Lamont Harp

[6] The Lamont harp has very little decorative carving when compared to the other surviving examples, and was constructed with fine metal fittings, notably fox styled metal reinforcements between the pillar (Lamhchrann) and neck of the instrument, the metal head is beaten to imitate a gem setting and the square drives of the tuning pins are fitted to resemble cloves or rosebuds.

[9] Replicas of the Lamont Harp have been attempted by many modern harpmakers, one of the difficulties being establishing the original form and string lengths due to the present distorted state of the instrument, and the natural desire to avoid the catastrophic fate of the original.

It may be that during its lifetime the Lamont harp was re-strung with heavier, possibly brass wires, in order to change its volume or tone.

It is speculated that the original stringing used gold wire in the bass, to achieve satisfactory tone, though this is still somewhat controversial.

Ann Heymann and others have successfully strung medieval harps with gold bass strings.