Article

Marr

Motto: Pans Plus (Think More)

The name Mar/Marr is by no means confined to Scotland, where it is specific to Aberdeenshire.  The name comes from the Norse ‘marr’ meaning marshy.  In Scotland the district of Mar is that lying between the Don and Dee rivers, an area which was one of the old maormordoms into which the north of Scotland was divided prior to the clan systems.  The mars were therefore never a clan as such, but an older grouping normally referred to as a tribe.  

The first reference to the area one finds is in 1065 when Martachus, maormor of Marr witnessed a charter by Malcolm Canmore.  William de Mar c.1235 appears to be the first recorded using this as a personal surname.  This name has become somewhat confused with Mair.  It may be that Mair has arisen from the Gaelic genitive form of Mar.  It would seem likely then that the name was interchangeable.  

The Earldom of Mar, formally belonged to the Skenes and later passed to the Erskines, who were known as Earls of Mar and Kellie.  This has led to the assumption that the Mars could wear the Erskine tartans although they had no ancient links with this family’s area in the Borders.  However, as the Mars now have a recognised Chief of their own, it is regarded as wrong to use the crest and tartans of the Erskines.  There is a great deal of confusion surrounding the origins of this tartan known as the Mar District/Tribe of Mar and also Skene.  What appears to have happened is a series of errors in the drawing of the Old Skene tartan.  Further simplification produced Mar tartan.

Choose from one of the Marr tartans listed below: