Rope TwisterGairloch Museum Rope was an essential commodity, used for everything from fishing to thatching to simply tying things together. Before the days of man-made fibres, rope was made from natural materials such as straw, marram grass, horsehair, or hemp....
Clay Spade Glencoe Folk Museum This spade was used for digging clay – possibly to make drainage ditches. Digging the land is hard work, especially when the land is made of compacted, wet clay! The sharp point of the spade would have been useful for piercing into the...
Flaughter Spade Glencoe Folk Museum This flaughter spade was similar to the English breast plough. They were pushed against the belly or thigh to peel back turf from the surface of the land. Turf was useful for making a natural fertiliser – particularly helpful for...
Crios-iarna or Niddy-noddyStrathnaver Museum This object was used for winding wool, ready for knitting. ‘Iarnas’, or hanks of wool, were formed by winding wool as it came off a spinning wheel in a figure of eight pattern around the crosspieces of wood at either...
Cas-chrom or Foot Plough Glencoe Folk Museum This tall, curved wooden plough was designed for use on the difficult Highland terrain. Extra force could be applied using the foot, forcing the ploughing blade at the bottom into rocky or uneven ground. Croft land was...
