The tartan not only represents the history, heritage and colours of the Scottish Borders common ridings and festivals but, using Borders textile expertise, the tartan also incorporates Retroreflective® reflective yarn for night-time safety.
The Return to the Ridings tartan, a project managed by the Scottish Borders Council Homecoming Scotland team, was designed at Heriot-Watt University and woven by Robert Noble of Peebles.
The tartan, which has been submitted to the Scottish Tartans World Register, was created as part of Return to the Ridings, a celebration that brings eleven of the Scottish Borders common ridings and festivals together for Homecoming Scotland 2009.
The inclusion of the tartan in the Scottish Tartans World Register will create a lasting legacy for Homecoming Scotland in the Borders.
During the Homecoming year of 2009, the towns of Hawick, West Linton, Selkirk, Peebles, Melrose, Galashiels, Jedburgh, Duns, Kelso, Lauder and Coldstream join together to celebrate their historic common ridings and festivals.
These 11 towns in the Borders focus their ride-outs around the use of the horses.
The tartan was designed by Emma Arthur-Daniels a Heriot-Watt University textiles masters student.
Emma created a design which blends the traditional values of the Border common ridings with modern yarns.
Each of the 11 towns participating in Return to the Ridings is represented in the tartan with the inclusion of their colours in the tartan over-checks.
The main ground of the tartan is green, to symbolising the Borders countryside and land which the common ridings were designed to protect.
Emma incorporated a modern, reflective yarn into the traditional tartan design. Retroreflective® yarn, which is designed to increase night-time safety, has minute glass beads and reflects light back to the source. For equestrian events such as the common ridings taking place in the evening could reflect light such as car headlights to indicate a rider and horse are ahead.
Emma said: "This was a very exciting project to be involved in and a real opportunity to develop my work in the use of textiles.
"I think the final product holds true to the values of the Scottish Borders common ridings and festivals, while incorporating the new concept of weaving modern yarns into this type of fabric."
Councillor Vicky Davidson, executive member for economic development, Scottish Borders Council, said: "The Scottish Borders common ridings and festivals are stunning spectacles and the creation of a new tartan that combines the history of the events with modern technology is a great example of how successful economies can collaborate – combining the research expertise at the School of Textiles and Design with the product development expertise available within companies in the textiles sector here in the Borders."