Jewellery
Jewellery (British English) or jewelry (American English) consists of small decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a western perspective, the term is restricted to durable ornaments, excluding flowers for example. For many centuries metal, often combined with gemstones, has been the normal material for jewellery, but other materials such as shells and other plant materials may be used. It is one of the oldest type of archaeological artefact – with 100,000-year-old beads made from "Nassarius" shells thought to be the oldest known jewellery. The basic forms of jewellery vary between cultures but are often extremely long-lived; in European cultures the most common forms of jewellery listed above have persisted since ancient times, while other forms such as adornments for the nose or ankle, important in other cultures, are much less common.
Kilwinning Abbey
A conservation programme was undertaken by the local authority in 1993-95 and the tower is now owned by North Ayrshire Council. The tower houses a heritage centre which opened in 1995 and displays items of local interest, including the history of the abbey and tower; the poets Robert Burns and the "Bard of the Yukon" Robert W. Service. The Ancient Society of Kilwinning Archers, dating back to 1483, are an important feature of the collection. The Kilwinning Archers still meets regularly, including the annual papingo shoot held in the grounds of the Abbey on the first Saturday in June. This event is said to be the oldest archery competition in the World and involves a wooden 'papingo' or 'popinjay', which is suspended from the clock-tower, which the archers attempt to dislodge.