Ireland, ca. 5th-10th Centuries CE

The basic elements of ancient Irish dress for people in the upper classes were the léine and the brat. These lasted, with variations over time, from the earliest recorded times down to the 16th century. There is some speculation that the adoption of the léine is due to Roman influence; but I think it is more likely that the Romans adopted the more fitted clothing of the Celtic and Germanic tribes toward the later years of the Roman Empire (as those so-called ‘barbarians’ gained more power in the Empire).

Tunic (Léine)

The léine (pronounced /lay’-nuh/) in early Ireland in early depictions (between 5th and 12th century CE) is a long smock-like garment made of linen, not too widely cut, reaching to slightly above the ankles and decorated around the neck, wrists, and lower hem with embroidery. McClintock says it resembles a djelabbeh (Arabic garment). It might have sleeves or be sleeveless. The léine can be drawn up through the belt to knee-level (which causes it to bunch in such a way that carvings of men wearing their lÈines this way are sometimes mistaken for wearing a kilt). (H.F. McClintock, Old Irish Dress, p. 2) The léine may sometimes have opened in the front to the waist (see below), but most pictures show a neckline and don’t indicate such an opening. The léine’s neckline can be round, square, or v-shaped. Sometimes a léine is described by the term culpatach, meaning hooded; this could have meant that it had a collar (culpait) large enough to be used as a hood. (McClintock, Old Irish Dress, p. 13).

Both women and men wore the léine, but for women, it was a little longer. The full-length léine is nearly always shown being worn with a brat, not by itself, and is never shown worn with trews or the inar.

The léine can sometimes be shorter than ankle-length; a shorter léine, however, seems to be a mark of lower status, as the wearer probably is involved in physical labor. Some effort was made to assure that the léine wasn’t too short. (Dunleavy, p 17)

Laborers or peasants are sometimes seen in what superficially appears to be a short kilt, which has some embroidery around the lower hem. However, this most likely represents a léine, with the upper part thrown off to allow for coolness and freedom of movement while working. This would indicate that the neck-line of the léine is big enough to allow the wearer to put his whole body through it, so that it hangs around the waist. One figure on the cross shows an opening big enough to do this. (Dunleavy, p. 4)

The léine as seen in the Book of Kells has a high neckline, too narrow for the wearer to throw off the top of the garment for work. Sleeves are narrow and close to the arm. The long, flowing sleeves of léinte from the 16th century are a later development.

Decoration

The léine is usually described as being gel, or bright. This probably indicates light-colored linen. Some of the léinte shown in the Book of Kells are of various colors, including light blue or green, which are obtainable with woad, with an under-dye of weld for the green. Linen doesn’t take dye very well, and most colors applied would come out light, rather than the intense, dark colors we are able to achieve with modern chemical dyes; the exceptions are the pigments obtained from indigin (from woad) and murex purple. The Book of Kells seems to indicate embroidery or woven borders at the neck, wrists and hem.  Léinte may also have been striped.  The lines on the garments of the Breac Maedhóc figures (below) could be intended to represent deep pleats, or stripes, or both.

A good description of how to construct a similar tunic can be found at the following site of How to Make a Viking Tunic — look at the Birka tunic with a round neckline and gores let into the side seams. I’ll be posting pictures and instructions eventually. In the meantime, my information for The Rogart Shirt would probably be fairly accurate.

Women (left) and men (right) from the Breac Maedhóc, a bronze house-shrine from the 11th or 12th century:

    .

Cloak (Brat)

The brat (pronounced /braht/) was a rectangular woolen cloak worn over the shoulders like a shawl and/or fastened with a brooch on the chest or the right shoulder. The brat seems most commonly to have been rectangular, and rather voluminous, so that it could be folded several times around the wearer, with longer length indicating greater status. Sometimes the brat is described as ‘five-folded’ (Gantz, p. 157), but we don’t know exactly what this means. They are sometimes portrayed as having some sort of hood, or as being folded and/or pinned in such a way that part of the brat could be drawn up over the head as a hood.

Several other forms of the brat seem to have been used, though it’s hard to tell from the pictorial evidence — one form seems to have holes through which one can put one’s arms without unfastening the cloak. Some are shown that look like modern capes — a half-circle, with the bottom edge parallel to the ground, with or without a hood. (Dunleavy, p. 3) Both large and small mantles are portrayed. The shorter brats, however, are usually worn with trews. Women are usually portrayed wearing the full-length brat.

Decoration

Unlike linen, wool takes dye very well, and the brat is often described as being colored. Usually the brat is one color with a fringe (corrthar) or border of another color. These borders or fringes could have been either woven into the brat, as was common with fabric woven on a warp-weighted loom, or made separately, and could include silver and golden threads. It is possible that embellishments included appliqué and tapestry-woven patterns. (McClintock, Old Irish Dress, P. 15) Bright colors were common, with purple, crimson and green being mentioned most often. Other colors listed are blue, black, yellow, speckled (which, from the Latin, can mean checked or tartan), gray, dun, variegated and striped. (McClintock, Old Irish Dress, p. 14) McClintock downplays the possibility of tartans being used, but scraps of checked cloth have been found from ancient Scotland and elsewhere in Europe, so a simple check is certainly not impossible.

The brat is also sometimes described as being ‘fleecy’: the woman who enters Da Derga’s Hostel in the tale of that name is described as wearing a brat that was fleecy and striped. (Gantz, p. 76) Some brats from later periods have been found that had a pile woven into the fabric, so that they looked rather like a rug. It is also likely that the nap of the fabric was drawn out with teasels, so that the fabric was very fuzzy; this fiber could then be either left long or sheared short, so that it looked like modern woolen blankets. The depictions in the Book of Kells and other manuscripts, however, do not show mantles with obvious tufting.

No Kilts!

One of the myths making its way through the Celtic community is that the Irish used to wear a kilt. There is no evidence to support this. Several sculptures have been cited to support the existence of kilts; however, most authorities (including H.F. McClintock) on the subject say that the garments portrayed are léinte, gathered around the waist (see both my comments above in the segment on léinte, and Scottish Clothing, ca. 1100-1800 AD. The kilt arose in Scotland around 1600 C.E., when Scots started belting their brat around their waist. This was remarked on by observers, who said they could tell the Scots from the Irish soldiers in Ulster because of this habit of belting their cloaks.

Below: The disputed panel from the Cross of Muiredach

Jacket (Inar)

Soldiers are portrayed as wearing a close-fitting sleeved or sleeveless jacket, waist-length, fastened in the chest with a brooch. The jacket is worn with a pair of trews, not over a léine. The high waists of 16th c. jackets seem to be a later development. One soldier portrayed has sleeves to the middle of his forearm and trews that come to a few inches below the knee. Another has sleeves that come to his wrists. (Dunleavy, pp. 21, 22)

Trews (Bróc)

Trews in Ireland are usually shown on soldiers, who are wearing them with a short jacket. The trews are usually close-fitting, sometimes shown to end above the knees, sometimes to a few inches below the knee, and sometimes cover the whole leg. They are sometimes marked with vertical lines which may represent decoration or a striped weave in the cloth. An illustration in the Book of Kells shows a soldier wearing a fitted green jacket with close-fitting sleeves and a round neck, and bright blue trews. The trews end just above the ankle-bone and have a strap going under the foot, making them like modern stirrup pants. There is a line right under the knees that may represent a garter. (McClintock, Old Irish Dress, p. 5; Dunleavy, p. 21, 22) This is corroborated by an account of the arrival of Harald Gille, who later became king of Norway, who came to Norway from Ireland claiming to be a son of King Magnus Barefoot by an Irish mother. His clothes are described thus: “he had on a shirt and trousers which were bound with ribands under his foot-soles, a short cloak, an Irish hat on his head and a spear hat under his hand.” (McClintock, Old Irish Dress, p. 5)

Other forms of trews: on the Cross of Muiredach (10th c.), soldiers are shown wearing what appear to be striped trews that are rather short — they only reach to mid-thigh at most. (Dunleavy, p. 21)

Soldier from the Book of Kells, ca. 800 CE (jacket is green, trews blue):

Persons who would have worn trews would have included charioteers, the king’s bodyguard, food bearers, door keepers, and scouts. Kings and other notable persons are usually shown wearing the long léine.

Belt (Crios)

The crios usually refers to a leather or woven belt. These are probably either tabby weave (as is the criosana still woven in Aran today), or tablet-woven. It was woven not only to keep the léine in place but to carry object and utensils in the usual medieval fashion.

Shoes:

Contrary to popular opinion, going shoeless is not a universal Celtic trait. The Rule of Ailbe of Emly directed that “no matter how ascetic a person became he should never go barefoot.” (Dunleavy, p. 20)

See Diarmuit Ui Dhuinn’s Footwear of the Middle Ages site for information on Irish shoes for this period.

Colors of Clothing:

Brehon law laid out the colors of the clothing that people were allowed to wear — see my Textile Page.

Also see:
Eachna’s Celtic Clothing

Social History of Ancient Ireland (excerpts from P. W. Joyce) — use with caution.  His information on the spurious Irish ‘kilt’ has been thoroughly refuted.

Molly ni Dana’s Home Page – another essay on Irish clothing, and an essay on shoes.

 

Originally published here in 1997.

Dyes and Dyeing in Medieval Ireland and Scotland

In early Ireland, dyeing was considered to be a somewhat magical process, and was strictly a women’s craft, there being a taboo on dyeing fabric in the presence of men. The book of Lismore contains a passage in which St. Ciaran’s mother tells him to go out of the house, since it is unlucky to have men in the house while dyeing cloth. He curses the cloth so that it dyes unevenly, then later recants. There were also rules about which days of the month or week were proper for dyeing — the information not recorded in this source). (Bríd Mahon,Traditional Dyestuffs in Ireland, p. 116). Dyers also had a reputation for being herbal healers, since many dyestuffs were also used in folk medicine. (Mahon, p. 122)

Many Highland dye recipes involve steeping the wool for as long as several days or even weeks in order to achieve the proper depth of color and degree of fastness. This is sometimes attributed to the harsher quality of Highland wool. (Kok, p. 224)

Linen is particularly hard to dye; however, indigin (as contained in woad, and, later, in imported indigo dye) and the purple from Murex snails do dye linen, as they adhere to the surface of the fiber rather than penetrating the fiber as most other dyes do.

The word for dyestuffs in the Book of Leinster is ‘ruaman’; the root word is ‘ruam’ or red — which reinforces the idea that the Celts loved bright colors and wore them as much as possible (Joyce, vol. 2, p. 357). More information on dyes and dyeing can be found at: Natural Dyes Mailing List.
— A link to 14th c. German dye recipes — shows what was being done elsewhere in medieval Europe
— Color in Lowerclass Elizabethan Clothing — shows what was being done elsewhere in the British Isles
— To make a Beautiful Colour — Period Dyes in the 16th Century

A Note on ‘Saffron’

The term ‘saffron’, as used to describe Irish and Scottish leinte, is used to describe the color of the linen. The color is actually derived from weld, a plant that yields a light, clear yellow:

The truth is that the old English saffron does not mean crocus but any yellow colour, and generally distinguishes the weld, still retained in many parts of England and the very plant the Irish call Buídhe Mór, or Great Yellow. With this they dye their linen and fine woolen stuffs with different degrees of colour and fix the colour with urine. The yellow thus obtained is bright and lasting. (J. C. Walker, Materials used by the Ancient Irish, quoted in Brid Mahon, p. 118-119)

Other materials used to obtain a saffron-yellow include poplar bark and leaves, heather, Meadowsweet (Airgead Luachra; produces a pale yellow), sorrel, gorse blossoms, onion skins, a species of lichen (called Féasóg Ghabair or Dath na gCloch) and Mare’s Tail (Cáiti Collagan). (Mahon, p. 119)

In a recent workshop on natural dyes, we got a yellow very similar to that yielded by weld using the leaves of the sweetgum tree, using alum as a mordant. The workshop was held in mid-May; I don’t know if the results would be different using leaves gathered later in the year.

Mordants

A mordant (from a French word meaning ‘to bite’) is a substance applied to fibers before dyeing which helps the dye adhere to the fibers. The type of mordant used will usually affect the end color of the fabric. Mordants used in Ireland and Scotland included:

• Alum (potassium aluminum sulphate from stale urine, wood ash, oak galls; chips of oak or alder wood; burnt seaweed or kelp) — ‘brightens’ the color. Stale urine is called fual, or graith in Scotland. Probably used from the earliest times.
• Iron (or copperas – ferrous sulphate) – ‘saddens’ colors (makes them grayer). Iron could be obtained from certain bogs or iron ore.
• Copper (or verdigris – copper sulphate)
• Fir-club moss (Lycopodium selago), used in place of alum.
• Oak-galls were sometimes used to dull the colour.
• Elecampane (Inula helenium) was sometimes used as a mordant for dyeing with blaeberries. (Kok, p. 225)

Dyestuffs

Animal Dyes: Kermes (an insect related to Cochineal); Murex snail (Murex; Purpura lapillus — known in Ireland in 7th c. CE, possibly earlier) (Mahon, pp.116-117)

Vegetable Dyes: The roots, leaves, flowers, or bark of plants; different parts of the plant sometimes yield different colors.

Lichens: usually require no mordant, as they are very ‘fast’ (permanent) dyes. They were usually gathered in July and August, dried in the sun, and used without mordants to dye wool in an iron dyepot. The lichens were fermented with fual (stale urine) for as long as three weeks over low heat. Ammonia can be used for modern dyeing instead. Dyeing time might be up to four hours, or even longer for deeper, more color-fast dyes.
— Article on Orchil Dye

List of Native Irish and Scottish Dyes

Some of these dyestuffs are listed several times; this might indicate some confusion on the part of the person gathering the information; but some plants can be used to obtain different colors, using different dyeing techniques and mordants.

The lower classes were most likely to wear saffron and black. Trews and cloaks were also frequently dyed black. (Mahon, p. 121)

In Uibh Ráthach, Contae Chiarra they never let children wear white underclothes lest they be swept away by the puca and as a safeguard they picked sceochan na gcloch, to dye the garment a yellowish brown. (Mahon, p. 122)

George Buchanan, in his History of Scotland (1580), writes that the favorite colors of Highlanders were blue and purple. The blue was most likely obtained using woad (Isatis tinctoria), which contains the dye indigotin. In later periods, blue indigo dye was imported from India, where it is derived from the indigo plant. It is easier to get indigin out of the indigo plant than it is from woad, since indigo contains a higher level of indigin pigment than woad does, so it takes less plant material to get the desired dye. The procedure for getting the indigotin out of the plant material (used either for woad or for indigo) is a lengthy and finicky process involving the fermentation of the plant material and several other steps too complex to go into here (see the link to The Woad Page for further information). Indigo dye, either synthetic or natural, can be obtained from several sources, including Earthguild,along with instructions for making an indigo dye vat using modern powdered chemicals rather than the traditional stale urine, lime water or wood ash lye from which these chemicals were originally derived.

Dye Material:	Mordant:	Latin Name:	Gaelic Name:
Blue: (glas, gorm)
Bilberry, Whortleberry	iron	Vaccinium myrtillus	Fraochán
Devil’s Bit	leaves prepared like woad	Succisa praetensis, Scabiosa Succisa	Úrach bhallach; Greim an diabhail
Elder (berries)	alum	Sambucus nigra	Trom
Privet (berries, leaves)	alum & salt	Ligustrum vulgare	Tor luathfás
Red Bearberry		Arctostaphylos uva-ursi	Lus na stalóg
Sloe (Blackthorn)		Prunis spinosa	Draighean
Woad (leaves, fermented)	ammonia	satis tinctoria	Glaisín
Wild (or Mountain) Pansy (leaves, stem)			Goirmín sléibhe
Yellow Iris (roots)	iron	Iris pseudacorus	Feileastram
Elecampane		Inula helenium

Black: (dubh)
Alder (bark with copperas)		Alnus glutinosa	Fearnóg
Blackberry (young shoots w/ salts of iron)		Rubus fruticosus	Smearna dubha Driseog
bog mire (mud), boiled in iron pot; described as very color-fast dull black; to make glossy black, add oak twigs or chips	alumina (from urine)		Dubh an Phortaigh; dubh-poill
Dock (roots)		Rumex obtusifolius	Copóg
Elder (bark)	copperas	Sambucus nigra	Trom
various lichens
Oak (bark and acorns)		Quercus petraea and robur	Dair
Yellow Iris (roots)		iris pseudacorus	Feileastram
Meadowsweet – whole plant		Filipendula ulmaria	Airgead luachra
Waterlily (roots)		Nymphea alba
crotal (lichen)

Brown:
Alder		Alnus glutinosa	Fearnóg
Bilberry or Whortleberry		Vaccinium myrtillus	Fraochán
Birch		Betula pubescens	Beith
Bogbean		Menyanthes trifoliata	Bearnán lachan, Bóchrán
Briar/bramble roots
Dulse (seaweed)
Hops		humulus lupulus	Lus an leanna
Larch (needles collected in autumn)
Lichens	iron (dyepot)		Crotal
Oak (bark)		Quercus petraea and robur	Dair
Onion (skins)
Sloe (Blackthorn)		Prunis spinosa	Draighne·n Donn
Veronica – Speedwell		Veronica beccubunga	Lus na banaltra, Seamar chré
White waterlily (roots)		Nymphaea alba	Duilleog bháute

Green:
Bracken (crumpled buds of leaf fronds)		Pteridium aquilinum	Raithneach
Bedstraw (yellow), overdyed with Woad
Dock Sorrel		Rumex acestosa	Samhadh bó
Elder		Sambucus nigra	Trom
Flowering Rush		Juncus sp.	Luachair Bogbhuinne
Foxglove		Digitalis purpurea	Méarcán na mban sí
Heath, boiled (dark green)
Horsetail		Equisetum telemateia	Eireaball capaill
Lichens
Nettles (dark green)		Urtica dioica	Neantóg
Privet (berries and leaves)	alum	Ligustrum vulgare	Tor luathfás
Weld, overdyed with woad	ammonia
Weld, mixed with sheep’s feces (dark green)
Yellow Flag			seileastram or feileastram

Pink:
wild madder (root)		Rubia peregrina
field madder (root)		Sherardia arvensis

Crimson:
Ladies Bedstraw	alum	Galium verum	rud; rú Mhuire, baladh cnise or bindean
Cudbear lichen (Mahon, p. 117)	ammonia		Corcair; Sraith na gCloch

Red: (ruadh)
Alder	red		ruam (the dye); fearn, fearno/g (the plant)
Blackthorn	bright red; w/alum produces orange	Prunus spinosa
Kermes (insects; related to cochineal)
Lichens and mosses			Sraith na gCloch
Field madder (roots)		Sherardia arvensis	Baladh cnis Chon Chulainn, Dearg faille
Sorrel (root)		Rumex acetosa
Meadowsweet (roots)		Filipendula ulmaria
Tormentil (roots)		Potentilla erecta	Néaltartach, Beinidín
Wild madder (roots)		Rubia peregrina	Madar

Purple: (corcur)
Bilberry or Whortleberry	alum	Vaccinium myrtillus	Fraochán
Cloudberry		Rubus europaeus
Crotal Lichen (corcur dye)	fermentation w/ stale urine (fuar)	Ochrolechia tartarea; O. parella; Pertusaria dealbata; Aspicilia calcarea; Parmelia omphalodes; P. saxatilis; and others	corcra; crotal ban, crotal geal, white crotal, or scurf
Crowberry		Empetrum nigrum
Dandelion (roots dye magenta)	alum	Taraxacum officinale	Caisearbhán Caol dearg
Danesweed (Dwarf Elder)		Sambucus ebulus	Lus na nDanar; Péith bhog
Deadly nightshade		Atropa belladonna	Miotóg bhuí; Lus mór coilleadh
Elder (berries)	alum	Sambucus nigra	Trom
Murex (whelks — shellfish)		Murex or Purpura lapillus shellfish	This is the ‘royal purple’ or crimson used in Europe. Because it’s very expensive to produce, fabrics dyed with murex are very costly and are worn mostly by chiefs.
Orchil or Cudbear lichen	alum		Sraith na gCloch
Purple Loosestrife		Lythrum salicaria	Eireaball caitÌn; Créachtach
sea slugs
Spindle		Euonymus europaeus
St. John’s Wort (flower heads)	none	Hypericum perforatum
Sundew		Drosera rotundifolia	Drúichtín móna, Rós an tsolais

Yellow: (buidhe)	most of these use an alum mordant.
Agrimony		Agrimonia eupatoria	Airgeadéan, Méirín na máighe
Ash (fresh inner bark)		Fraxinus excelsior	Fuinseog
Birch		Betula pubescens; B. alba	Beith
Bog asphodel		Narthecium ossifragum	Bliocáin
Bog myrtle (or sweet gale)		Myrica gale	Raidóg, Railleog
Bracken (roots, young tops)		Pteridium aquilinum	Raithneach
Bramble		Rubus fruticosus	Driseog
Broom		Cytisus scoparius	Giolach
Buckthorn (berries and bark)		Rhamnus catharticus	Ramh Draighin, Maide bréan
Common dock (roots)		Rumex obtusifolius	Copóg
Crab apple (fresh inner bark)		Malus sylvestris	Úll fiain
Dogwood		Cornus sanguinea	Crann cornéil, Crann muchóra
Gorse (bark, flowers, young shoots)		Ulex europaeus	Aiteann
Heather	alum	Erica tetralix; E. vulgaris; Calluna vulgaris	Fraoch
Kidney vetch		Anthyllis vulneraria	Meoir Mhuire, Cosán uain
Lichens (various) (brownish yellow)			Féasóg Ghabhair; others
Marigold		Caltha palustris
Marestail		Hippuris vulgaris	Snáithe báite, Cáiti collagan
Marsh marigold		Caltha palustris	Lus buí Bealtaine
Marsh ragwort		Senecio aquaticus	Buachalán buÌ
Marsh-woundwort		Stachys palustris	Duilleog na saor
Meadow Rue		Talictrum flavum	Riascbhláth órdha
Meadowsweet (light yellow)			Airgead Luachra
Moss
Nettle	alum	Urtica dioica	Neantóg
Onion skins
Pennywort		Umbilicus rupestris	Carnán caisil, Lus na pingine
Poplar bark, wood and leaves (saffron color)	ammonia (material soaks several days in ammonia) [Mahon, p. 118]
Privet (leaves)		Ligustrum vulgare	Tor luathfás
Red shank		Polygonum persicaria	Gluineach dhearg
Saffron (probably introduced early 1400s)(Mahon, p. 118)		Crocus sativus	Cróch an fhómhair
Sorrel Sahmadh			Dath na gCloch
St. John’s Wort	alum	Hypericum sp.	Luibh Eoin Bhaiste
Sundew		Drosera rotundifolia	Drúichtín móna
Teasel		Dipsacus fullonum	Lus an fhúcadóra
Tormentil (roots)		Potentilla erecta	Néaltartach, Beinidín
Water pepper		Polygonum hydropiper	Glúineach
Weld (strong yellow) aka Dyer’s Weed		Reseda luteola	Buídhe mór, Ruachan buí
Yellow Fumitory		Corydalis lutea	Dearg thalún
Yellow Wort		Blackstonia perfoliata	Dréimire buí

Originally posted here in 1997 until the site went down in 2003.