Registering a Tartan
Inside the National Archives of Sotland
The idea of an official Scottish Register of Tartan was first mooted many years ago by the Scottish Tartans Authority (STA) determined to ensure that all the valuable historical data - collected over at least two centuries by a host of dedicated researchers and weavers - should not again fall into the hands of any one individual or organisation whose long-term existence was not guaranteed.
The obvious answer was that ownership should be invested in a statutory body and the STA approached three such Scottish organisations offering to give them custody of the STA's International Tartan Index (ITI) whilst the STA continued to exercise 'care and control.' Unfortunately none of those approached felt able or equipped to assume responsibility for what was, understandably for them, an unknown discipline and so the idea gathered dust for a few years.
Times change, as do people, and in 2007 Deirdre Kinloch-Anderson resurrected the idea and the resultant committee managed to attract the support of Sir Jamie McGrigor (Member of the Scottish Parliament for Argyle) who expressed his willingness to present the idea as a Member's Bill in the Scottish Parliament. After an inordinate programme of consultation and drafting - in which the STA enthusiastically played a major role - the Scottish Register of Tartans Bill was unanimously passed by the Scottish Parliament in October 2008 and received Royal Assent on 26th November 2008.
To reduce the confusion caused by there being more than one tartan 'register' offering a paid registration service, the STA (and the smaller Scottish Tartan World Register [STWR]) agreed to relinquish that role and direct enquirers to the new 'official register' administered by the National Archives of Scotland.
So that the new Scottish Register of Tartans (SRT) did not commence life as an empty database, both the STA and the STWR passed copies of their databases to NAS for incorporation into the new register.
As the dust settled on the hand-over to NAS, the practical problems of the new arrangement became apparent. To analyse these, one needs to understand the objectives of the SRT and the STA's industry-standard ITI. The SRT's opening statement reads:
"The Scottish Register of Tartans (the Register) is a national repository of tartan designs. It is an on-line web site database
facility maintained by the National Archives of Scotland, an executive agency of the Scottish Government."
Whilst that's perfectly accurate, it shrouds the fact that the only new tartans to be entered into that national repository are those for which the applicants have paid the set fee of £70. Bearing in mind that there is no legal requirement for new tartans to be registered or indeed any legal safeguards bestowed upon registered tartans, if a company or an individual doesn't wish to have their tartan entered, for whatever reason, then the prime purpose of the new register has immediately become debased.
In defence of the NAS and their policy, it was hoped by all concerned that the greatly heightened status given to tartan by the establishment of the new Register would result in across-the-board registrations. In reality however, there were those individuals who could not afford to pay the modest fee and there were major weavers who saw no commercial advantage in paying a fee for their new tartans to be registered - especially in a shrinking and hard-pressed industry.
The Scottish Tartans Authority policy as far as its ITI database is concerned has always been to include all tartans of which it is advised, or of which it becomes aware. That policy is the only one which can ensure that it is as comprehensive as possible and thus continues to be the most accurate and up-to-date information source on the subject. As proof of that, all new design applications received by National Archives for entry into the SRT are passed to the STA for checking the uniqueness of the name and, more importantly, the uniqueness of the design. Without such a safeguard, no-one - individual or major weaver - can safely introduce a new tartan for fear of infringing someone else's copyright, design registration or trademark.
Over the past 11 months, this anomaly has resulted in the STA adding (at no charge) almost 150 new or newly discovered tartans to its database in addition to all the new ones officially registered by the NAS. In view of this, each passing day sees the much-heralded SRT inadvertently drifting away from being a national repository of tartan designs to being a national repository of some tartan designs
At the moment this is an intractable problem so . . . despite the best intentions and efforts of all concerned, we have ended up with an official register that threatens to become irrelevant. A solution that is no longer feasible is one promoted by the STA originally and that was to subcontract the operation of the database back to the STA who have the expertise, the industry knowledge and the long experience to continue the task of safeguarding Scotland's - and indeed the world's - tartan heritage.
The Tartans Authority is fully committed to seeking ways of alleviating the problem and will continue to work with its colleagues in NAS to find a workable solution.
