CD Pròiseact Thiriodh CD-SA1968-35.
Donald Sinclair (Dòmhnall Chaluim Bhàin) of Balephuil talks about meeting a Barra bard, playing board games, sings six Gaelic songs, talks about the meaning of some Tiree words, sings a love song, talks about poverty, paying the miller with flour, herring fishing, second sight, the use of querns and kilns, the mill as social centre and sings a grinding song and a rowing song.
Mini-disk SA1868/35.
Donald Sinclair (Dòmhnall Chaluim Bhàin) of Balephuil talks about meeting a Barra bard, playing board games, sings six Gaelic songs, talks about the meaning of some Tiree words, sings a love song, talks about poverty, paying the miller with flour, herring fishing, second sight, the use of querns and kilns, the mill as social centre and sings a grinding song and a rowing song.
Bottom section of hand quern.
Bottom section of hand quern from Gott.
Saddle quern found in Moss.
Courtesy of Catriona McLeod
Saddle querns are the most ancient and widely used type of quern-stone. This one was found in Moss in the mid-1980s and may date back to Neolithic times. It was used with a rubbing stone held in the hand, a process that crushed the grain rather than ground it.
Considered women’s work, preparing grain using a saddle quern would have taken many hours and placed great strain on the body, particularly the toes, knees, hips and lower back. They continued in use into the medieval period and were superseded by rotary querns.
Turnbull, in a report on Tiree written in 1768, wrote that meal was made ‘with querns or hand mills which appears to be an expensive and troublesome method. Two women at once, or sometimes three, are commonly employed. By this means there is so much of their time taken up that it greatly retards them from other industry.’
Black and white photograph of Cathy Gunn`s mother, Eilidh MacNally, Eilidh MacDonald and Kate MacDonald.
Balephuil, 1953. L-R: Mrs MacKay (Cathy Gunn`s mother), Eilidh MacNally, Eilidh MacDonald and Kate MacDonald. Note the rotary quern at the door.
