About the Tartan Ferret

In the USA you would call him a polecat but here in Scotland he's a ferret and ours is particularly  good at hunting out the information you want. To help, he has at his disposal the world's largest and most accurate tartan database maintained by the Scottish Tartans Authority. Where surnames are concerned, he has our definitive 60,000+ Scottish-related surname database (also the largest in the world!) incorporating Dr. Phil Smith's famous 'Tartan for Me' resource. Both the tartan and surname information is frequently updated (you'll see the date of the last update on screen).

The online tartan database that we show you comprises almost 5,500 entries but our Master database - which no-one but us has access to - is larger at around 8,000 entries. The reason we hold back those extra 2,500 entries is that many of them are slight variations of mainline tartans that have been recorded through the centuries whilst others are unidentified or make claims about their origins or use that we can't substantiate. Those extra entries are usually only of interest to researchers, with whom we're happy to share our knowledge.