Clan checks in new tartan

An ancient Scottish clan has emerged with a new tartan - after conducting a poll in cyberspace.

An ancient Scottish clan has emerged with a new tartan - after conducting a poll in cyberspace.

The Moncrieff Clan, founded in 1248, has marked its 750th anniversary by inviting members to submit entries - which were displayed on the Internet - to complement the existing "unappealing" plaid.

And the 1,000 or so Moncrieffs in Britain were asked to vote.

There were three entries and the winning tartan, which was announced yesterday, was designed by Ms Morag Moncrieff (39), an insurance underwriter, of Netherton Road, Glasgow, who secured 83 of the 174 votes cast.

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"I am very much more of a green person than any other colour. And now I am very pleased that we have got rid of that red," she said yesterday.

"It really was not all that difficult. When I heard about this I thought this was an ideal opportunity for me. It caught my imagination and I only required a couple of nights at it," Ms Moncrieff said.

"This design takes the same check as the Murray of Athol tartan that the Moncrieffs used before 1974," she said. "It also uses the colours adopted by the late Sir Iain Moncreiffe. In this way it combines the sentiments of Sir Iain and maintains the strong link with the Murray clan."

The voting was organised by Mr Duncan Moncrieff, of Durham, who said: "Our tartan, which is 2,000 years old, was adopted by the clan in 1974. However, a few Moncrieffs had expressed a desire for an alternative as they found the current one, well, let us say, unappealing."

The new Moncrieff tartan will be registered with the Scottish Tartan Society.

The clan is also planning to mark the anniversary with a special cask-strength single malt whisky, aged 12 years, with a commemorative label.