The McCrimmon Querns

          A quern (kwərn) is a simple hand mill used for grinding material consisting of two circular stones. The stones have notches in them for wooden handles to be placed allowing the upper stone to be rotated on the lower one. The most common use for a quern was for the grinding of grains to make flour for bread-making. This was considered a highly important tool as the daily bread of all families would depend on them. Whomever owned a pair would be highly respected in the community as most communities would only have one pair, so it was to be shared amongst everyone. As the querns became more popular implements, they would eventually be modernized to being animal powered for large quantity milling until more efficient flour mills powered by steam and wind replaced them.

          The museum has a pair of quern stones in its collection that have quite the history for a simple tool. These querns are made of a specific kind of metamorphic stone only quarried in Argyllshire, Scotland where they originated. These stones originally belonged to William Dubh Mackenzie, 5^th Earl of Seaforth, and were used at his camp to provide sustenance for his regiment in the Battle of Kintail, 1715. Querns were incredibly serviceable in military campaigns as quick bread or bannock could be made on site for the men, its said that the grains could be reaped, prepared for mill, ground and baked in bannock all within a half an hour! The querns were then used by a McCrimmon in a 1719 military campaign in Strascuile, Ross-shire, having much of the same function.

    

      They were then passed down the McCrimmon family until they reached Catherine McCrimmon as a part of her dowry when marrying Malcolm McCuaig. The couple emigrated from Glenelg, Scotland to Glengarry County in 1802 where they used them often in their pioneering life. They later gifted the querns to their son Angus McCuaig who kept them in his possession for over 75 years. The grandnephew of McCuaig then donated them to his alma mater of Queens University for their personal museum. Today, the querns, are housed at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum thanks to the efforts of Donald Fraser, Lynn McNab, and Peter Zuuring.

          Journeying from Scotland all they way to Glengarry County, these querns definitely carry a part of very important history with them wherever they travel.