The owner of a Battle of Culloden plaid at the centre of an Angus mystery believes the ancient artefact is likely lost forever six months after a worldwide search was launched.
The Earl and Countess of Airlie were loaned the ancient piece of tartan, worn by a supporter of Bonnie Prince Charlie during the fierce conflict, for safe-keeping at their castle near Kirriemuir several years ago.
But it went missing and has never resurfaced.
The owner of the plaid, Robyn MacIntosh-Handtschoewercker, from Wanaka in New Zealand, was given it by her maiden aunt in 1998.
The plaid was worn by John Ogilvy of Tannadice at the Battle of Culloden before making its way to New Zealand after being hidden for a generation.
Robyn’s aunt asked her to send the tartan to the family’s ancestral home in Scotland for safe-keeping and possible public display.
Robyn said: “The plaid hasn’t turned up. If it turns up the Airlie estate has been informed the plaid is to be turned over to the police.
“I feel I have tried to action my aunt’s wishes. She wanted the Scottish people to have access to the plaid. My family call it ‘the saga of the plaid’.”
After Culloden, Jacobite supporters found themselves in considerable danger from the victor, the Duke of Cumberland, who became known as Butcher Cumberland.
Anyone found with such a plaid in 1746 could be killed and have their land confiscated.
John Ogilvy escaped to France and his plaid disappeared.
Eventually, as the result of a “sad love story”, the plaid made its way to New Zealand as a peace offering to the young and newly married Betsy MacPherson.
She put the treasured plaid in a bank vault in Invercargill, where it remained for more than two generations.
Betsy willed the plaid to Alice Ogilvy MacIntosh who never married.
Before she died in 2011 she asked her eldest niece Robyn to verify the family link with the head of the Ogilvy clan, the Earl of Airlie, and to send the plaid back to Scotland for permanent display in Cortachy Castle.
After receiving it, Lord Airlie wrote: “I am truly grateful to you for allowing this historic plaid to be returned to the head of the family.”
But when Robyn’s aunt planned a visit to Scotland in 2007, it emerged the plaid couldn’t be found.
Police said there is no evidence of criminality and it appears the item “may have been lost or misplaced”.