The Knockando Knot is a 10 foot long wooden carving of a knotted length of yarn and can be found in front of the entrance of the Old Mill.
The piece was specially made by local sculptor Stuart Murdoch and donated by Stuart to the Mill after the restoration of the site in 2013.
The Knot was carved from a single piece of local Scots Wych elm and took several weeks to make. On the face of the sculpture is a hand-carved excerpt from the poem The Weaving of the Tartan written by 19th century poet Alice MacDonell.
The poem was penned as a comment on the Scottish Highlanders who were sent overseas to fight in the Crimean War, where they made up “the Thin Red Line”. MacDonell saw the binding of the tartan cloth as binding Scots to their native homeland. The word “woof” is an archaic word for weft.
Below is Alice MacDonell’s poem in full:
Woof well the strong threads, That bind their hearts to thine
In February of this year, the knot was taken away by Stuart for a spruce-up and is now back on site for all to enjoy.
Below are photos of the piece at different stages of refurbishment.
The sculpture taken from the Mill.
The knot restored and sanded down.
The piece after being oiled, fully restored and back in situ here at the Mill.
A huge thank you to Stuart for his hard work bringing the sculpture back to life!
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Visit the Mill and see the Knockando Knot in person!
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