Tarbat Discovery Centre

05/06/2026

🔍 Welcome to this week's Friday Find! Today we have this great photo of two people posing on a motorbike, most likely taken by the sea at Portmahomack in the 1930s.

We don't have much information on this one, though the lady on the back could be named Connie Mackay.

🏍 Comment below if you can tell us any more info!

04/06/2026

💬 It’s Museum Week, and today’s theme is ‘If objects could speak’. What better object for us to highlight than our very own ‘Brad Pict’?

👨 This is a facial reconstruction of an early Pict who died between 420-610AD and was found in a cist burial during the archaeological dig by York University. The well-preserved skeleton revealed this was a young man aged between 26-35, around 5ft 7” tall.

His skeleton showed signs of living a very active but hard life, with wear caused by wielding weapons, digging, and heavy lifting while living in a cold and damp climate. It is also known that he was left-handed and likely arrived in Portmahomack from elsewhere as a teenager.

It is remarkable that we can learn so much information about this person’s life hundreds of years ago purely from his skeleton. However, one thing we cannot know for certain is how this young man died. If he could talk perhaps we could learn what happened or even where he came from.

🤔 What would you ask this early Pict if he could speak?

04/06/2026

01/06/2026

🫶 It’s Volunteers Week, so we’d like to say a huge thank you to our incredible and dedicated team of volunteers. We are so grateful for their constant support to keep us running!

Of course we are always on the lookout for extra helping hands with lots of different roles available, such as:

• Front of house, welcoming visitors.
• Cataloguing group.
• Helping with events.

📧 All skills and new ideas are welcome so if you'd like to join our lovely team, pop in for a chat or email [email protected].

29/05/2026

🔍Welcome to this week’s Friday Find! Here we have this medieval annular brooch made of copper alloy with a lovely geometric decoration.

💎 Annular brooches such as this were used to fasten clothing, and fashionable around Europe from the 13th century. They were used by all social classes, and ranged from more ornate examples made of precious materials to plainer ones such as this.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Their use began to decline from the 1400s in most places except for the Highlands, where they continued to be popular and eventually became the larger ‘Highland brooch’ seen in the 16th-18th centuries.

22/05/2026

🔍 Welcome to this week's Friday Find! Our cataloguing group are currently reorganising our photo albums and came across this school photo from Tarbat Old Primary.

The only information we have is that is dates to around the 1920s and the teacher on the right is named Mr Ross. Can anyone recognise any faces here?

18/05/2026

🏛️ Today is International Museum Day, with the theme ‘Museums Uniting a Divided World’. In times of fragmentation and inequality throughout society, this year’s aim is to showcase museums as places where people can discover stories, objects, and each other with mutual respect. Museums can therefore act as bridges to unite diverse communities and foster connection across generations, borders and cultures.

💡 As spaces where we can learn about the past, museums can help transform the future by opening our minds to new ideas. Our collections show that people throughout history have always been connected across geographical, social and cultural divides.

Recently we have been thinking more about our future direction and how we can use our collections to help us become more sustainable going forward. This way we can continue to tell the story of the Tarbatness peninsula and all of our widespread connections for generations to come.

16/05/2026

🌠 Huge thanks to Denis for his illuminating and engaging talk on the astronomy of Tarbatness on Thursday night. We had a great turn out and it is safe to say everyone was in awe at the amazing phenomena happening right above our heads!

15/05/2026

🎙️ We were delighted to be featured on the recent episode of the Balangown Estate podcast, where host Sara interviewed our volunteers Willie and Rosie on all things TDC. Here are a couple of snippets discussing some notable objects, such as our Neolothic carved stone balls.

Listen to the full thing to learn everything you need to know about the dig, local legends, and the behind-the-scenes story of our collections.

🔗 Available here: https://www.balnagown.com/podcast/ and on Spotify, Apple and Amazon.

08/05/2026

🔍 Welcome to this week’s Friday Find! Today we have this new addition to our display, a Neolithic axe head dating back to around 4000 BC to 2400 BC.

This was found by John McRae on Tain beach. A polished axe head such as this would have taken a lot of time and effort. Therefore they were unlikely to have been used as tools and instead served a more decorative purpose. It is thought these indicated status and power as axes were crucial tools among farming communities so took on special importance. This example is possibly made of jadeite which comes from the Italian Alps, showing us how well-connected Neolithic societies were.

The axe head is now on display alongside our carved stone balls so pop in to have a look if you haven't seen it!