Small piece of strap has tale to tell
I really wish objects could talk, or that we could invent some machine to reveal their stories.
You could say this tiny thing, featured in the picture, is bit of bling. It’s a decorative strapend possibly from a belt or horse fitting and dates roughly to anywhere between 1300 and 1400.
It was found in the King’s Park by metal detecting during Stirling Council improvement works.
We don’t know who dropped it or their status, but given where it was found, it has belonged to either someone employed by the Crown to work in the park or perhaps a person enjoying the park and its surroundings.
It might have been the property of a member of the royal family or their aristocratic guests.
However,if it is clothing and as it’s quite plain, we might imagine it was from a worker in the park Although, if it was a horse fitting it’s more likely to be from the elite.
It was definitely dropped though and was unlikely the person who had it didn’t notice it was missing until they got home and changed.
That date range is very important and spans both Scottish Wars of Independence, so it could have belonged to anyone of the thousands of different people in the armies of William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, Edward I or Edward II. The English controlled Stirling Castle twice over this period.
It lay in the ground for over 600 years and was repeatedly walked over, ploughed over, impacted by wind, rain, frost and ice; ignored and forgotten.
A wee survivor with a very big story that we will never, ever learn. Under Scots law it’s the property of the Queen, as all metal detection finds in Scotland are, and the final part of its journey will be to the wonderful Smith Museum and Art Gallery where it will be preserved for ever more with so many other Stirling’s treasures.