Highland Objects Podcasts

Gairloch Pattern Socks - Podcast Twenty

 This pattern was developed in the middle of the 19th century and was apparently unique to Gairloch. Unlike many Scottish estates, the lairds of Gairloch supported work schemes for inhabitants during the 1840s potato famine. Knitting was encouraged to provide an income for the women, using wool from local fleeces, home spun and dyed with local plants.
Location Gairloch Museum IV21 2BH

Dr Alexanders Slide Set - Podcast Nineteen

Dr John Alexander’s Specimen Slide Set is in the custodianship of The Wick Heritage Museum. His life long commitment to improving the health of the community is demonstrated by the fact he built up and used these various specimens that contributed to his knowledge of diseases.
Location: The Wick Heritage Museum, 20 Bank Row, Wick KW1 5EYuted to his knowledge of diseases.

SS Mable - Highland Objects Podcast Eighteen

With echoes of modern-day entrepreneurship, the SS Mabel came to the “romantic shores of the queen of Highland lochs”, Loch Maree in 1883. As well as providing leisure cruises on the loch, she also became a vital link for the Gairloch area, connecting coaches at each end of the loch for visitors arriving by rail at Achnasheen.
Location Gairloch Museum, Achtercairn House, Gairloch IV21 2BH

The Custer Tablecloth - Highland Objects Podcast Seventeen

125 different signatures on a tablecloth, captured the names revealing a fascinating mix of countries of origin of the personnel who maintained a key ariel for RAF Castletown, a WWII fighter airfield at the northern tip of the Scottish mainland
Location: Castletown Heritage Centre Harbour Rd, Castletown, Thurso KW14 8TG

Highland Objects Podcast Sixteen - John Rae's Fiddle

Orcadian Dr John Rae was the most successful of all Victorian Arctic explorers, undertaking four expeditions. He is known to have taken fiddles on his expeditions.  While on his travels music would have entertained everyone during the long Arctic nights.
Location: Stromness Museum  KW16 3DH

The Three Budhhas - Highland Objects Podcast Fifteen

Three lovely marble statuettes of Buddha. They are most beautiful works of art and a valuable contribution to Nairn Museum made by Captain Henry Augustus Rose of Ruallan in 1918.
Held at Nairn Museum, Nairn IV12 4EE

The Strange Plate - Highland Objects Podcast Fourteen

The Strange Plate is an engraved copper printing plate It was made by Sir Robert Strange in 1746 on the instruction of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, and was intended to produce bank notes during the Jacobite Rising to fund the Jacobite cause.
Object Location West Highland Museum Fort William PH33 6AJ

The Ballachulish Figure - Highland Objects Podcast Thirteen

The Ballachulish Figure is an almost life-size humanoid wooden figure, found in 1880 during peat cutting in advance of building work at Ballachulish Moss, Lochaber.
 
Location: Glencoe Folk Museum, Ballachulish PH49 4HS

The Soldiers Leap - Highland Objects Podcast Twelve

Magnificent wooded river gorge where, on 27 July 1689, the first shots in the Battle of Killiecrankie were fired in what was one of the goriest battles in Jacobite history. Soldier’s Leap is the spot where a Redcoat soldier leapt 18ft across the raging River Garry, fleeing the Jacobites.
 
As told by the Highland Historian

The Rosemarkie Pictish Cross - Highland Objects Podcast Eleven

This Pictish cross-slab is fabulous – for its craftsmanship, its symbols and its Christian messaging. There are so many stories to share and questions to ask about its quarrying, design and context. Even its shape is unusual – it’s wider at the top than the bottom, giving the viewer the optical illusion that it is actually perfectly rectangular.
Location: Groam House Museum IV10 8UF