History
The Queen Mary Harp was presented to the harper Beatrix Gardyn of Banchory by Mary, Queen of Scots, in the 16th century, and was subsequently passed down into the Robertson family of Lude, in Perthshire. Lady Gardyn's son had a servant in 1588 called Anthony McEwan McChlairser ("son of the harper"), which provides a clue as to who might have played this clarsach. The last harpist to play the instrument is noted as John Robertson of Lude (died c. 1729); his repertory was preserved in the family and published by John Bowie in 1789. All three surviving Gaelic harps are considered to have been made in Argyll in South-West Scotland at some time in the 14th or 15th centuries.
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