For a chance to win a Buddo Bundle, snap a #BestBuddoSelfie of your best Buddo impression this Feb half-term! 😲 1️⃣Take a selfie during your visit to Stromness Museum. 2️⃣Post it to Insta, FB or BlueSky tagging @stromnessmuseum.bsky.social & using #BestBuddoSelfie 3️⃣You'll be included in the prize draw.

An annual reminder - much like a dug isnae jist fir Xmas, Scots isnae jist fir Burns Night! Git yaisin it ilka day! No shair where tae stert? Yin word at a time! 😊

🌿🔥 “Gie me ae spark o' Nature's fire, That's a' the learning I desire.” – Robert Burns Through play in nature, children learn by exploring, imagining, and problem-solving. Let’s keep the spark alive by protecting time, space and opportunities for children to play outdoors.

Who Speaks Scots Where: What Crowdsourcing Reveals 2 Feb @edfuturesinstitute.bsky.social – free Jennifer Smith & Brian Aitken present findings from a new crowdsourced resource – Speak for Yersel – which sets out to map dialect use in Scots throughout Scotland www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/who-speaks...

This very special building is believed to be the only medieval Carmelite church that is still in use anywhere in the British Isles and is our #ScottishChurchOfTheWeek. This remarkable 15th century Gothic church, in South Queensferry, was once part of a Carmelite friary, founded around 1330. 🧵1/3

Grab your brick separators LEGO fans in Ayrshire - the #LEGOBuilders are coming your way! They'll need your help to rebuild the iconic #ArtDeco Viking Cinema in #Largs on 9&10 Feb. Spaces go like hotcakes - so dinnae hing aboot! #LearningWithHES

I’m launching a new podcast today called The Carrying Stream, a space for long-form conversations about Scottish culture, literature, and ideas. 🎙️ The first three episodes are now live (link below). If you’re curious, you’re very welcome to follow along.

If you are joining us for an interview tomorrow please do observe the trigger warning before entering the room. #LookAfterYourself #MuseumWellBeing

#museum30 Day 29 prompt is #water - without which Stanley Mills would never have been established, as the mills drew the power for it’s machines from the River Tay. Oor hands-on water interactive, which illustrates how the water powered the mill, is popular with bairns - and adults!!

Ok @magnifyzoology.bsky.social - 1st time in 5 years of #museum30 you’ve got me stumped with a prompt! Cannae find a connection atween #mural & Stanley Mills! So here’s an image of a mural fae yin of ma learning projects. St Tenew on a Glesgae gable end thit we yaised for the Thaney’s Haven project.

#museum30 Day 27 prompt is #achievement Ou were fair chuffed this year when oor Stories in Scots at Stanley Mills project wi the P2/3 bairns fae Stanley PS was shortlisted for a Scots Language Award. It was great fir aw the effort pit in by the bairns & cless teacher tae be recognised. 😊

#museum30 Day 26 prompt is #moving Moving materials, whether raw or finished goods, was integral to the cotton process. Stanley Mills has all sorts of objects that were created to move cotton from yin part of the mill to another - from slubbing cans on wheels to hide skin bogeys!

#museum30 Day 25 prompt is #danger The first workers at Stanley Mills were Gaelic speakers. It was a dangerous (Gaelic = cunnart) working environment: moving machine parts to cotton dust, noise to risk of fires. This panel from yin of oor community textile projects was created by Murthly WI.

#Museum30 Day 24 prompt is #specialist From drama to storytelling, historic re-enactment to craftwork, specialists have been integral to bringing Stanley Mills history to life for learners, creating memorable and engaging experiences for all ages.

#museum30 Day 23 prompt is #animal At the restored hydro scheme at Stanley Mills, an escape ladder’ was installed to help otters get out the modern, steeper lade. This otter, holding a fish, was knitted by the Stanley WI ladies as part of oor Community Textile Project.

#museum30 Day 22 prompt is #walk the majority of the millworkers at Stanley Mills lived in Stanley village - which was created for the workers. When the bell rang to start work, they would walk doon mill brae often arm in airm . At the end of the day, it must have been a thought to walk back up!

#museum30 Day 20 is #careers ou’ve joined up with Springboard Scotland in the past to host careers events at Stanley Mills, focussed on hospitality, heritage & tourism with students learning a host of different skills.

#museum30 Day 20 is #Diary. James Boswell, biographer & diarist, records meeting up with George Dempster MP (an early investor & key figure at Stanley Mills) & another Scot, Andrew Erskine, in London to see a new Tragedy called Elvira's - though they'd already decided to damn the play in advance!

#museum30 Day 19 prompt is #magic. There used to be ‘fairy ring’ behind Stanley Mills. They were said to be magical places where fairies danced in a circle. If you stepped in yin, you’d be made to dance til exhaustion. This millworker clearly wasnae feart! Rings are caused by an underground fungus.

Brissit brawnis, and brokin banis, 🚑 Stryf, discorde, and waistie wanis, 🚔 Crukit in eild, syne halt, withal, 🤕 Thir are the bewties of the fute-ball. ⚽ “The Bewties of the Fute-ball” (anon) Middle Scots poem, c.15–16th century, from the Maitland manuscripts (with added emojis) Also heart attacks

#Museum30 Day 18 prompt is #photographs There‘a no many photaes of folk who lived or worked at HES properties. But ou have them for Stanley Mills! Glass plates showing the construction of the hydro scheme in the 1920s were donated by the Culbert family, many of whom worked at the mill.

#Museum30 Day 17 prompt is #making Stanley Mills made predominantly cotton products throughout its 225 year history. Specialising in niche products ensured it outlived its competitors into the late 20th century. These included narrow tape for cigarette factories & heavy duty belting for factories.

#museum30 Day16 prompt is #Last12Months has involved lots of community engagement at Stanley Mills, starting with oor mill themed tree at Stanley PS Xmas Tree Fair & including a LEGO mosaic for Mills weekend, a Pop Up display, Soup Club talks & visit, & activities for National Play Day & Maths Week.

#museum30 Day 15 prompt is #kindness During WWII, Stanley Mills took 3p a week from the wages of millworkers like Nell Hannah, for Comfort Boxes for troops. Nell nominated a man she yince dated who had joined the navy. He received a box, it led to a marriage proposal (which was accepted!) 😊

#museum30 Day 14 prompt is #heavy . The design of the Bell Mill at Stanley Mills is all aboot process, with some of the biggest & heaviest machinery on the lowest floors. Yin of the heaviest machines is the opening machine which broke up cotton - it’s now in oor Artefact Room - on the 4th floor!!

He also picked up a braw pair of socks when he was there. For his feet… 😄🍏🧦

#museum30 Day 13 prompt is #background This is Hamish, yin of oor knitted soft toy dolls produced by the Stanley WI ladies as part of a community textile project at Stanley Mills. He went to Finland as part of a storytelling exchange! Here he is with Vapriikki museum in Tampere in the background!

#museum30 Day 12 theme is #digital Yin of the first learning resources developed at Stanley Mills, back in 2008, was digital. But as ou aw ken, digital technology moves quickly, and the software used to create (and support) it became obsolete - much like the waterwheel technology used at the mill!

#museum30 Day 11 prompt is #reflection and taking it literally, this iconic shot of Stanley Mills, in Perthshire has the Bell Mill reflected in the water in the lade.

The day's #museum30 prompt is #rainbow. There's nae end of photaes of rainbows ower historic castles - but rainbows ower Stanley Mills arelike hen's teeth! However ou've run some fab sessions for Rainbow Guide units ower the years, playing traditional games, sharing stories and trying weavin. ☺️

#museum30 Day 9 theme is #map This close up is from a map of Perthshire created by James Stobie, factor to the Duke of Atholl, in 1787 - the year Stanley Mills opened. You can see the Bell Mill on the banks of the Tay and Stanley House to the right. It notes the names of local landowners too.

#museum30 Day 8 (back in sync efter a double Day 5!). The theme is #stitch . Oor Community Tapestry panel is displayed in the Stanley Mills visitor centre. Made by 117 folk of aw ages, it has 13 different types of stitches and represents Stanley's links to the world & the world's links to Stanley.

#museum30 Day 6 theme is #box . Back in the early 1800s, James Craig, the manager at Stanley Mills, received advice on running the cotton mill from David Dale & Robert Owen at New Lanark. They received boxes of salmon in return! Nowadays salmon boxes are used to store oor artefacts!

#museum30 Day 5 is #clay. The Company set up to establish Stanley Mills, along with the inhabitants of Stanley village, were given permission by the Duke of Atholl to extract clay from local pits and to make bricks. The Bell Mill at Stanley is an early example of a brick building in Perthshire.

#museum30 Day 5 #sharing Yin of the joys of the learning programme at Stanley Mills has been involving the former workers. This is former mechanic John Robertson sharing his stories of working in the carding room in the 1960s with families as part of a Mills, Machines & Mechanics activity day.

#museum30 Day 4 #sketchbook Oor learning programme at Stanley Mills doesnae jist make use of the inside of the mill building. Oor Art Cart included a Make a Stanley Sketchbook option for families to sketch the amazing views of oor riverside setting and beautiful woodland. ✏️

The Day 3 theme of #museum30 is #eyes . This is the only shuttle ou have at Stanley Mills. 'Kissing the shuttle’ involved weavers sucking thread through the 'eye' of a shuttle (the small white circlular hole) when the pirn was replaced. This unhygenic practice was used in UK mills til c1952!

Hot on the heels of #museum30 Day 1, here's #museum30 Day 2 - #signage ! Back in the day, the machines at Stanley Mills might break doon - nowadays, its interactive technology! Ou've leaned into it wi oor signage for just sic occasions. ☺️

Nearly missed #museum30! Guid job it’s only Day 2! Heres’s Day 1 #introduction tho. I’m a learning officer wi an obsession wi waterwheels & a passion for Stanley Mills, a former 18th century cotton mill on the banks of the River Tay in Perthshire, now a visitor centre with fantastic stories to tell.

It was great to be back! Ou loved meeting & working with some terrific LEGO builders. Everybody who built an object should be really proud. The displays look braw! And whae kent it was possible to build a floral hat fae LEGO bricks! 😁

Sweet Patootee are one of my favourite clients (and I’m lucky I have many!) but they have created this wonderful film about a really neglected part of the WWII story and how it impacted the Caribbean and therefore UK. #WWII #🏛️🎓 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

📢 Registrations are open for this year’s Intangible Cultural Heritage conference on 14th November at Perth Theatre. This event is for anyone interested in ICH or living heritage, including practitioners and people working for culture/heritage organisations. Register here: buff.ly/isnzBbN

For #ScottishMuseumsDay (3 Oct) we’ve rounded up some of our favourite #MathsWeekScot museum activities from across the country! mathsweek.scot/news/scottis... #mathstoday #UKMathsChat #kidsinmuseums #tmwyk

Very excited to welcome author David MacPhail to the National Museum of Scotland this morning for “Legends, Myths and Maths: A Journey Through Scotland” - exploring the myths, legends, wildlife and landscapes of Scotland, with hidden maths. #MathsWeekScot #KidsBooks #tmwyk #UKMathsChat #MathsToday

For families today (26 Sep) we have #MathsWeekScot events & trails in Anstruther, Coatbridge, Dingwall, Dundee, East Kilbride, East Lothian, Edinburgh, Fort William, Hawick, Lerwick, Livingston, Motherwell, Muir of Ord, Rosemarkie, St Andrews & Stanley Mills! Details at bit.ly/MWSFamilyEve...

Right up there as yin ae ma favourite films 😊

Open Day | FREE Entry | 20 Sep 11am kids crafts | 2pm building tour | spinning demo | treasure hunt #DoorsOpenDays #HIClimateFest #KidsInMuseums #FamilyFriendly

Calling all Lego lovers and anyone who runs a Lego Club! There's lots of maths involved in building with #Lego. With our new Lego Challenge Cards you can take it one step further. Download your free cards at mathsweek.scot/news/finn-fi... #MathsWeekScot #MathsWeekScotland #MathsToday #UKMathsChat

Tweed: conversations I 27 Sept, Galashiels. Free, ticketed. A session of poetry reading, riverside conversation & printmaking in celebration of TWEED, a new full-length poem in Scots by Borders-based poet Craig Aitchison www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tweed-conv...

#UrbanPrehistory @ Stockholm’s Tunnelbana stations @urbanprehistorian.bsky.social