Socks in the Gairloch PatternGairloch Museum These socks are knitted in the unique ‘Gairoch pattern’, first documented in the mid-nineteenth century. The Mackenzies of Gairloch supported work schemes for their tenants during the potato famine in the 1840s. Spinning...
Presentation Trowel and MalletCromarty Courthouse Museum The custom of using a special commemorative trowel, usually made in gold or silver, was established near the start of the nineteenth century. A beautifully decorative object, a trowel was used at the ceremonial...
MangleUllapol Museum The mangle was a tool designed for removing water from laundry by squeezing the fabrics. Later designs also pressed and smoothed. The first known instance of using a mangle was in the mid-1400s but they were still widely used up into the twentieth...
‘Waulking the Cloth’ by Jemima BlackburnWest Highland Museum This painting depicts women ‘waulking’ cloth on the shores of Loch Nan Uamh. They are seated in a circle wielding short mallets and singing, whilst members of the gentry look on. Waulking refers to pulling...
Fisherwoman’s Striped SkirtNairn Museum This long, pleated skirt with dark blue, grey, red, and white vertical stripes was typical of the clothing worn by the fisherwomen of Nairn’s Fishertown. Women in different fishing communities often wore a similar outfit, a bit...
