Quern stones from the Embo Street area

Date Added: 05 September 2019 Year: 1890 Institution Name: dnhhl Cat No: ◀ | 2019_044_02 | ▶ Picture No: 14145

A pair of quern stones from the Embo Street area, found by the donor's father when working in the forestry. The base stone is 540 mm diameter and 60 mm deep and the top stone 420 mm diameter and 55 mm deep.

Dimensions: Diameter 540 mm depth60 mm

Groups: Hidden Gems

2 Comments

I saw two such stones, but a bit smaller, being used as ornaments at the entrance to a house in Embo in the 1940s. I was told that in English the lower stone was the quern stone and the upper stone the hand stone and the two were used in combination to grind grain or other foods. The smaller hole in the hand stone was used to fix a wooden handle to allow it to be turned to achieve the grinding motion while the quern stone remained stationary. While the larger hole in the centre of the hand stone was used to allow grain or whatever was being milled to be fed between the stones during the hand grinding process.
I see from the Web that Highland families when emigrating, or being expelled, from the Highland homes sometimes carried their heavy quern stones with them to their new homes in Canada. This shows the very important part such stones played in their then culinary lives.
Comment left on 10 September 2019 at 03:18 by Kenneth Mackay Many thanks for the detailed description. Administrator

What type of rock is the hand stone made from? - Comment left on 24 November 2019 at 18:09 by John Angus The stone is granite. Administrator

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