#shetland — Public Fediverse posts

“A hideous and intolerable eyesore”: the thread about the Meadow’s missing Jawbone Arch

The Jawbone Arch from the Meadows was in the news this week, as a local historian (not this one!) found himself ejected from a meeting in the City Chambers for repeatedly pressing a council committee on the subject, the arch having been dismantled over “safety concerns” and “for restoration” almost a decade ago, in 2014.

Jawbone Walk, The Meadows, Edinburgh. Kevin Maclean, 2009. © Edinburgh City Libraries

These bones, a pair of jaws from “arctic whales” are a remnant of the summer 1886 International Exhibition of Industry, Science & Art which was located on a grand, temporary, pavilion in the West Meadows.

The 1886 pavilion of the International Exhibition on the West Meadows, a temporary building believe it or not! Peter Fletcher Riddell bequest to National Galleries Scotland

They formed the frame of a fishing net tent over the exhibit stall that showcased the craft of the Zetland & Fair Isle Knitters. The stall was organised by Katherine Schoor and Barbara Muir, of Schoor & Muir of Lewrick, as an exhibit of “women’s industries” to promote the wares of the traditional Shetland shawl-knitting craft which was suffering in the domestic market on account of imports of Swiss and German products. The wealthy, eccentric and benevolent George MacThomas Thoms, Sheriff of Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, had arranged for six Shetland women to accompany the stall, under the supervision of Mrs Muir.

Stall 1913, the “Zetland & Fair Isle Knitters”. That may be Mrs Muir standing behind the six knitters./ Photo from “Marchmont, Sciennes & the Grange”, Malcolm Cant, 2001

The women came to Edinburgh for a month at a time, before a relief was sent. Three of them came from Fair Isle and produced and exhibited gloves, stockings and caps in hand-dyed local wools. These were based on patterns handed down over generations and taught to their foremothers by shipwreck survivors of the Spanish Armada. It was noted at the time that their gloves matched those still for sale in the market in Valencia. Mrs Muir was joined by 63-year old Elizabeth Mouat, who had gained national fame a few months previous when she found herself abandoned on the Fair Isle mail boat Columbine in a storm that blew her all the way to Norway over 8 days. The vessels crew of three and its other, male, passenger having been separated from it when trying to rescue a man knocked overboard. Betty, a spinner and hand knitter, brought with her the shawl she had worn when on the Columbine.

Elizabeth Mouat alone at sea on the “Columbine”. Illustrated London News, 1886

That stall was one of the talking points of the whole exhibition. The whalebones had been provided by a Mrs Arbuthnott, probably the Hon. Mrs Arbuthnott of Arbuthnott House, Kincardineshire. After the exhibition closed at the end of October, it took over 3 months to dismantle, during which time the West Meadows were closed. In January, Sheriff Thoms wrote to the Town Council to offer up the bones with a view to placing them on the walkway across them when it reopened.

London Illustrated News, 1886 Exhibition, interior of the entrance foyer

Not everyone was happy with this idea. The editor of the Edinburgh Evening Dispatch wrote they were “a quantity of old jawbones, growing mouldy” and had been set up as “a perpetual reminder of the vanity and fleeting nature of human pleasures“. They were “unsightly and gruesome crossbones“. A South Sider replied in support, they were “an eyesore caused by this ungainly structure… a hideous outrage on South Side residenters.”“A. Ratepayer wrote they were “a hideous and intolerable eyesore… gaunt, dirty-coloured decaying relics of a departed Jonah-swallower“. An Astonished One, who had been out of town for some time, had returned to “indignation that such a hideous eyesore should be thus thrust before the residents in [this] part of the city… Is the whole thing a ghastly joke by the council?… It would be more appropriate and much more interesting to erect an archway with the jawbones of the asses who made and supported the proposal“. A. Ratepayer concurred and suggested whichever councillor had accepted them should have “set them up at his own garden gate“.

But the apoplexy of the South Side Green Ink Society wasn’t long lived, and by late September 1887 the jawbones were erected as an arch over the pathway, which the newspapers had already taken to calling Jawbone Walk, a name that has stuck and become official. A metal band around each reads “From Zetland and Fair Isle Knitting Stand, Edinburgh Exhibition, 1886“.

Melville Drive – entrance to ‘Jawbone Walk’. J. R. Hamilton, 1914. © Edinburgh City Libraries

The title of “Jawbone and the Air Rifle” (“a nightmarish folklore tale of a poacher bored by a decades-old marriage who escapes by roaming the local countryside at night hunting prey”) by Mark E. Smith from The Fall was reputedly inspired by him walking beneath them. The jawbones were an ever-present landmark until their removal in 2014, which was only to have been for a year. But experience has told us that Edinburgh’s public monuments, such as sculptures and clocks, have a nasty habit of being officially removed for a short while only to disappear for multiples of years.

Threadinburgh wishes Graeme Cruickshank, whom I have had the chance to meet on a few occasions at the Old Edinburgh Club and can vouch for being a thoroughly lovely man, every success with this bone he has decided to pick with the council and its officers who have taken it upon themselves to decide that there is no local interest or appetite for replacing or restoring the jawbones.

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The thread about the Jawbone Arch; 127 years on the Meadows but missing over a decade

The Jawbone Arch from the Meadows was in the news this week, as a local historian (not this one!) found himself ejected from a meeting in the City Chambers for repeatedly pressing a council committee on the subject, the arch having been dismantled over “safety concerns” and “for restoration” almost a decade ago, in 2014.

Jawbone Walk, The Meadows, Edinburgh. Kevin Maclean, 2009. © Edinburgh City Libraries

These bones, a pair of jaws from “arctic whales” are a remnant of the summer 1886 International Exhibition of Industry, Science & Art which was located on a grand, temporary, pavilion in the West Meadows.

The 1886 pavilion of the International Exhibition on the West Meadows, a temporary building believe it or not! Peter Fletcher Riddell bequest to National Galleries Scotland

They formed the frame of a fishing net tent over the exhibit stall that showcased the craft of the Zetland & Fair Isle Knitters. The stall was organised by Katherine Schoor and Barbara Muir, of Schoor & Muir of Lewrick, as an exhibit of “women’s industries” to promote the wares of the traditional Shetland shawl-knitting craft which was suffering in the domestic market on account of imports of Swiss and German products. The wealthy, eccentric and benevolent George MacThomas Thoms, Sheriff of Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, had arranged for six Shetland women to accompany the stall, under the supervision of Mrs Muir.

Stall 1913, the “Zetland & Fair Isle Knitters”. That may be Mrs Muir standing behind the six knitters./ Photo from “Marchmont, Sciennes & the Grange”, Malcolm Cant, 2001

The women came to Edinburgh for a month at a time, before a relief was sent. Three of them came from Fair Isle and produced and exhibited gloves, stockings and caps in hand-dyed local wools. These were based on patterns handed down over generations and taught to their foremothers by shipwreck survivors of the Spanish Armada. It was noted at the time that their gloves matched those still for sale in the market in Valencia. Mrs Muir was joined by 63-year old Elizabeth Mouat, who had gained national fame a few months previous when she found herself abandoned on the Fair Isle mail boat Columbine in a storm that blew her all the way to Norway over 8 days. The vessels crew of three and its other, male, passenger having been separated from it when trying to rescue a man knocked overboard. Betty, a spinner and hand knitter, brought with her the shawl she had worn when on the Columbine.

Elizabeth Mouat alone at sea on the “Columbine”. Illustrated London News, 1886

That stall was one of the talking points of the whole exhibition. The whalebones had been provided by a Mrs Arbuthnott, probably the Hon. Mrs Arbuthnott of Arbuthnott House, Kincardineshire. After the exhibition closed at the end of October, it took over 3 months to dismantle, during which time the West Meadows were closed. In January, Sheriff Thoms wrote to the Town Council to offer up the bones with a view to placing them on the walkway across them when it reopened.

London Illustrated News, 1886 Exhibition, interior of the entrance foyer

Not everyone was happy with this idea. The editor of the Edinburgh Evening Dispatch wrote they were “a quantity of old jawbones, growing mouldy” and had been set up as “a perpetual reminder of the vanity and fleeting nature of human pleasures“. They were “unsightly and gruesome crossbones“. A South Sider replied in support, they were “an eyesore caused by this ungainly structure… a hideous outrage on South Side residenters.”“A. Ratepayer wrote they were “a hideous and intolerable eyesore… gaunt, dirty-coloured decaying relics of a departed Jonah-swallower“. An Astonished One, who had been out of town for some time, had returned to “indignation that such a hideous eyesore should be thus thrust before the residents in [this] part of the city… Is the whole thing a ghastly joke by the council?… It would be more appropriate and much more interesting to erect an archway with the jawbones of the asses who made and supported the proposal“. A. Ratepayer concurred and suggested whichever councillor had accepted them should have “set them up at his own garden gate“.

But the apoplexy of the South Side Green Ink Society wasn’t long lived, and by late September 1887 the jawbones were erected as an arch over the pathway, which the newspapers had already taken to calling Jawbone Walk, a name that has stuck and become official. A metal band around each reads “From Zetland and Fair Isle Knitting Stand, Edinburgh Exhibition, 1886“.

Melville Drive – entrance to ‘Jawbone Walk’. J. R. Hamilton, 1914. © Edinburgh City Libraries

The title of “Jawbone and the Air Rifle” (“a nightmarish folklore tale of a poacher bored by a decades-old marriage who escapes by roaming the local countryside at night hunting prey”) by Mark E. Smith from The Fall was reputedly inspired by him walking beneath them. The jawbones were an ever-present landmark until their removal in 2014, which was only to have been for a year. But experience has told us that Edinburgh’s public monuments, such as sculptures and clocks, have a nasty habit of being officially removed for a short while only to disappear for multiples of years.

Threadinburgh wishes Graeme Cruickshank, whom I have had the chance to meet on a few occasions at the Old Edinburgh Club and can vouch for being a thoroughly lovely man, every success with this bone he has decided to pick with the council and its officers who have taken it upon themselves to decide that there is no local interest or appetite for replacing or restoring the jawbones.

If you have found this useful, informative or amusing, perhaps you would like to help contribute towards the running costs of this site – including keeping it ad-free and my book-buying budget to find further stories to bring you – by supporting me on ko-fi. Or please do just share this post on social media or amongst friends.

These threads © 2017-2025, Andy Arthur.

NO AI TRAINING: Any use of the contents of this website to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.

#1886InternationalExhibition #Edinburgh #exhibition #Marchmont #Meadows #Monument #Shetland