Irish Mountain Dulcimer

The Irish dulcimer is so named for its unique Celtic knot sound hole rosette, which is derived from a photo taken in an 11th Century monastery in Ennis, Ireland. Each rosette is relief carved by hand, and has delicately interweaving continuous strands through a solid black walnut veneer.  The back of the instrument is inlayed with a repeating Celtic cross pattern.  The standard woods used are walnut for the bookmatched sides and back; walnut fretboard, tailpiece and headstock; and book-matched Western red cedar top.  The mountain (or lap) dulcimer originated in the Appalachian mountains by the Scotch-Irish settlers and is considered to be a distinctly American instrument. However, it may also be regarded as having Celtic roots, since it was born from Scotch-Irish immigrants. The alluring features of drone strings and a diatonic scale may have been instrumental in its creation by this musically gifted group of people.  In many respects, its musical structure mimics that of a bagpipe.The