Wednesday 30 September 2015

The National Trust for Scotland's Archive

The Scottish Genealogy Network were warmly welcomed at the Edinburgh headquarters of the National Trust for Scotland on Monday. When you think about the National Trust for Scotland you may think first about some of the beautiful and historically important properties they manage such as Haddo House and New Hailes. As well as these wonderful buildings the trust owns and manages land including islands such as St. Kilda off the far North West of Scotland. Besides these treasures the Trust has a vast archive.

On our visit to the archive on Monday the archivist, Ian Riches, explained that archive material held by the Trust falls into two categories: historic papers they have received along with a property, and more modern records that have been created by the Trust itself.

Around 45 NTS properties have some historic archive material. These records vary from estate papers to family papers and personal papers.

Amongst the material the Trust has created are records of the running of their properties, which can include information on previous employees.

Work is ongoing to deliver greater access to this material, hopefully this will include an online catalogue. For the time being a basic catalogue is available through the Scottish Archive Network Catalogue.

If you believe the NTS hold documents which could be useful to you get in touch with the archivist who will help you access the documents you need.

Huge thanks to the National Trust for Scotland for allowing us to peer into their amazing archive. If you would like to read more about the NTS archive see the archives section on their website.