A programme of ten workshops for Fèis Rois and Dingwall 800

Winter Gathering | An Taigh Cèilidh Geamhraidh with Sophie Stephenson

Winter is approaching. After the harvest, after the drove roads have emptied, after the fishing season has wound down and the year’s work is done, people would come together. The taigh cèilidh was a sustaining part of winter life in the Highlands – neighbours gathering to share news, stories, songs, music and dance.

Ethnologist Sophie Stephenson has researched the tradition of the taigh cèilidh in Gaelic-speaking Scotland and Cape Breton. Drawing on archive sources and living memory, Sophie and Mairi will reflect on culture as something lived, shared and carried forward between generations. As the season turns, this session becomes a ceilidh in its own right: a chance to take stock together, share what has been learned across the programme, and carry it onward through music, song, story and perhaps even some dancing!

Format: talk, archives, conversation, music, song, step dance, tea and cake

About the programme

From late summer to midwinter, these sessions invite you to dig where you stand: to explore the cultural memory of Dingwall and its surrounding landscape. Countless generations before ours had a closer connection to nature and the changing seasons, bound up with a sense of community and conviviality across the rhythm of the agricultural year. Each week we explore a different part of that world – from stories of drovers, herring girls and radical resistance, to harvest seeds, plants and birds, to the music and song of the winter ceilidh. Part conversation, part creative workshop. Drop in for one session or follow the season as it turns. Open to all. Bring what you know!

Background

This programme was developed by ethnologist and creative practitioner Mairi McFadyen for Fèis Rois and Dingwall 800, exploring the cultural and ecological memory of the local area through conversation and creativity. Dig Where You Stand takes its name from an international public history movement that invites communities to research and reclaim local histories.

Description supplied by the event organiser.