Pictish harps were strung from horsehair. harps with a fore pillar, are found on carved 8th century Pictish stones. The earliest descriptions of a European triangular framed harp, i.e. Ī notched piece of wood which some have interpreted to be part of the bridge of an Iron Age lyre dating to around 300 BC was discovered on the Isle of Skye, which, if actually a bridge, would make it the oldest surviving fragment of a western European stringed instrument (although images of Greek lyres are much older). It has been suggested that the word clàrsach / cláirseach (from clàr / clár, a board) was coined for the triangular frame harp which replaced the cruit, and that this coining was of Scottish origin. This word may originally have described a different stringed instrument, being etymologically related to the Welsh crwth. The first instrument associated with the harping tradition in the Gaelic world was known as a cruit. The early history of the triangular frame harp in Europe is contested. 1805 Irish penny depicting an Irish harp, long used as a national symbol.
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