Clan Dundas
The Dundases take their name from their lands on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, in what is now West Lothian. Tradition holds that one Uthred obtained the lands from Waldeve, son of the Earl of Dunbar, in the early twelfth century, but that is tradition rather than record. Helias de Dundas witnessed a gift to the monks of Dunfermline between 1202 and 1214, and Serle de Dundas appears on a deed from the reign of William the Lion. The firmest early anchor is 1296, when Serle and Robert de Dundas appear on the Ragman Rolls swearing fealty to Edward I.
George Dundas was killed at the Battle of Dupplin in 1332. James Dundas fortified Dundas Castle, near South Queensferry, in 1424, and the castle remains the family seat. Duncan Dundas of Newliston, a second son of James Dundas of that Ilk, served as Lord Lyon King of Arms in the fifteenth century and founded the Dundases of Newliston. Under James IV the family received the island of Inchgarvie with the right to build a castle there. The best-known Dundas is Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville (1742–1811), the dominant figure in Scottish government of his era. The principal cadet branches are Arniston, Zetland, Blair Castle, Duddingston and Fingask.
The Dundas tartan
The Dundas sett comes from the Vestiarium Scoticum, where it appears as “Dundass”, plate 52, in the Lowland section. The Vestiarium was published in 1842 in Edinburgh by the brothers who styled themselves the Sobieski Stuarts and claimed descent from Prince Charles Edward Stuart. It purported to reproduce a fifteenth-century manuscript. Sir Walter Scott had already doubted it in 1829, and chemical analysis by Stevenson Macadam in 1895 found the supposed 1721 copy had been treated with chemical agents to make the writing look older than it was. It is a proven forgery, yet many of its seventy-five designs passed into use as official clan tartans. Dundas is one of them.
A note on honesty: the Dundas tartan’s first appearance in any record is 1842, in a fabricated book. It was not worn in the middle ages and no earlier Dundas sett is attested. Dundas Ancient, Modern and Weathered are the same 1842 sett in different dye shades — colourways, not separate tartans.
Clan facts
| Chief | David Duncan Dundas of Dundas. The chiefly line is continuous; no dormancy or restoration is on record |
|---|---|
| Gaelic patronymic | Not recorded — a Lowland family |
| Motto | Essayez — “Try” |
| Plant badge | Not recorded |
| Lands | West Lothian; seat at Dundas Castle, near South Queensferry; also Inchgarvie |