the hebridean folklore project
helping to keep Scottish Gaelic folklore alive & accessible
The Hebridean Folklore Project was a grass-roots cultural organization founded in 1996 through the kindness and support of hundreds of folks from all over the US & the UK who came together to "help keep Scots Gaelic folklore alive & accessible".
Some folks shared financial support, some gave stories or a song, and some thankfully gave me a lift on many a rainy dreich day.
In the 1990’s into the early aughts the Scottish islands of Outer Hebrides became a home away from home. There over months and years spent listening, connecting and meeting with many of the islands’ elders and tradition bearers.
From Barra, South Uist, Benbecula and North Uist, to Harris and Scalpay I drank scalding hot tea, ate homemade scones and sometime sipped the water of life ( uisge beatha ) with those who had a tale or two to tell. And sometimes when the time was right I recorded their stories in Gaelic and if they were willing, in English. And sometime when a young person from the islands wanted to come along, they came and sometimes I told I story that I’d heard in Barra to someone is North Uist, and so it went.
Over the years some 30 folks from the islands took the time to sit with me and offered a story to the project. Some are personal narratives from their own family history, like the story of an extraordinary collie called Fly told by Hugh Matheson of Baleshare. Some are folklore from places going back hundreds of years, like the story of the Beasties Causeway told by Donnie MacRury. Many of the stories shared have only lived in the telling, meaning they have not been written down.
In 2016 the analog recordings were digitized with great thanks to Tim Britton in Fairfield Iowa. Also many of the recordings are now available to listen to through Digital Archive of Scottish Gaelic through the University of Glasgow.
