CLANCENTRAL is the portal to an unrivalled range of resources which over time will be expanded and enhanced. It has all been brought under one ‘umbrella’ to coincide with the launch of the third edition of the Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopaedia which is published by St Kilda (Holdings) Ltd and which went on sale from the end of August 2017 For over 25 years St Kilda (Holdings) Ltd trading divisions of Gaelic Themes and R G Hardie and St Kilda have been at the forefront of developing technology and historical research to improve the quality of information available to the diaspora.

Having taken the second edition of the encyclopaedia as a start point the last 12 years have seen the employment of History graduates whose remit was to scour the libraries and publications to expand where possible the Clan histories. From a base of 148 clan badges, we now have 330 which has been a massive undertaking on its own. Text in the new book is 3 times the length of previous and scholarly articles have been both updated and added.

ClanFinder which has always been the largest web resource has a town search, phonetic search and the output screen shows the clan badge, clan location, short version of the encyclopaedia text, tartan and where available an image of the clan or family castle. There is also a digitised Clan map which in due course will be integrated fully into the ClanFinder section. The Tartan Search has many added features and focuses on tartans in weave.