Colin Hulme

The name “Harris Tweed” can only be used to describe a hand-woven tweed wholly made, manufactured, and produced in the Outer Hebrides from 100 per cent pure Scottish virgin wool. We now have the cherished Harris Tweed Act 1993 which sets that in legislative stone.

However, in the 1950s the position was not quite so clear. By the late 1950s the Argyll-shire Weavers had established a business manufacturing cloth on the mainland and calling it “Harris Tweed”. They developed a shield logo to rival the famous Harris Tweed® Orb logo and had it registered as a heraldic device. So consumers could choose from Orb Harris Tweed and so called “Shield Harris Tweed” – with different characteristics.

This could not be allowed to continue and litigation commenced between the parties concerned. It was in fact the Argyll-shire Weavers who took the case to the Court of Session in Edinburgh seeking to establish their right to produce and sell “Shield Harris Tweed”. All fans of An Clò Mòr will know that they failed in their attempt.

Sixty years ago Lord Hunter issued a famous judgment which helped establish that in order to be properly described as Harris Tweed®, such cloth must have been made of pure virgin Scottish wool which had been dyed, spun, and finished in the islands of the Outer Hebrides and hand-woven by the islanders at their homes. He did so after hearing the longest case in Scottish legal history.

Lord Hunter’s judgment provided solid bricks in the wall which ensures this much loved cloth remains unique and so special. It was an important base on which the Harris Tweed Act could then be enacted in Westminster just over 30 years later.

It is a matter of immense pride to those of us at Burness Paull that our firm acted for the Harris Tweed Association in this case. One of the lawyers, Sir Charles Fraser, who had successfully handled the case called me “out of the blue” a few months ago. Although he had retired from our firm some time ago, he just wanted to ensure all was well with Harris Tweed®. I could tell that his victory 60 years ago remained important to him today, just as it is to the Harris Tweed industry.

Colin Hulme is a partner at Burness Paull