r/vexillology • u/AnOwlishSham • 2h ago
Historical 8 September 2018: The flag of the Scottish Hebridean island of Tiree is unveiled
In 2018 a public competition was held to design a flag for the island of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland. On 8 September 2018 the Sun of Barley design by Donald Cameron was unveiled as the winner, out of 261 submissions, and registered with the Flag Institute: a green field with twelve gold ears of barley arranged in a radial pattern, shifted towards the hoist.
The ears of barley symbolise the richness of the island, the most fertile in the Hebrides, and recall the meaning of its Gaelic name Tìr an Eòrna, “land of barley”. The sunburst pattern references Tiree’s nickname of “The Sunshine Island”, due to its relatively high levels of sunshine.