Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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How much can a single object tell us about Scotland's history and its wider place in the world?
In the Ayrshire town of Kilwinning an event reunites two parts of just such an object - a lost medal and a silver arrow.
It is all part of a tradition which dates back hundreds of years and traces many big events.
In times gone by local lairds and landowners used to gather their armed men periodically so they could demonstrate they were fit and ready for battle should the need arise.
Those are the origins of an archery competition held, albeit with breaks, to this day in Kilwinning. It is known as the papingo shoot - an old word for parrot.
Competitors shoot from the foot of the town's abbey tower at a wooden pigeon, hanging on a pole from the tower more than 100ft up in the air.
"We stand directly underneath and shoot with old fashioned, old-style long bows," says Stuart Wilson, president of the Ancient Society of Kilwinning Archers (ASKA.)
"We shoot with blunted arrows to try to get the bird off the pole or as we would say - ding doon the doo."
The Archers believe they can trace the origins of the club back to the late 15th Century. The trophy associated with this competition has real historical tales to tell.
It is a serious bit of bling, a silver arrow dating from the 1720s, mounted on a later silver bow, with crossed arrows. It hangs heavily with winner's medals, in earlier days provided by those who managed the feat of shooting down the papingo.
Each has its own story like the one with no name from 1745 which was won by a young Jacobite. By 1746 when the medal was being hung on the trophy, the winner Charles Boyd was elsewhere.
Where ancient archers take a bow to history
Ding doon the doo?
In the Ayrshire town of Kilwinning an event reunites two parts of just such an object - a lost medal and a silver arrow.
It is all part of a tradition which dates back hundreds of years and traces many big events.
In times gone by local lairds and landowners used to gather their armed men periodically so they could demonstrate they were fit and ready for battle should the need arise.
Those are the origins of an archery competition held, albeit with breaks, to this day in Kilwinning. It is known as the papingo shoot - an old word for parrot.
Competitors shoot from the foot of the town's abbey tower at a wooden pigeon, hanging on a pole from the tower more than 100ft up in the air.
"We stand directly underneath and shoot with old fashioned, old-style long bows," says Stuart Wilson, president of the Ancient Society of Kilwinning Archers (ASKA.)
"We shoot with blunted arrows to try to get the bird off the pole or as we would say - ding doon the doo."
The Archers believe they can trace the origins of the club back to the late 15th Century. The trophy associated with this competition has real historical tales to tell.
It is a serious bit of bling, a silver arrow dating from the 1720s, mounted on a later silver bow, with crossed arrows. It hangs heavily with winner's medals, in earlier days provided by those who managed the feat of shooting down the papingo.
Each has its own story like the one with no name from 1745 which was won by a young Jacobite. By 1746 when the medal was being hung on the trophy, the winner Charles Boyd was elsewhere.
Where ancient archers take a bow to history
Ding doon the doo?
