iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

From now on this is the only way I will travel

A green Lister model autotruck, a three wheeled motorised truck with wooden platform for moving cotton bales.

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

An annual reminder - much like a dug isnae jist fir Xmas, Scots isnae jist fir Burns Night! Git yaisin it ilka day! No shair where tae stert? Yin word at a time! 😊

001

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Grab your brick separators LEGO fans in Ayrshire - the #LEGOBuilders are coming your way! They'll need your help to rebuild the iconic #ArtDeco Viking Cinema in #Largs on 9&10 Feb. Spaces go like hotcakes - so dinnae hing aboot! #LearningWithHES

A poster with a blue and pink colour scheme for a LEGO event featuring two LEGO minifigures holding an architectural drawing with an old cinema building in the background.

010

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

#museum30 Day 29 prompt is #water - without which Stanley Mills would never have been established, as the mills drew the power for it’s machines from the River Tay. Oor hands-on water interactive, which illustrates how the water powered the mill, is popular with bairns - and adults!!

A blue and silver interactive exhibit consisting of three channels each containing a different type of waterwheel.

030

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Ok @magnifyzoology.bsky.social - 1st time in 5 years of #museum30 you’ve got me stumped with a prompt! Cannae find a connection atween #mural & Stanley Mills! So here’s an image of a mural fae yin of ma learning projects. St Tenew on a Glesgae gable end thit we yaised for the Thaney’s Haven project.

150

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

#museum30 Day 27 prompt is #achievement Ou were fair chuffed this year when oor Stories in Scots at Stanley Mills project wi the P2/3 bairns fae Stanley PS was shortlisted for a Scots Language Award. It was great fir aw the effort pit in by the bairns & cless teacher tae be recognised. 😊

Still image taken from a film with the title Scots Stories from Stanley Mills centre screen and a background image of a red brick mill surrounded by trees.

010

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

#museum30 Day 26 prompt is #moving Moving materials, whether raw or finished goods, was integral to the cotton process. Stanley Mills has all sorts of objects that were created to move cotton from yin part of the mill to another - from slubbing cans on wheels to hide skin bogeys!

Two large cylindrical cans on casters stand on a wooden floor with a blue and white sign on the wall behind that says Stanley Mills Scotland.

A large square grey metal container on castors sits in a room with other bits of machinery. One side of the container has been folded down.

000

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

#museum30 Day 25 prompt is #danger The first workers at Stanley Mills were Gaelic speakers. It was a dangerous (Gaelic = cunnart) working environment: moving machine parts to cotton dust, noise to risk of fires. This panel from yin of oor community textile projects was created by Murthly WI.

000

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

#Museum30 Day 24 prompt is #specialist From drama to storytelling, historic re-enactment to craftwork, specialists have been integral to bringing Stanley Mills history to life for learners, creating memorable and engaging experiences for all ages.

A lady with orange hair is seated on a wooden bench with a window behind her. She is dressed as a Victorian millworker, wearing a light brown shawl and dress, and white apron.

A man dressed in a late Victorian style black top hat, coat and trousers, and a light grey waistcoat, stands with a walking cane in front of a large image of millworkers at Stanley Mills from 1910.

A lady with shoulder length brown hair, wearing a light brown jersey, is demonstrating felting, using bubble wrap, while sitting at a table. A lady with white hair, wearing a black jersey, is on the right.

000

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

#museum30 Day 23 prompt is #animal At the restored hydro scheme at Stanley Mills, an escape ladder’ was installed to help otters get out the modern, steeper lade. This otter, holding a fish, was knitted by the Stanley WI ladies as part of oor Community Textile Project.

A knitted brown otter holding a fish sits on a wooden table top against a wooden backboard.

051

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

#museum30 Day 22 prompt is #walk the majority of the millworkers at Stanley Mills lived in Stanley village - which was created for the workers. When the bell rang to start work, they would walk doon mill brae often arm in airm . At the end of the day, it must have been a thought to walk back up!

A view of a tarmac road leading uphill with trees on either side and a grassy area to the right.

010

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

#museum30 Day 20 is #careers ou’ve joined up with Springboard Scotland in the past to host careers events at Stanley Mills, focussed on hospitality, heritage & tourism with students learning a host of different skills.

010

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

#museum30 Day 20 is #Diary. James Boswell, biographer & diarist, records meeting up with George Dempster MP (an early investor & key figure at Stanley Mills) & another Scot, Andrew Erskine, in London to see a new Tragedy called Elvira's - though they'd already decided to damn the play in advance!

a painted portrait of a man who is seated, his right arm leaning on a covered table, holding a scroll of paper, and his left hand on his thigh. he wears a short white wig and fine embroidered clothes and white neckerchief.

010

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

#museum30 Day 19 prompt is #magic. There used to be ‘fairy ring’ behind Stanley Mills. They were said to be magical places where fairies danced in a circle. If you stepped in yin, you’d be made to dance til exhaustion. This millworker clearly wasnae feart! Rings are caused by an underground fungus.

A man dressed in black wearing glasses points to a large circle of mushrooms that he stands within on a grass area beside a tree.

000

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

#Museum30 Day 18 prompt is #photographs There‘a no many photaes of folk who lived or worked at HES properties. But ou have them for Stanley Mills! Glass plates showing the construction of the hydro scheme in the 1920s were donated by the Culbert family, many of whom worked at the mill.

A black and white image showing a hydro-electric scheme under construction with workers standing along a walkway and sitting along the top of a building.

020

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

#Museum30 Day 17 prompt is #making Stanley Mills made predominantly cotton products throughout its 225 year history. Specialising in niche products ensured it outlived its competitors into the late 20th century. These included narrow tape for cigarette factories & heavy duty belting for factories.

two folded lengths of narrow, off-white coloured woven tape with a catalogue number attached on a small piece of white card.

a folded length of thick woven cotton that has been dipped in tar, which is brown in colour.

010

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

#museum30 Day16 prompt is #Last12Months has involved lots of community engagement at Stanley Mills, starting with oor mill themed tree at Stanley PS Xmas Tree Fair & including a LEGO mosaic for Mills weekend, a Pop Up display, Soup Club talks & visit, & activities for National Play Day & Maths Week.

A green Christmas tree with blue tinsel and hessian parcels underneath standing in a school hall

A room with pillars with a hopscotch grid marked out on a grey floor with red tables in the background.

Two tall glass cabinets containing a range of objects with windows behind them. A torso mannequin with a maroon football shirt on it stands between them.

A mosaic of a mill made using LEGO single studs stands on a red tabletop with a yellow display sign on the left.

030

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

#museum30 Day 15 prompt is #kindness During WWII, Stanley Mills took 3p a week from the wages of millworkers like Nell Hannah, for Comfort Boxes for troops. Nell nominated a man she yince dated who had joined the navy. He received a box, it led to a marriage proposal (which was accepted!) 😊

A head and shoulders image of an older lady with short, dark hair and glasses wearing a pink shirt underneath a light blue jumper.

000

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

#museum30 Day 14 prompt is #heavy . The design of the Bell Mill at Stanley Mills is all aboot process, with some of the biggest & heaviest machinery on the lowest floors. Yin of the heaviest machines is the opening machine which broke up cotton - it’s now in oor Artefact Room - on the 4th floor!!

A large green and black machine with moving rods and wheels sots on a green base in a room with windows behind and cream coloured walls and ceiling.

010

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

He also picked up a braw pair of socks when he was there. For his feet… 😄🍏🧦

A knitted doll with dark curling hair and a white face, wearing purple socks, green trousers, green scarf and green jersey.

080

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

#museum30 Day 13 prompt is #background This is Hamish, yin of oor knitted soft toy dolls produced by the Stanley WI ladies as part of a community textile project at Stanley Mills. He went to Finland as part of a storytelling exchange! Here he is with Vapriikki museum in Tampere in the background!

A knitted doll with dark brown curly hair and a white face and dark green jersey in front of a red brick building with large windows.

030

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

#museum30 Day 12 theme is #digital Yin of the first learning resources developed at Stanley Mills, back in 2008, was digital. But as ou aw ken, digital technology moves quickly, and the software used to create (and support) it became obsolete - much like the waterwheel technology used at the mill!

a graphic of a web page showing a waterwheel with five circular buttons to the left with thumbnail images and tabs for themed sections.

130

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

#museum30 Day 11 prompt is #reflection and taking it literally, this iconic shot of Stanley Mills, in Perthshire has the Bell Mill reflected in the water in the lade.

A 5 storey red brick mill with blue sky and clouds above it, the reflection of which is in water in a lade in the foreground. There are dark green railings on the left of the lade and trees on the right hand side.

020

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

The day's #museum30 prompt is #rainbow. There's nae end of photaes of rainbows ower historic castles - but rainbows ower Stanley Mills arelike hen's teeth! However ou've run some fab sessions for Rainbow Guide units ower the years, playing traditional games, sharing stories and trying weavin. ☺️

a young girl wearing a light blue and red polo shirt with text Rainbows on the front weaving on a small loom with a ball of yarn in foreground.

030

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

#museum30 Day 9 theme is #map This close up is from a map of Perthshire created by James Stobie, factor to the Duke of Atholl, in 1787 - the year Stanley Mills opened. You can see the Bell Mill on the banks of the Tay and Stanley House to the right. It notes the names of local landowners too.

An 18th century map with a pink coloured section that also features a river, small icons of buildings and the names of landowners.

020

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

#museum30 Day 8 (back in sync efter a double Day 5!). The theme is #stitch . Oor Community Tapestry panel is displayed in the Stanley Mills visitor centre. Made by 117 folk of aw ages, it has 13 different types of stitches and represents Stanley's links to the world & the world's links to Stanley.

an embroidered square panel featuring a central circular design of figures, a mill building, church and river, and four blue compass points at each corner.

three seated ladies stitching small pieces of fabric.

050

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

#museum30 Day 6 theme is #box . Back in the early 1800s, James Craig, the manager at Stanley Mills, received advice on running the cotton mill from David Dale & Robert Owen at New Lanark. They received boxes of salmon in return! Nowadays salmon boxes are used to store oor artefacts!

A large rectangular wooden box marked with text The Tay Salmon Fisheries Perth on green shelving.

041

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

#museum30 Day 5 is #clay. The Company set up to establish Stanley Mills, along with the inhabitants of Stanley village, were given permission by the Duke of Atholl to extract clay from local pits and to make bricks. The Bell Mill at Stanley is an early example of a brick building in Perthshire.

A front entrance to a 5 storey red brick building with windows.

030

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

#museum30 Day 5 #sharing Yin of the joys of the learning programme at Stanley Mills has been involving the former workers. This is former mechanic John Robertson sharing his stories of working in the carding room in the 1960s with families as part of a Mills, Machines & Mechanics activity day.

A small group of children sit on the floor of a room which has white pillars. Three adults sit behind them on stools. All are looking towards a man with white hair sitting on a bench. There are large machines for processing cotton in the background.

010

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

#museum30 Day 4 #sketchbook Oor learning programme at Stanley Mills doesnae jist make use of the inside of the mill building. Oor Art Cart included a Make a Stanley Sketchbook option for families to sketch the amazing views of oor riverside setting and beautiful woodland. ✏️

A view of a trees in autumnal colours with a stone wall to front left and green railings and interpretation board in foreground.

An image showing paper, pens and hole punch, with two A4 signs that say Art Cart and Make a Stanley Sketchbook.

020

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

The Day 3 theme of #museum30 is #eyes . This is the only shuttle ou have at Stanley Mills. 'Kissing the shuttle’ involved weavers sucking thread through the 'eye' of a shuttle (the small white circlular hole) when the pirn was replaced. This unhygenic practice was used in UK mills til c1952!

A shuttle (a long rectangular wooden object with pointed ends with a hollow along the centre) from a weaving loom. A red pirn with thread sits in the hollow.

031

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Hot on the heels of #museum30 Day 1, here's #museum30 Day 2 - #signage ! Back in the day, the machines at Stanley Mills might break doon - nowadays, its interactive technology! Ou've leaned into it wi oor signage for just sic occasions. ☺️

A sign with white text on a blue background used for interactive exhibits that are temporarily out of order, titled A Spanner in the Works, with a line drawing of a scene showing millworkers gathered around a broken machine.

020

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Nearly missed #museum30! Guid job it’s only Day 2! Heres’s Day 1 #introduction tho. I’m a learning officer wi an obsession wi waterwheels & a passion for Stanley Mills, a former 18th century cotton mill on the banks of the River Tay in Perthshire, now a visitor centre with fantastic stories to tell.

A red 6 storey brick cotton mill with a blue sky in background branches of a tree to the right in foreground.

031

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Weel, the #LEGO Builders have done it again! Some brilliant builders fae Brora helped us recreate the famous #Brora #brickworks ower 3 days yaisin images & plans fae HES archives & other sources. #LearningWithHES

Two LEGO minifigure construction workers wearing orange and blue outfits standing in front of grey LEGO brick buildings.

A table with several models made of red, grey and white LEGO bricks on top, including a tall orange brick chimney, with display boards of images behind it.

010

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

#LifeAsALearningOfficer - heading north to Brora for oor BIG LEGO Build this week and Blair Atholl seemed an appropriate place for a lunch stop .. for a #waterwheel nerd!

020

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

“Hip, hip, hooray, it’s The Burryman’s Day!” Guid luck tae Andrew on his circuit roond South Queensferry #TheBurryman2025

010

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

Its #Playday2025 the morrin! There will be special #SpacesForPlay at Jedburgh Abbey, Blackness Castle & Stanley Mills for families to come & play at these amazing historic sites! From building blocks & bricks to costumes, giant board games & Victorian toys #LearningWithHES @playscotland.bsky.social

a girl holding up a model made from LEGO bricks

a family of three playing on a large snakes and ladders mat in a castle hall

010

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

Twae weeks tae go until the LEGO Builders pack thir kit and heid up north tae Brora tae dae some work fir Clyne Heritage Society. They’ll need aw the help they kin get tae build the auld Brora Brickworks oot ae LEGO bricks - fae kilns & drying sheds tae machine rooms & cottages. #LearningWithHES

LEGO minifigure construction workers with LEGO bricks in front of a brick with Brora stamped on it.

000

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

#ScotsOnHoliday The Cursing Stane in Carlisle. A monument to the Bishop of Glesgae’s 16thC curse agin the Border Reivers. Featuring c300 o his c1000 words in #Scots ! He fairly went tae toun! “I curse thair heid and all the haris of thair heid; I curse thair face, thair ene, … thair schulderis.” 😄

Large boulder with writing engraved all around it.

010

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Twae ae the three Thaney’s Haven project banners are noo installed at Culross Abbey Church for the run of Maiden Mother Mage - the braw poetic and dramatic reimagining ae St Tenew bi Rebecca Sharp - thit sterted the night. #LearningWithHES

A pull up banner featuring nine pieces of art on a lilac coloured background.

A pull up banner featuring nine pieces of art on a green background.

000

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

#LifeAsALearningOfficer - when it’s the weekend but you end up visiting a Hoffman kiln as part of planning for your next LEGO event…😄

Fiona, a woman with brown hair and glasses, smiling with a Hoffman brick kiln and chimney in the background.

An arched entrance (wicket) to a chamber in a brick Hoffman kiln.

An internal view up through the red metalwork floors and green staircase of a Cornish beam engine at Prestongrange museum.

020

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

#LifeAsALearningOfficer - the white gloves were on yesterday to set up oor wee pop-up community display at Stanley Mills. Donated and gaithered objects show the different ways the mills have been visually represented - fae paintings tae postcairds tae posters. #LearningWithHES

An image showing 2 tall glass cabinets containing objects, with a maroon coloured football shirt on a torso mannequin in between.

010

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Guess where the #LEGO Builders are off to this summer…?! Stay tuned for details of how you can join them on their next BIG Build! #LearningWithHES

Two LEGO construction minifigures with wheelbarrow and LEGO bricks standing in front of a life size brick with Brora stamped into it.

010

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

#LifeAsALearningOfficer - and a wee day oot tae the seaside! In this case, North Berwick, for the final session of oor Thaneys Haven Community project. A bit time to spare meant a wee boggle aboot St Andrews Auld Kirk!

A white washed building with a peak roof and arch doorway.

A red sandstone grave slab with a memento mori carving.

A carved stone roof slab from a gravestone.

040

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

A wee holiday in Switzerland - & couldnae pass up the chance fir some #WaterwheelBagging😄 First an undershot wheel at the Basel papermill, then 5 wheels (including a horizontal wooden turbine turned by jets of water!) at Ballenberg open air museum, powering 2 grain, a linseed, a bone & a saw mill.

a traditional wooden sawmill building and a white washed bone crushing mill building, half timbered at upper level, sitting alongside each other, each with a waterwheel attached to a wall of the buildings, with trees behind.

a turbine wheel with wooden blades leaning against the stone foundation level of a grain mill.

a female figure sitting on a wooden fence in front of a wooden mill building with a waterwheel attached to its outer wall.

a large wooden waterwheel attached to the wall of a white mill building, with water flowing beneath it.

130

Fiona Davidson @learninghoolet.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Check oot this awesome brick mosaic of the Bell Mill at #StanleyMills created by members of the public who came to the Mills ower the weekend for #NationalMillsWeekend . Hope to get it on display for veesitors to enjoy.

A mosaic of a red brick mill with a blue sky with white cloud behind it, made from LEGO bricks.

000