Sample Our Collection

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2025.50.2

an Iron Age mortar

Found by divers Michael Sharpe, Charles Guest and Simon Arnold from North of Scotland Archaeology Society (NOSAS) in September 2023 in Loch Bhassapol on the south side of Eilean Àirde na Brathan, 15m offshore in 1m of water.

From Dr Fraser Hunter’s report:

Large ovoid cobble (stone not identified) with a pecked oval hollow (60 x 70 mm) centrally on the flattest face. The base is pecked but part of the sides are worn smooth, suggesting use as a mortar.

Also an Iron Age quern fragment at 2025.50.1

see entry at tireeandcollarchaeology.org

With the permission of His Grace the Duke of Argyll

 

2025.50.1

Fragment of an Iron Age bun quern

Found by divers Michael Sharpe, Charles Guest and Simon Arnold from North of Scotland Archaeology Society (NOSAS) in September 2023 in Loch Bhassapol on the south side of Eilean Àirde na Brathan, 15m offshore in 1m of water.

From Dr Fraser Hunter’s report:

The quern fragment represents around a quarter of the upper stone of a bun quern. It has been heavily used: the lower surface is worn to the point where it is so smooth that it would need re-dressed to be functional, and there are two handle sockets on the upper surface, the outer (less worn) one replacing the heavily worn inner one.

Bun querns are an Iron Age type, appearing (rarely) around the 4th century BC and persisting through the earlier first millennium AD.

Also an Iron Age mortar at 2025.50.2

see entry at tireeandcollarchaeology.org

With the permission of His Grace the Duke of Argyll

 

2024.11.1

Type R1155 Radio receiver from a Halifax aircraft from RAF Tiree

with a set of DLR No.5 Headphones

Purchased at auction by An Iodhlann 6 June 2024 and returned to Tiree. With label, ” ‘found its way into the kitbag’ of an airman returning to the mainland just after the war had ended!” Originally donated to Mike Hughes by Flt Sgt Les Cobb, 518 Squadron, Tiree (1943-45) before or during 2000.

2024.4.1

An RAF inflight auxiliary lamp from RAF Tiree. Used by the navigator or radio operator.

Plugs in to the aircraft’s 24V supply via the wind out twin-flex cable. There is a foldable winder to rewind the cable.

Donated by Donald Brown of Vaul.

2023.16.1

Large, ornately framed oil painting of Hugh MacDiarmid (1846-1928), known locally as Am Baillidh Dubh / the Black Factor, for his part in evoking Tiree’s ‘land war’ in 1886. The portrait was painted by the established artist Duncan MacGregor Whyte (1866-1953) in around 1922. MacGregor Whyte built The Studio at Balevullin. For more detailed information, see our exhibition material.

2023.15.2

Postcard sent from the Isle of Tiree to a Miss E. Nisbit, of Giffnock, Renfrewshire, ca 1950. The image is an ariel photograph of Scarinish and is in sepia. The handwriting is faded, so the name of the sender is unclear, but the surname appears to be McColl. The content is also difficult to read, but there is talk of the weather, typically, sunshine and gales. The photographic image was taken by Wm. Thomson of Fort William. Two 1D postage stamps feature King George VI, dating the postcard to his reign (1936-1952).

2023.15.1

Four colour photographs (3 of them very similar) of the tulip fields at Hynish, Isle of Tiree. The photographs clearly show the location of the bulb fields, with the Lighthouse Keeper’s cottages appearing in one and Greenhill in the other three. The images also show groups of between 3 and 4 individuals, presumably, pickers, attending to the flowers.

 

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