Your Scottish Archives
For all comments and questions please email your@scottisharchives.org.uk
Your Scottish Archives is a new online portal designed to help you explore and discover archive collections held right across Scotland. Run by the Scottish Council on Archives, and developed in partnership with Archives Hub (a Jisc organisation), with support from Scottish Archives Network Ltd, National Records of Scotland, and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the site brings together catalogue descriptions from a wide range of archive holders in one searchable place.
The portal already draws on contributions from over eighty repositories, from Mull to Aberdeen, including local authorities, universities and colleges, businesses, museums, galleries, heritage organisations, community heritage groups and historic organisations. Each contributor is gradually adding descriptions of their collections, so the portal is a living resource that continues to grow as more archives come on board and existing contributors add further material.
Your Scottish Archives isn’t just a search tool. Whatever has brought you here — tracing family history, researching a local community, exploring a business or organisation’s past, or simply satisfying curiosity about Scotland’s history — the site offers guidance to help you make the most of what you find. This includes advice on how to search the catalogue effectively, a knowledge base of articles on record types and record creators, a glossary to help decode archival and historic terminology, and dedicated pages on family history and finding your own records.
It’s worth noting what the portal isn’t: it doesn’t hold physical archival material itself, and only a small number of digitised items are available to view online. Most entries are catalogue descriptions pointing you towards the archive service that holds the original material, and you may need to contact that service directly to access it.
The site is still developing, with further improvements planned as more archives join and existing catalogues expand. The Scottish Council on Archives welcomes feedback and questions from visitors as the project continues to grow.
All archives, whether held by a local authority, community group, museum, business or university, are welcome to share their collections, if:
- Your collection includes original archival material
- You provide public access to your archive
- You have or are happy to apply for a (free) archon (archive identity) number
- You have or are able to create catalogues or descriptions of your collections
- You are based in Scotland