A programme of ten workshops for Fèis Rois and Dingwall 800

Healing Threads | Snàithean Slànachaidh with Claire MacKay, Herbal Heritage Scotland

As the season turns toward winter, the medicine cabinet matters. The Highland tradition of plant medicine is extraordinarily deep – encoded in Gaelic literature and in orally collected accounts gathered from living communities. Mary Beith's book Healing Threads (2018) remains the essential companion to this tradition, and this session draws on its riches.

Claire MacKay brings her knowledge as a medical herbalist and ethnobotanical researcher to the plants of this place: what grew here, what was used, what is still carried in the names and practices of the area. November is the time for what has been harvested, dried and preserved: the tinctures and teas that see a community through the dark months. We will work with seasonal herbs to make simple tea blends, with an introduction to harvesting, drying and storing plants for winter use. Claire also loves a song, so maybe there will be a song as well!

Format: talk, conversation, tea tasting, singing, 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.