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Maud (plaid)


A maud is a woollen blanket or plaid woven in a pattern of small black and white checks known as Border tartan, Falkirk tartan, Shepherd's check, Shepherd's plaid or Galashiels grey. It was in common use as an item of clothing in the southern counties of Scotland and the northern counties of England until the early twentieth century.

The origin of the word ‘maud’ is uncertain. Writing in 1894, Miss Russell said that it came from the Gaelic maudal or maundal, a poetic synonym for plaid. Her view seems to be backed by an old poem in Gaelic, The Tale of Connal, recorded in Ross-shire in 1859, which has the line, “And wrapped my maundal around;” An alternate source is that the word derives from ‘maldy’, meaning a course grey woollen cloth, which in turn comes from ’medley’, meaning a parti-coloured cloth, by way of mispronunciation. However, the reverse is also said to be true, whereby ‘maldy’ was an early nineteen century noun for yarn and cloth used to make mauds, as in ‘a cloak of maldy’, where it was pronounced ‘mawdy’.

Spelling and pronunciation varies throughout the Border lands. It was written 'maud' or 'mawd' in southern Scotland and northern England but also 'maad' in parts of Scotland and Northumberland, 'mad' in Lancashire and 'maund' in West Yorkshire. In long form it was called a 'shepherd's maud', in Northumberland, a 'herd's maud', and in parts of south-west Scotland, a Moffat maud.

A maud is a rectangular, woollen blanket with fringed ends. It is characteristically woven in small checks of dark and light wool; for example, black, blue or dark brown, and white, cream or light grey. The most common pattern is often called shepherd's check but some mauds are woven in a houndstooth pattern. A maud also commonly has a border or inset border of the darker wool and between one and six bars of the darker wool at the ends. An analysis of various written and artistic works puts dimensions between 0.9m to 1.5m wide and between 2.5m and 3.5m long. While commercially-produced mauds are often of one piece, many older and home-produced mauds woven on smaller looms are of two narrow lengths sewn lengthwise together. When woven to be joined, each length has a border along only one length, as pictured above.

The Rev. George Gunn provides an early reference of the maud as a shepherd’s garment. Drawing from barony records of Stichill, Roxburgh from 1655-1807, he said, “The maud, or shepherd’s plaid, and the blue bonnet marked the peasant’s dress.” (p.10). Supporting the maud being used by the common folk, whilst also noting it as a male garment, the Rev. Archibald Craig, writing in the New Statistical Account of Scotland for Roxburghshire, said,


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