This paper provides a brief overview of the national recording initiatives of post-war buildings and sites here in Scotland, and how these have developed in the past. These have fallen roughly into two main categories. The first is the state funded heritage apparatus responsible for the recording, inventorisation, and protection of historic buildings. Here, unlike almost all other western European countries, our system has in the past been sharply divided, between Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) undertaking recording and dissemination, and Historic Scotland, responsible for listing and, in partnership with local authorities, historic building control. The second category is the once historically dominant quasi-private, voluntary, or academic initiatives. But, despite this extensive state and private apparatus, no systematic programme of inventorising post-war architecture and planning schemes has been carried out to date.