Accession Number

983.684

Description

A wooden shillelagh with a three-leaf clover carved on its knobbed end. The shaft has a small drilled hole near the handle end through which passes a cream-coloured woven cord.

Narrative

A shillelagh (pronounced "shi+lay+lee") is a wooden walking stick or club with a knob at one end of Irish origin.   

This particular shillelagh was collected to aid in the presentation of the Dunsmuir family story in period room settings. In September, 1891, Craigdarroch resident Jessie Sophia Dunsmuir married Sir Richard Musgrave, 5th Baronet of Tourin, Co. Waterford, Ireland. She visited her mother at the Castle regularly after moving to Ireland, and might have brought a shillelagh to her mother as a souvenir.

History of Use

This shillelagh was donated to Craigdarroch in the early 1980s by a member of Victoria's Pendray family, prominent 19th Century and early 20th Century manufacturers of soaps and paints.

Date

circa 1890

Material

Wood

Technique

Carved; Varnished

Country of Origin

Ireland