Crotal BellsCromarty Courthouse Crotal bells, also known as rumble bells, were used on horses and horse-drawn vehicles from the early medieval period. They were hung on the horse harness in order to tell other vehicles that they were coming and were therefore an...
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...
Sculpture of ‘Kenn and the Salmon’ Dunbeath Heritage Museum This artwork located by the harbour in the village of Dunbeath was commissioned by the Neil Gunn Society in 1991. It marks the centenary of the author’s birth and was designed by Alex Main (1940 –...
