PROGRAMME
Tuesday 25th October, 2022
10:00 to 10:15am
Welcome
10:15 to 11:30am
SESSION I
Lusan, Beul-aithris agus Ainmean-àite / Plants, Tradition and Place-names
Broadcaster, writer, and storyteller, Ruairidh Maclean explores some of the Gaelic lore around our native flora and how an understanding of the links between language, culture and place can help to inform our lives, both as professionals and as humans who live in, or visit, the Scottish Gàidhealtachd.
11:30am-1:00pm
LUNCH
1.00pm - 2.00pm
SESSION II
Folklore and AR Archaeology: The Uist Virtual Archaeology Project
The Uist Virtual Archaeology Project produced the Uist Unearthed App containing Augmented Reality (AR) reconstructions of five archaeological sites along the Hebridean Way in Uist. All reconstructions are informed by archaeological data and include Gaelic-language folklore and oral history. The workshop will consider how folklore can be incorporated into landscape-based digital projects.
2.00pm - 2.15pm
Break
2.15pm - 3.00pm
SESSION III
3.00pm - 3.15pm
3.15pm - 3.45pm
SESSION IV
‘If you haven’t experienced the psychic density of a place that was, over a long period of time, a centre of tremendous human emotions, what can you say about it that isn’t irrelevant?’
The title of this presentation – a quotation from Neil Gunn’s novel ‘The Silver Bough’ – draws attention to the view that embodied meaning and feeling can endure in landscapes, imbuing them with a certain kind of life. For this session, Dr Iain MacKinnon of Coventry University will tell some stories whose meanings will stimulate discussion on the enduring importance of the lore of folk in keeping places and people alive.
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Break
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Panel Discussion/Audience Q&A
Our speakers discuss ways in which we can develop a methodology for researching and collecting folklore connected to specific places in Scotland and understand the ways in which folklore allows understanding of the landscape, particularly in the context of the re-wilding agenda, community landownership and local economies.