Cool Finds

A Rare Medieval Hair-Styling Tool Was Found at Scotland’s Eilean Donan Castle

The artifact is part of a large assemblage of excavated artifacts recently acquired by National Museums Scotland

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

October 2, 2025

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At a 13th-century Scottish castle, researchers have excavated a medieval gravoir—a thin, pointed tool once used to style hair. The rare artifact is part of a cache of objects that reveal what daily life was like for the inhabitants of a powerful Gaelic stronghold.

The piece was found among a collection of other medieval artifacts at Eilean Donan castle, which occupies a small island at the juncture of three lochs in northern Scotland. First built in the early 1200s, the castle’s original purpose was to protect Scottish lands from invading Vikings. In the following centuries, the stronghold was broken down, repurposed and finally abandoned. Then, in 1911, a British officer purchased and rebuilt the castle, working from old architectural records.

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The gravoir is carved into the shape of a hooded person holding a book, according to a statement from National Museums Scotland, which commissioned the excavation. The tool is only the third artifact of its kind found in the United Kingdom, and it’s the first to be found in Scotland.

“The gravoir would have been used to part hair neatly and help to make elaborate hairstyles,” Alice Blackwell, senior curator of medieval archaeology and history at National Museums Scotland, tells BBC News’ Steven McKenzie and Andrew Thomson. “They are incredibly rare objects.”

Gravoirs originated in France, and complex hairstyles spread from there across Northern Europe in the 13th century, Blackwell says. Most discovered gravoirs are made of ivory, but the Eilean Donan piece was carved from red deer antler.

“What’s fascinating about the Eilean Donan gravoir is that it shows this connection to continental high fashion, but also rendered in a local material,” Blackwell tells BBC News.

More fashion-related objects were discovered on the castle grounds, like brooches, dress pins and small crucibles used to melt precious metals for jewelry-making. These join Eilean Donan’s large cache of metal objects created onsite in the 13th and 14th centuries. Per the statement, the castle boasts “one of the most important collections of medieval metalworking in the U.K.”

Other excavated artifacts include game pieces carved from bone, recycled pottery and an iron jaw harp. One of the world’s oldest instruments, the jaw harp is played by placing its metal tongs in one’s mouth and plucking its center piece with a finger, making a twanging sound. Researchers also discovered “buzz bones,” or animal bones with holes drilled through them, which were once twisted up on a string and released to make a humming noise. They might have been children’s toys or hunting lures.

Eilean Donan’s quintessentially Scottish image is “recognized around the world,” Blackwell says in the statement. It has appeared in classic movies like Highlander (1986) and The World Is Not Enough (1999). But historians know little about the lives of its medieval inhabitants, Blackwell says. National Museums Scotland commissioned the recent excavations to help illuminate the landmark’s human history.

“[The assemblage] allows us to imagine how the full social spectrum of people inside the castle walls spent their days, whether styling their hair, toiling in a smithy or making simple toys for children to play with,” Blackwell says. “It’s a privileged glimpse into life in medieval Scotland that we don’t often get.”

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Sonja Anderson is a daily correspondent for Smithsonian magazine who covers art, archaeology and culture, from newly discovered artifacts to the latest art heists.