Lamont Harp

Overview

The Lamont Harp — Scottish Gaelic Clàrsach Lumanach, (alternative names Caledonian Harp and Lude Harp) — is a Scottish wire-strung clarsach dating from the 15th century, presently exhibited at Edinburgh’s National Museum of Scotland. Together with the Queen Mary Harp (also at the National Museum of Scotland) and the Trinity College Harp (Trinity College Dublin), it is one of three surviving medieval Gaelic harps in the world. All three are thought to come from Argyll, south-west Scotland.

The instrument is somewhat larger than the Queen Mary Harp and built on a slightly heavier scale, but shares the basic Gaelic-harp design: a triangular wire-strung frame with a soundbox hollowed from a single block of wood.

Origin & History

The Lamont Harp is dated on construction style and decorative-work grounds to the 15th century. Its earliest documented owner is the Lamont family — one of the Argyll Highland clans, from which the instrument takes its modern name. The harp was presented to the Robertson family of Lude (in Perthshire) in the 1460-1464 window, as part of a dowry payment to Charles Robertson of Lude (or Charles Robertson of Clune, depending on the source).

The dowry transfer is one of very few documented cases of a medieval musical instrument changing households as a recorded property item, with both the approximate date and the marriage occasion preserved in family records. This suggests the harp was already by the mid-15th century an instrument of significant value and cultural status — an object suitable for inclusion in a noble marriage dowry on equal terms with land, livestock, and silver.

The harp remained at Lude for the next three and a half centuries, next to the Queen Mary Harp (which the Robertsons received in 1563 from Mary, Queen of Scots), forming a remarkable household concentration of two of the three surviving medieval Gaelic harps in a single Perthshire family. In 1805 both clarsachs were sent to Edinburgh; in 1880 they were deposited at the National Museum of Edinburgh (now the National Museum of Scotland) by John Stewart of Dalguise, where they have remained on display ever since.

Construction & Materials

The Lamont Harp is built from a single hollowed block of wood for the soundbox, with a separately fitted forepillar and neck. The standard Gaelic-harp wood combination — typically hornbeam or willow for the soundbox and a different wood for the structural frame — is preserved. Brass wire stringing is original to the design; approximately thirty strings would have been mounted, though the current configuration of strings on the museum exhibit is conservation-led rather than original.

The decorative work on the forepillar is characteristic of the Argyll-area workshops of the 15th century, with interlace carving and stylised animal motifs. Comparable decorative styles on the Queen Mary Harp and the Trinity College Harp support the proposed common geographic origin of all three surviving instruments.

The Lamont is somewhat larger than the Queen Mary Harp — it stands a bit taller and the soundbox is deeper — and on the basis of dimensions probably had a slightly lower fundamental pitch.

How It’s Played

The Gaelic clarsach is played seated, with the harp resting on the player’s left shoulder (opposite to modern concert-harp practice). Wire strings are plucked with the long fingernails of the right hand and damped with the fingertips of the left, producing the bell-like sustained tone characteristic of wire stringing. Continuous damping is essential — the wire strings’ overtones accumulate quickly and require active management to keep the texture clear.

The original Lamont harp playing technique was lost when the broader Gaelic-harp tradition died out in Scotland in the 18th century. The modern revival reconstructs technique from the surviving instruments, the small body of manuscript repertoire, the published Bunting collections (Irish, 1796-1840), and comparison with related living traditions. The original Lamont is not played; modern reconstructions of the medieval Scottish clarsach pattern are played by a small revival community.

Cultural Significance

The Lamont Harp is one of the central material survivals of the medieval Gaelic harp tradition that produced the court music of medieval Scotland and Ireland for at least four centuries. Alongside the Queen Mary Harp and the Trinity College Harp it constitutes the entire physical evidence base for what these instruments looked like and how they were built; the playing tradition itself was lost.

The harp’s history at Lude — next to the Queen Mary Harp from 1563 to 1805 — is itself a small case study in how musical instruments survived in the post-medieval Highland gentry households that preserved them through the centuries when the wider Gaelic harp tradition was disappearing. The 1789 publication of John Bowie’s collection of music from the Robertson-of-Lude harpers’ repertoire is one of the few documentary survivals of how the instruments were actually played in the late tradition.

Notable Examples & Recordings

• The instrument itself is on permanent display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
• Recording landmarks for the broader wire-strung Gaelic harp tradition: Ann Heymann, Siobhán Armstrong, Bill Taylor, Andrew Lawrence-King, the Historical Harp Society’s recorded archive.

Related Instruments

• Queen Mary Harp — the closely related Scottish counterpart at the same museum.
• Trinity College Harp — another of the three surviving medieval Gaelic harps, in Dublin.
• Celtic harp — the modern revival instrument descended from the medieval clarsach tradition.
• Pedal harp — the modern orchestral concert harp.
• Welsh triple harp — the related Welsh harp tradition.
• Cláirseach — the broader Irish term for the medieval Gaelic harp.
• Bull-headed lyre of Ur — a comparably significant museum-grade ancient string instrument.

Where to Hear It

The Lamont Harp is on permanent display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, next to the Queen Mary Harp. The harp is not played publicly. Recordings of the wire-strung Gaelic harp by Ann Heymann, Siobhán Armstrong, Bill Taylor, and others are available; the Edinburgh International Harp Festival regularly programmes revival clarsach repertoire.

• Wikipedia: Lamont Harp
• Wikidata: Lamont Harp (Q6482207)
• DBpedia: Lamont Harp
• National Museum of Scotland

Learning Resources

Modern reconstructions of medieval wire-strung Scottish clarsachs are built by Ardival Harps (Strathpeffer), David Kortier (Minnesota), and a small number of other specialist makers; instruments cost from approximately 3,000 to 8,000 USD. Ann Heymann’s Secrets of the Gaelic Harp (1988) is the central modern method; the Historical Harp Society publishes scholarly editions and pedagogical material. The Edinburgh International Harp Festival and the Scoil na gCláirseach summer school in Kilkenny are the central revival institutions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Lamont Harp displayed?
At the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, next to the Queen Mary Harp. Both are on permanent display.

How old is it?
Approximately 600 years — judged to date from the 15th century on the basis of construction style and decorative work.

How did it get its name?
From the Lamont family of Argyll, the harp’s earliest documented owners. The instrument was transferred to the Robertson family of Lude — as a marriage dowry between 1460 and 1464 and remained at Lude until 1805.

Is it ever played?
No. The original is preserved as a museum object only. Modern reconstructions of comparable medieval Scottish clarsachs are played by a small revival community.

How is it different from the Queen Mary Harp?
The Lamont is somewhat larger and would have produced a slightly lower fundamental pitch, but the two instruments share the same overall design, decorative style, and probable common Argyll origin. They are best understood as two surviving examples of a single late-medieval Scottish harp-making tradition.