NRAS for Archivists

The National Register of Archives for Scotland (NRAS) was set up in 1946 to compile a record of collections of private papers in Scotland, to encourage their care, and to make information about them available to researchers and others.

How you can help

We need you to keep us informed about your holdings of private papers if we are to provide researchers with accurate advice on the existence and location of sources relating to their subjects. You can help by sending details of your holdings of historical papers, large or small, and by letting us know when you accession or de-accession papers.

If you re-list a collection appearing on the Register, please remember to let us have a copy of the new version. We are always pleased to add lists of private papers to the Register, and these can now be received both electronically and in conventional paper form.

The National Register of Archives for Scotland and TNA:HMC

Copies of all lists added to the Scottish Register are circulated to The National Archives: Historical Manuscripts Commission (TNA:HMC) who maintain the National Register of Archives (NRA). Therefore there is no need for you to send your new lists of private papers directly to them. TNA:HMC does not, however, send to the NRAS the lists which it receives from other Scottish repositories.

Please note that TNA:HMC give all NRAS surveys a separate NRA reference. For example, NRA 11000 refers to NRAS 234, papers of the Dukes of Atholl.