Tartan, Textiles & Candles

Tartan Shop

Next time you’re heading down Candlemaker Row, pop into our wee Tartan Shop at number 58. Or, make a special visit to buy something hand-crafted for a loved one.

Choose from our beautiful range of tartan textile products made by our Grassmarket Community Members and Volunteers. From brooches, to tea cosies and from cushion covers to scarves, shawls and bow ties, there’s something to suit everyone’s taste.

Opening Hours
Tue-Thu 10.30am-4.30pm
Fri-Sat 2.30-4.30pm

Our Tartan Group

Grassmarket Tartans is part of our members activity programme, which provides a space for vulnerable people who come to be part of a community, grow in confidence and enjoy genuine friendships.

In 2011, a talented member of our community took inspiration from the famous local story of Greyfriars Bobby and the Kirk’s history, and designed Greyfriars Tartan. In 2014 we started a tartan textiles members’ group. Members of this group create a beautiful range of handmade products, developing new practical skills, such as sewing and pattern cutting, and gaining valuable life skills including working and communicating as part of a team. This helps our vulnerable members increase their employability and ability to engage with and contribute to wider society.

We make our range of gifts using the Greyfriars tartan, along with carefully selected complimentary materials. We also make products from tartans and other materials kindly donated to our community. If you would like us to make something for you out of another particular tartan, or if you have materials you would like to donate, please contact us to discuss.

We have fulfilled orders for a wide range of customers all over the world. Our tartan Scotty dogs and sashes have been given as diplomatic gifts by Scotland’s First Minister in South Africa and South Korea. The talented Kilted Yogi and community friend Finlay Wilson wears one of our Greyfriars tartan kilts.

If you would like to join our community and enjoy learning about working with textiles, find out more here.

Exclusive Greyfriars Tartan

The Greyfriars tartan is a high-quality, traditional tartan made in Scotland with 100% wool.

Available in three different options, original, hunting and weathered, the colours that make up the Greyfriars tartan represent:

• Blue: Scotland’s Saltire flag
• Brown: the tunics of the Franciscan monks, pre-Formation residents of the site on which Greyfriarks Kirk is now located.
• Green: the herb gardens originally created by the monks and recently revived by the Grassmarket Community Project gardening group in the Kirkyard.
• Purple: Ecclesiastical celebrations of the Kirk and its royal connections (the land was gifted to Edinburgh Council by Mary Queen of Scots)
• Terracotta: Lady Yester was connected to Greyfriars Kirk, and her birth village of Yester in East Lothian is celebrated for its terracotta roofs, which are rare in the UK
• Gold: inspired by the William Blake peom ‘Jerusalem’: “I give you the end of a gold string: Only wind it into a ball, it will lead you in at Heaven’s gate, Builet in Jerusalem’s wall…”