Strathspey Storywalks

11/03/2025

Upcoming in Abernethy! Delighted to be running a Storywalk as part of this event with .scotland. We'll be exploring traces in the land, starting locally from where we stand with placenames and stories, spiralling outward to global traces, connections and influences too. There's literally only a few tickets left so get them quick!! 👇

Posted • 🗺️🌱 places and traces 🦉📍

We’re excited to be hosting an away day at Loch Garten, a wildlife-rich Caledonian pine forest like no other in the UK🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

The day will include:
🥾nature volunteering, with a range of indoor-outdoor, low-high energy.
🥜 packed lunches with crested t**s (🤞🏻)
🗺️ a creative afternoon workshop where we’ll explore the place-names and stories of the local area.

this event is open to all ages and genders. free but booking essential ~ booking will open this sunday @ 5:30pm

loads more info in the eventbrite page 🔗 link in FBC bio

[Image description: green graphic with white text which says “places and traces. 10:30-4pm, saturday 22 march 2025, rspb loch garten nature centre”. circular image of people walking along a forest path.]

08/03/2025

Her name was Katherine Ross. She had a young child. The young child died, and she was accused of murder and sentenced to hang here on Gallow Hill in Tain in 1762. The town built a new gibbet in order to carry this out. This was the view where she died, looking out over the Dornoch Firth.

With today's lens, she may have had postnatal depression, or may have smothered the child while sleeping in the same small bed, or the child may have had an underlying ailment. 

The story goes that after her death a white dove landed on her head, signifying her innocence. The local community were so outraged by her death that no more hangings took place here; she was the last. 

(I believe recorded some of this history. Her poetry books - of archaeology, of belonging, of light, of kinship, of soil and land and layers, of thresholds, of time and hope - are beyond wonderful if you feel like treating yourself for International Women's Day!)

06/03/2025

Current reading, plus cat. Happy !

03/03/2025

Thank you to everyone who joined the sunny windy loop around Feshiebridge for the Women of the Cairngorms Storywalk yesterday! 

The strath and indeed Scotland would look and feel very different without these women. Their marks in the land may not be obvious but they shaped, and continue to shape, where and how we live. We also briefly chatted about women from here who travelled (or were taken) elsewhere and shaped other places (across empire) too.

The biggest challenge was picking and choosing which stories to tell, there are so many... so this may be an ongoing expanding project methinks. 

And it's the first time I've told stories to somebody up a tree!

I'll add more dates for this walk (and different, accessible routes) later in the year as there's been a good bit of interest. 

PS Men! This walk is as relevant (if not more so!) for you! ;)

25/02/2025

Coming up on Sunday! Tickets half gone! Women of the Cairngorms Storywalk, a circular walk from Feshiebridge.

Sharing stories while we wander (with foraged tea!) of just some of the remarkable women who have shaped Badenoch & Strathspey, from 'lumberjills' to high society women to so-called 'witches' to adventurers to writers and poets.

Their marks may or may not be left in the land, but their impact and legacy stays with us regardless - it might just be a bit more hidden...

✨ All welcome! Booking link in bio 👆
 

24/02/2025

To the left of these buildings - Corrour Station House, the most remote train station in the UK - is an area known as Na Caplaich / An Caipleach / The Mare. 

Here, a shepherd and his wife were making their way from Rannoch to Loch Treig on horseback when a winter storm blew up. The wifey was in a pretty bad way, so numb with cold she kept falling from her steed, and the shepherd knew she wouldn't make it. He knocked out his mare, gralloched her, and his wife crawled right inside the carcass to keep warm while the shepherd went to fetch help. She was dry and cosy and quite recovered by the time the shepherd returned. Hence the name of the place...

It's not the only story I've come across about people sheltering inside animals for survival, but it's the only one (so far) that seems to be linked with a specific place - and easy to imagine the necessity, when the winds and snow are howling across Rannoch Moor! 

23/01/2025

More trees! Not only am I trying to find the locations of the 'Lumberjill' Women's Timber Corps camps in the Strath, I've also been researching the ships built with Spey timber and what they were used for and where they ended up in the world. It's been fascinating, horrifying and impressive in equal measure...

If anyone has any insight into either of these topics, please do be in touch!

River Spey Fact of the Week!

In the 1600s the River Spey was used to transport logs down stream from the ancient forests to shipbuilding yards at Garmouth and Kingston.
A lot of the stories talk of the timmer floaters - the men who worked and rafted with their 'floaters cleek' - a long stick to help steer the timber rafts but there was also lumber jillls, women who worked the lands up near Glen Feshie and down through the Strathspey.

Aviemore Local storyteller Sarah of Strathspey Storywalks has been researching the history of the Lumber Jills in the area. Looking forward to hearing what secrets the land has to tell!

Photo Credit: Visit MoraySpeyside

14/01/2025

Seem to be on a tree theme. Birch & rowan encircling Avielochan chambered cairn, a Bronze Age burial cairn which is well worth a visit - enter through the passageway and sit amongst the stones and trees. 

The rowan that guarded the entrance has now fallen - second to last pic is from 2022 when it was still upright. 

And the birch just outside the cairn is FULL of witches' brooms, bonus! (Last pic). 

The Avielochan area is full of hut circles, remains of townships, field systems, and has been habited for at least several thousand years. It's got a wonderful feel about it. 

12/01/2025

Seasonal places. This loch only appears in winter, on Granish Moor, so I call it the Winter Loch ;) Does anyone know if it has a 'proper' name? Or does anyone have their own names for it?

It's the highest I've seen it in a few years, lapping up to the dead Mini.

How many other places do you know locally that are seasonal, only appearing in winter or summer? Or spring or autumn for that matter...

09/01/2025

Pines part 2. The Scots pines in this seemingly uninteresting local picture tell several stories... reading a landscape is one of my favourite things, so many layers, so many perspectives too. No two people see the same. 

And there are always signs. Being outdoors is the best practice...

Remnants, past, future, attitudes, shifting lifestyles and values, different peoples, creatures, faiths, epochs.

04/01/2025

Saturday night lights. With the Plough/An Crann, Mars/Màrs (formerly Goac), Orion/an t-Sealgair Mòr, Auriga/An Tarbh Geal. And a strange glow over Creag Pityoulish...

02/01/2025

I have a thing about singing whenever I come across ruins of farmsteads or townships, to bring back voice and life, even if for two minutes. I've been doing this for several years without really realising; it just seems quite natural. 

Popped up to Rinanuan today, sang the Parting Glass. Watched the light move and the snow showers come and go, the colour of the bracken and larch against the snow and sky, heard the burns sing too. 

This croft dates from at least the 1770s, and was originally thatched. The More family lived there then, with their two small daughters. 

Had the whole place to myself, not even any tracks of deer or rabbit. Smelt a fox or two. 

What a day.

01/01/2025

Bliadhna mhath ùr dhuibh / happy new year to you all! Took a Hogmanay wander to some Bronze Age hut circles, greeted the elders, cleaned out the ashes from the stove, and today watched the river rise even further...

Wishing happiness for you all in 2025! 🌿✨

22/12/2024

The year is turned. The winter sun-stop (grian stad geamhraidh) means the days now lengthen - the sun has re-fertilised the earth to turn it for another year. 

Hope your solstice was lovely! Wondering with curiosity and trepidation what this year will bring... 

17/12/2024

Last Storywalk of 2024 coming up on Friday - stargazing! 2025 dates are on the website, including a new year stroll from Aviemore on Jan 5th. 

Winter is made for sharing stories! Come and listen, share, drink foraged tea, and enjoy this very special place we call home with new perspectives.

Booking link in bio 👆
 

14/12/2024

Needing a last minute Christmas gift?! ORDER BY TUES 17TH DEC LATEST! New batch of wildflower paper has arrived so vouchers are back in the online shop!

Individual and family vouchers are available - link in bio above 👆

Give an experience rather than a thing - stories, nature and foraged tea! Also...

- It supports a small local, low-impact business

- It supports the storytelling tradition, tales that have been told for generations, as well as further research projects into this wonderful place

- The vouchers are handwritten on paper seeded with British wildflowers, so you can plant it afterwards! 

- The stamps are made from sustainably-sourced oak and the ink is vegan-friendly

- The packaging is 100% recycled and compostable...
..even my web host is based in the UK and powered by 100% UK-produced renewable energy.

So it's wins all round 🙏🤩

❗I'll be going to the postbox at 8am on Wednesday morning so please order by Tuesday night at the latest!! Link in bio above 👆

All good wishes to yous over the festive season...
   

13/12/2024

Any stories of Glen Tanar folks? Feel free to send a DM, or email us at: [email protected].

12/12/2024

Surprised and delighted to be heading to Glen Tanar with David Lintern Photography for a week next year to explore the premise that cultural loss is ecological loss.

If anyone has any current or past connections to Glen Tanar - working, living, stories, songs - drop me a message!

Many thanks to Bothy Project and Cairngorms National Park for this opportunity to highlight connections between land and people.
Posted • Recently we shared a call for applications to be artists in residence with as part of our programme, and received an incredible response 🌿

We’re delighted to share that local creatives Sarah Hobbs and David Lintern were successful, and together will be diving into the rich history of Glen Tanar, exploring local cultural heritage and connections to the land. Through listening, walking and photography they hope to weave together the voices of people connected to the Glen, helping their stories to be heard 📖

Watch this space to find out how Sarah and David get on, and for future opportunities.




The Cairngorms 2030 programme is made possible by thanks to National Lottery players.



📷Catriona Permenter, David Lintern