New Scottish Tartans Register

[Nick Fiddes]

As many of you will already be aware, there are plans afoot in Scotland to establish a new official national register of tartans. I was nominated to represent the governors of the Scottish Tartans Authority on the Steering Group that is developing this... and I'm now also on the government Working Party charged with implementing it.

Now, lots of people keep asking me what's happening. Therefore, in a spirit of utter laziness, to avoid having to answer the same questions dozens of times, I thought I'd try to summarise where we've got to in one place. So if you're interested, you'll find it here, on my brand new blog:
http://blog.scotweb.co.uk

Any comments and feedback welcome, of course, which I'll try to feed into the process if possible.

Nick

[RockyR]

Thanks for the very public update on a VERY interesting topic.

Best of luck!

[ChromeScholar]

The only question I have is, what is this going to do to the cost of a kilt? If this will have no effect on the cost or availability of kilts, then I'm ok with it. If, on the other hand, this is a new tartan bureaucracy that causes the price of a kilt to go up for any reason, then I'm against it.

[macwilkin]

Moved thread to heraldry & tartans section. Please post all tartan-related threads here.

Thanks!

Todd

[TheKiltedWonder]

Very interesting indeed! Thanks for the link. Now I've got some bedtime reading!

[Nick Fiddes]

ChromeScholar, it should have no impact on the price of a kilt. It will only be recording tartans, and not restricting them.

Nick

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Nick,

Thanks for helping keep everyone informed through this process!
Matt

[Rex_Tremende]

I have two questions, unrelated to each other:

1. If the registry is available to the public for free (per the blog), what benefit is there for STA membership? As I understand it (I am not a member) currently a membership gets you access to information that the public does not have, such as thread count and designer/history information.

2. In looking for potential generic tartans some time back, I found a number of "fashion" tartans by a Canadian mill that I don't recall seeing at STA. Will the new national registry include these type of tartans?

Thanks for bringing the process to our attention. It sounds like an interesting project.

Regards,
Rex.

[Nick Fiddes]

I have two questions, unrelated to each other:

1. If the registry is available to the public for free (per the blog), what benefit is there for STA membership? As I understand it (I am not a member) currently a membership gets you access to information that the public does not have, such as thread count and designer/history information.

2. In looking for potential generic tartans some time back, I found a number of "fashion" tartans by a Canadian mill that I don't recall seeing at STA. Will the new national registry include these type of tartans?

Thanks for bringing the process to our attention. It sounds like an interesting project.

Regards,
Rex.

1. The full answer has not yet been finalised so it would be improper for me to say a lot. But in brief, the public register with only have a limited sub-set of public interest information, and anyone seeking specialist information will be directed to expert sources such as the STA; plus the STA will have an expanded public role, yet to be defined.

2. There is agreement in principle that the new Register will compile the information from not just the STA but the other existing (smaller) register too, bringing to an end the need to look in more than one place. It will also be adding new examples as they are recorded or come to light.

[Aggie]

As new tartans come along, will they have to go through the same process as those wanting to be included in the STA register?