Browse Items (1194 total)

Piece of Adolf Hitler's desk. Removed from the Bunker beneath the Chancellery in Berlin by Lt Col Richard Broad MC, Seaforth Highlanders. The desk had been broken in pieces by Russian solders in May 1945.

German binoculars taken by the 5th Bn Seaforth Highlanders in 1945.

Ammunition Pouch x 3. German equipment

Communication sped up throughout the twentieth century, but news wasn’t that new by the time it got to Shetland by sea. The wireless meant islanders were up-to-the minute by the 1930s. Radios ran on batteries that were periodically re-charged. Most…

Jaundice is a symptom, rather than a disease. Shetlanders used folk-remedies to try to cure the condition. One way was to drink water from a stream where three landlords’ estates met. The water was scooped with the big bowl, called a kapp, and the…

When off on a boat trip, people used this kind of box, known in Shetland as a bøst, to carry food or fishing flies. These boxes were made around Hordaland province, and imported in the 18th century as part of the islands’ trading links with coastal…

Corncrake birds lived in Shetland for thousands of years, nesting in cornfields. However, they have nearly disappered from the islands for over thirty years. People had come to use imported food and animal fodder, so farmers stopped growing oats and…

Around 1900 hundreds of Shetlanders left their native home. It was a time of hardship but also opportunity. People settled elsewhere in Britain, or further afield in the world. This doll belonged to a girl in a seaport where islanders settled as…

Traditional fishing gear had two main parts – a baited hook to catch the fish, and a weight to sink the line into the sea. This is a specialised sinker that people used where there was a very strong tide, where big fish could be caught. The pointed…

Tradional Shetland farmsteads had outbuildings connected to the house, so people could go through to the byre to tend to the cattle, even in the strongest winter gale. For centuries light came from fish-oil lamps. Once imported glass became common…

Whales are common in the North Atlantic, and since ancient times people have used their meat and oil. In regions with no trees, bones were fashioned into household items that would usully be made from timber; this handled cup is made from a backbone.…

Shetlanders wore knitted hats when off fishing, and the the multicoloured patterns contrasted with the brown oilskins and boots they wore. Visitors to the islands two hundred years ago were much taken with these vivid caps, and bartered them from the…

Chimpanzee skull from Bell Pettigrew Natural History Museum handling collection for mammology studies

Black Bear Skull - The Bell Pettigrew Museum Teaching Collection

Porpoise Skull - Bell Pettigrew Museum Teaching Collection

Polar bear skull from the collections in the Bell Pettigrew Natural History, part of the Museums of the University of St Andrews.

Through a Glass Darkly - Digitisation of the Bridges Collection (a collection of Cypriot antiquities held at the University of St Andrews). Funded by the Leventis Foundation. Project directors: Rebecca Sweetman (School of Classics) & Alison…

Collection of logo for use in the CUPIDO project

Film taken looking towards the tidal island of Start Point off Sanday. The first beacon was a masonry unlit tower. Then in 1806 a new lighthouse with a revolving light was established. Start Point lighthouse was painted with its black and white…

This image was taken on top of the ruined cairn at Whitemill Point showing part of the wreck the ‘Wanga’ which came ashore in 1939. The stretch of water is the North Ronaldsay Firth with a glimpse of North Ronaldsay on the horizon.

The Black Rock Jetty was built to transport mail and passengers by boat to and from North Ronaldsay. With the onset of the plane it was no longer put to use and is now in a state of disrepair.

This was taken in front of the Brickie Hut, a control room in World War II, for a dummy airfield on the Plain of Fidge. It over looks Cata Sand and onto to the sand dunes.

This is a reconstruction of the Burnt Mound which was re-excavated from the shore below Meur in the north of the island.

The Croft, whose inhabitants left in 1966, was taken over by the Heritage Group who, in 2011 started renovating the interior. The first image in of the ‘But’ end of the Croft and the second image is of the ‘Ben’ end. The original flag stone floors…

The Croft, whose inhabitants left in 1966, was taken over by the Heritage Group who, in 2011 started renovating the interior. The first image in of the ‘But’ end of the Croft and the second image is of the ‘Ben’ end. The original flag stone floors…

The B98 was in the Battle of Jutland in the First World War. Latterly it was using as the mail boat for the German Fleet interned at Scapa flow. then B98 arrived back in Orkney a day after the scuttling of the German fleet. it was boarded by the…

The Heritage Centre is situated in Lady Village in the formal Temperance Hall and was opened in May 2014. The main areas of display are Natural History, (nature on land, links and shore), Archaeology, (Sanday ‘archaeologically has the best landscape…

The Heritage Centre is situated in Lady Village in the formal Temperance Hall and was opened in May 2014. The main areas of display are Natural History, (nature on land, links and shore), Archaeology, (Sanday ‘archaeologically has the best landscape…

The Heritage Centre is situated in Lady Village in the formal Temperance Hall and was opened in May 2014. The main areas of display are Natural History, (nature on land, links and shore), Archaeology, (Sanday ‘archaeologically has the best landscape…

The Heritage Centre is situated in Lady Village in the formal Temperance Hall and was opened in May 2014. The main areas of display are Natural History, (nature on land, links and shore), Archaeology, (Sanday ‘archaeologically has the best landscape…

CEUT was formed in 1989 and has over 300 members and 50 active volunteers. In 2017 CEUT became a SCIO prior to purchasing Carinish Old School.