Scottish Heraldry

The Celebration of a Nation

Throughout Scotland we see evidence of our rich heraldic culture everywhere. It is a celebration of Scotland’s families and ancient realm. Heraldry is not just for the past, but for the present and the future. New arms are recorded daily so …

Introduction to Heraldry

Heraldry is all around us – on buildings, in stained-glass windows, on bookplates, as school and club badges, regimental banners, on signs at the entrance to towns, carved on chairs, engraved on family silver, depicted on pub signs (‘The Such-and-Such Arms’) and at various times during the year displayed on standards up and down Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.  In fact, heraldry is hard to avoid once you start to notice it. But how does it work?
» Introduction to Heraldry

 

Rules of Heraldry

There are a series of rules for designing heraldry.   What colours can be placed on what, no metal on metal.  Here we look at some of the basic rules.
» Read rules of Heraldry 

 

 

 

How does Heraldry work?

Heraldry has its own language.  This is based on the Norman French of the Angevin Kings of the time and stems from the need to describe arms in an unambiguous way when it wasn’t possible to draw or paint them.  Here we describe how to read a Coat of Arms, understand the language and see what everything means.
» find out how Heraldry works

 

 

Heraldic Law

Scottish Coats of Arms are covered by the Lyon Court.  There are laws that can be broken here for falsely displaying a Coat of Arms or a Lion Rampant.  Find out more about the Laws of Heraldry in Scotland, how they are so unique.
» Read about Heraldic Law

 

 

Achieving a Coat of Arms ‎

Interested in finding out the process to achieve a Coat of Arms? Here we take you through the process and let you know more about what’s involved.
» find out how to achieve a Coat of Arms

 

 

 

 

Civic Heraldry ‎

Royal Cities and Burghs have Coats of Arms.  They display interesting symbolism of the area and it’s history.
» Learn about Civic Heraldry

 

 

 

Corporate Arms‎

Universities, Football clubs, Businesses have been through the process of achieving a Coat of Arms that gets used in a very different way to a personal coat of arms as it’s used by a group of people.
» Learn about Corporate Coats of Arms

 

 

Other Heraldry‎

There are a group of people who for historical reasons display coats of arms that aren’t there, but they do so to tell a story.  Re-enactment groups use and study heraldry to bring the past to life.
» Read about other Heraldry

 

 

National styles

Scotland is unique in the way it governs it’s heraldry.  Find out what other Countries do and how the structure of their Coats of Arms differs from the Scottish ones.
» Find out about other National Styles