Miner’s Lamp
Brora Heritage Centre

This may look like a fairly ordinary lamp, but it measures only 4cm! 

Brora’s early coal miners used tiny lamps like these, known as tallow lamps. Resembling a mini-tea pot, the wee lamp was filled with animal fat (tallow) and a textile wick placed down the spout. Once lit, the tallow-soaked wick gave off a dim light, which was the only light source available to miners.   

It was probably made locally by a skilled blacksmith working to a common design, but the lamps were later replaced by successively better generations of lamp.