Pin

This bronze pin was found in a woman's grave at Carn nan Bharraich on Oronsay in the Inner Hebrides. She was buried between 850 and 900 with a pair of Scandinavian oval brooches, this bronze pin, a needle case and other objects, now fragmentary.

The ringed pin has a round movable head which is decorated with symmetrically placed pellets. A similar one was found in a 9th century Viking grave outside Dublin.

Ringed pins are a type of dress pin, often with decoration on the heads. They are an Irish type of pin which was adopted by Vikings, especially those living in western Europe. Examples occur in bronze and silver.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-100-043-815-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  X.IL 331
• Date: Between 850 and 900
  
• Material: Bronze; annular movable head; ornamented with symmetrically placed pellets
  
• Dimensions: 5.25" L
  
• What:
• Subject:
• Who:
• Where: Scotland, Argyll, Oronsay, Carn nan Bharraich
  
• Event:
• Description: Bronze pin with annular moveable head, ornamented with symmetrically placed pellets, from Carn nan Bharraich, Oronsay, Argyll
  
• References:
  • Graham-Campbell, James and Batey, Colleen E. Vikings in Scotland. An Archaeological Survey. Edinburgh: University Press, 1998, pp 114-6. 
  • Grieg, Sigurd. Viking Antiquities in Scotland (=Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and Ireland, Part II, ed. by Haakon Shetelig). Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1940, pp. 42-4. 
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