For centuries the islanders of Lewis, Harris, Uist and Barra have woven the magical cloth the world knows as Harris Tweed, Clo Mhor in the original Gaelic- 'The big cloth'.  For protection from the tempestuous Atlantic gales to provide  body warmth the early Hebrideans evolved a densely woven and coarse outer garment spun from the wool of the black faced sheep. It was richly dyed in the hues of the terrain; vegetable materials gathered from peat bogs, hillside and seashore. In the late 1800's this inspired Lady Dunmore to conceive a marketing  scheme for native Hebridean  woollen cloth to improve the roughness and  quality of the tweed. A certification mark, the well known Harris Tweed orb was granted in 1909; " Harris Tweed means a tweed which has been hand woven by the islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides" thus forever tying the cloth to the Islands. Harris Tweed is a beautiful product; one of the few hand woven craftsman fabric produced  in a background of intense beauty and colour  where the designer  seeking inspiration needs look no further than beyond his windowsill.

copyright © 2006  Catriona MacGeoch