This pattern was published in 1842 in the 'Vestiarium Scoticum' which was written by two brothers known as the Sobieski Stuarts.

The colours of red and black are derived from the old MacGregor tartan as 'Cunningham' was one of the names adopted by the MacGregor clan when it was broken and scattered following the clan's victory against the Crown's allies, the Colquhouns, at Glen Fruin in 1603.

The stripes straddling the white are given in the Vestiarium Scoticum as "blew" but in practice most weavers produce them as black. I have adopted the original blue.

The designer of this tartan was Hugh Kirkwood Rankine who was born in Winnipeg of Scottish parents. On leave in Scotland during World War II, he became interested in tartan and on his return to Canada learned how to weave and in time produced this ‘history in cloth’ which was given Royal Assent in 1962. It was recorded in the Lyon Court Book as No 14 on the 5th April 1962. The Scottish Tartan Society had an additional version (#145) which used light green in place of green.

The red squares represent the Red River Settlement, now the City of Winnipeg founded in 1812 by Highland crofters; the green squares signify the rich natural resources of the province, the farm lands, forests, minerals, fisheries and water power; the azure blue lines represent Thomas Douglas, the Earl of Selkirk (a colour from the Douglas tartan), the founder of the Red River Settlement and recruiter of the crofters; and the dark green lines represent Manitoba’s multi cultural population; and the golden lines for represent the grain crops, first planted in 1812 at the fork of the Red and Assiniboine by Miles MacDonnel, leader of the first party of settlers.

The Black Watch tartan is the tartan of the 1st Battalion Royal Highlanders, The Black Watch. The regiment dates back to 1725 when it was formed as six independent Watch Companies and used to maintain the Government's peace in the Highlands. It was called the Black Watch to distinguish it from the red-coated regular troops. In 1739 four additional Companies were raised to form, in 1740, the 43rd Regiment, which was later renumbered to the 42nd.

Despite its military origins, there is no hard evidence for how the tartan came to be designed, although there are many theories: that the tartan is derived from the Campbell tartan as three of the original Companies were commanded by Campbells; that the tartan is derived from the Campbell tartan because the regiment was first commanded in 1740 by the Earl of Crawford, who being a Lowlander had no clan tartan, but had Campbell connections; that it was derived from the Grant clan tartan; that it was designed to honour Lord Lovat, a commander of one of the other companies; and finally that it is a dark version of the Royal Stewart tartan. Although one, or possibly more, of these theories could be correct there is no historical evidence to corroborate any of them.

The MacMillan tartan was first described in the 'Clans Originaux', a tartan sample book produced by J Claude Fres & Cie in 1880. It is probably older than this date as the tartan pattern is very similar to other tartans found in the Vestiarium Scoticum of 1842.