form of currency amongst the islanders. For example, it was not unusual for rents to be paid in blankets or lengths of cloth. By the end of the 18th century, the spinning of wool yarn from local raw materials was a staple industry for crofters. Finished handmade cloth was exported to the Scottish mainland and traded along with other commodities produced by the Islanders, such as dry hides, goat and deer skins.
  The original name of the cloth was tweel, Scots for twill, it being woven in a twilled rather than a plain pattern. A traditional story has the name coming about almost by chance. Around 1830, a London merchant received a letter from a Hawick firm about some tweels. The London merchant misinterpreted the handwriting, understanding it to be a trade-name taken from the river Tweed that flows through the Scottish Borders. Subsequently, the goods were advertised as Tweed, and the name has remained ever since.
  As the Industrial Revolution reached Scotland, mainland manufacturers had turned to mechanization, but the Outer Hebrides retained their traditional processes. Lewis and Harris had long been known for the excellence of the weaving done there, but up to the middle of the nineteenth century, the cloth was produced mainly for home use or for the local market.
  When Alexander Murray, 6th Earl of Dunmore, inherited the North Harris Estate from his father in 1836, production of tweed in Outer Hebrides was still entirely manual. Wool was washed in soft, peaty water before being coloured with dyes from local plants and lichens. It was then processed and spun, before being hand woven by the crofters in their cottages. Traditional island tweed was characterized by the flecks of colour achieved through this use of the vegetable dyes, including the lichen dyes called "crottle" (Parmelia saxatilis and Parmelia omphalodes which give deep red- or purple-brown and rusty orange respectively). These lichens are the origin of the distinctive scent of older Harris Tweed.
  Upon the death of the 6th Earl of Dunmore in 1843, responsibility for his estate on the Isle of Harris passed to his wife, Lady Catherine Herbert. Lady Catherine noticed the marketing potential and high quality of the tweed cloth produced locally by two sisters from the village of Strond. Known as the Paisley Sisters, after the town where they had trained, the fabric woven by them was of a remarkably higher quality than that produced by untrained crofters. In 1846, the Countess commissioned the sisters to weave lengths of tweed with the Murray family tartan. She sent the finished fabric to be made up into jackets for the gamekeepers and ghillies on her estate. Being hardwearing and water resistant, the new clothing was highly suited to life on the Dunmores' estate. Lady Catherine saw that the jackets worn by her staff could be ideal attire for the outdoor lifestyle that was prevalent amongst her peers.
  The Countess began to promote the local textile as a fashionable cloth for hunting and sporting wear. It soon became the fabric of choice for the landed gentry and aristocracy of the time, including members of Queen Victoria’s inner circle. With demand established for this high quality "Harris Tweed", Lady Catherine sent more girls to the Scottish mainland for training. She improved the yarn production process to create a more consistent, workable cloth and by the late 1840s, merchants from Edinburgh to London were supplying the privileged classes with hand-woven Harris Tweed.
  From this point on, the Harris Tweed industry grew, reaching a peak production figure of 7.6 million yards in 1966.
caption: The lichen Parmelia saxatilis, one of those known as "crottle", gave a deep red colour and distinctive scent to older Harris Tweed
exif: {"Image Make": "CASIO COMPUTER CO.,LTD.", "Image Model": "EX-Z1080", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.10", "Image DateTime": "2011:07:18 10:48:29", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "276", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, 22, 0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 5, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 16, 131, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "34352", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10685", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:07:07 17:52:53", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:07:07 17:52:53", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "27040/9747", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-2/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Cloudy weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "79/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2912", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2185", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "34228", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0/0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "38", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}