A Burns supper is a celebration of the life and work of the poet Robert Burns. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet's birthday, 25 January, sometimes also known as Robert Burns Day or Burns Night (Burns Nicht), although they may in principle be held at any time of the year. Burns Suppers are held across the world. Burns suppers are most common in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but occur across the globe wherever there are Burns Clubs, Scottish Societies or expatriate Scots. Burns suppers may... Read More

"Finnechty cup" is an expression that comes from the area on the Moray Coast in the North East of Scotland surrounding the village of Findochty, "Finnechty" being the local pronounciation of Findochty. Apparently, it was the perception of the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages that the folk in Findochty were rather ungenerous when pouring out a cup of tea! Hence the saying came into being and any cup of tea anywhere which was not deemed to be full enough was referred to as a fine "Finnechty cup". I... Read More

At Hallow'een the children of the town of Stromness in Orkney carve turnips into amusing or grotesque heads and paint them in bright colours. They are solid, unlike the more common ‘neepie lanterns’. The children then go around the houses saying ‘A penny tae burn me Pop’ and receive small amounts of money. The origin of this goes back to the Reformation when it was the Pope who was being burnt in effigy, but it has changed over the years to become the innocent sounding ‘Pop’ with no sectarian... Read More

Programme strand in the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival March 2022. The strand included a new commission for Marion Kenny: one of Scotland’s leading storytellers, and award-winning musician, singer and songwriter: Mairi Campbell, to respond to two films in the National Library of Scotland (NLS) Moving Image Archive featuring Marjory Kennedy Fraser (1857 – 1930). Fraser was one of the foremost folksong collectors and composers in Scotland. She visited many of the islands to the west of Scotland, recordi... Read More

"A Yarn worth Spinning" project and event was a celebration of the role of textiles in shaping the identity of the Scottish Borders and the iconic place of the Scottish Borders in the history of textiles and fashion. The project viewed the story of textiles in the Scottish Borders as a multi-scale, interconnected narrative of fashion, ethics, nature, industry, and community. This was achieved through an exhibition and film, aimed at engaging an a range of audiences in the region. In collaboration with H... Read More

BE United Presents Live @ The Fringe was a series of exciting gigs – hosted as part of Scotland’s Year of Stories – that showcase fresh Black Scottish artists of all genres. The stories that were showcased during the project were varied. Emmanuel Carlos and Tam Tam 2000 told stories of moving to new home, whilst maintaining connection with the old. The stories centred on the journey and of belonging and acceptance. This was done through the medium of dance and talking drums, an art-form widely practi... Read More

A cultural icon, Byrne has continued to work, paint and create plays on into his 80’s. The exhibition encapsulated the energy and excitement of Byrne's work, displaying over 40 self-portraits, the most ever displayed at one time, spanning Byrne's whole career. Various other works were also drawn from Glasgow Life Museums’ collections, other institutions across Scotland, and private lenders. Stories were drawn from the exhibition, John Patrick Byrne: A Big Adventure. Stories covered reflections on his li... Read More

Cassiltoun Housing Association (originally Castlemilk East Housing Co-op) is the oldest community ownership Housing Co-operative in Glasgow, being registered with the Industrial and Provident Society in December 1984. Castlemilk is one of Glasgow’s peripheral housing schemes and was originally built on a green field site in the 1950s/1960’s. The area changed dramatically with the decline of manufacturing industry in the West of Scotland. Castlemilk suffered from a lack of facilities within the community... Read More

The Seaboard Centre (https://seaboardcentre.com/) runs an annual Fisherfolk Festival in Balintore. Funding from VisitScotland’s 2022 Year of Storytelling enabled this annual festival to invite three resident storytellers, and a Pictish domestic re-enactment group - the Rhynie Wifies - to perform. Ian Stephen of Lewis shared his rich accounts of fishing and the sea, Ross-shire favourite Bob Pegg shared his celebrated expertise of the tales and music of the Picts, and Pauline Cordiner told stories of the se... Read More

If ever there was a writer that is associated with a particular place, it is George Mackay Brown. He was born in Stromness and lived here all his life, seldom leaving the town he loved so much and which shaped his work. His subject was Orkney, its people, legends and history. Seen as one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century and influential well beyond the bounds of Orkney, he was renowned for his ‘astonishing clarity and sureness of imagery.’ Two events in April 2022, organised by the ... Read More

The 'Harbour Voices' project culminated in a series of true story podcasts showcasing and celebrating the lives and livelihoods of the people who call the harbour area of Aberdeen home. They share insights from residents old and new into what it’s like living at the edge of a global port and the North Sea and give voice to those who work in and around the busy harbourside. Aberdeen Harbour sits at the heart of the city centre. It is one of the few cities in the world whose harbour is so central to our her... Read More

On the evening of Saturday 24 September African and Caribbean Elders in Scotland (ACES) hosted an online event offering a sneak peek at stories collected as part of their oral history project, One Life, Two Cultures. Twenty-five people attended the session. Nine different speakers shared their stories of life in Scotland and what it was like to move to the country from Ghana, Mauritius, Sierra Leone, Jamaica, the Gambia, Uganda, and Nigeria. Participants joined in from all over Scotland, including Glasgow, ... Read More

Auchindrain – the last surviving Scottish Highland Township, based near Inveraray in Argyll – celebrated Scotland’s Year of Stories by presenting a new series of Argyll folk tales on their YouTube channel. The stories were delivered in the local Gaelic dialect and videos are subtitled in both Argyll Gaelic and English, giving viewers an opportunity to learn a little of this rarely spoken dialect of the Gaelic language. The series takes us back to a way of life that has been largely forgotten and gives... Read More

Deaf Action exists to support the diversity of deaf people, including deaf users of British Sign Language (BSL), and those who are deafened, deafblind or hard of hearing. Their work is geared towards empowering all deaf people to achieve their potential and fully participate in society, with equality of rights, access and opportunity. Deaf Action have the last remaining deaf centre in Scotland at Albany Street in Edinburgh, and this project aimed to capture stories from the Deaf Community to connect the aud... Read More

There were two strands to these storytelling sessions. "Summer of Stories" brought to life traditional African folk tales, as inspired by objects within the Hunterian museums recent intervention, "Curating Discomfort". This allowed for new interpretations of objects within our collection, told from the perspective of Suleman "Chief" Chebe, a new Scot of Ghanaian heritage. The second session was entitled "Which Mary Are You?" with stories focussed upon the various guises of Mary Queen of Scots - the Princes... Read More

The Beatles played 22 times in Scotland. One of the shows was at Bridge of Allan’s Museum Hall, north of Stirling. The gig was to shape the Forth Valley music industry landscape for generations, as well as having an untold impact on local music fans and the wider culture of the area. To celebrate these memories and the stories of those whom it effected, ‘Superfan – Stirling’s Story of The Beatles - Music, People and Place’, was collaboratively curated by Creative Stirling and Stirling’s iconic r... Read More

In celebration of ‘Scotland’s Year of Stories’, and in partnership with International arts company Kinetika and Highland artist- storyteller Lizzie McDougall, the Nairn Books & Arts Festival worked with local community groups to develop ‘Stories of Nairn’ . This was a collection of 20 silk flags, encapsulating in striking visual form, some of Nairn’s stories – "who we are, what we love about our town, where we come from, and the characters, histories, languages, myths and legends that make up... Read More

In 2021, the Scottish Football Museum, Hampden Park, was awarded funding to create a trail based on women’s history. The project was delivered by the Museum’s curatorial staff and our volunteer Curatorial Assistant. There were four objectives for the funding: • Commission four artworks • Commission a custom trail • Update 5 existing text panels • Host a girls community football club The funding allowed the Museum to commission an artist to paint four subjects relating to women’s footb... Read More

The Calder witch hunt started in December 1643 and lasted about 18 months. At Calder all of the people who were accused of witchcraft were women. At least five of them were executed: Helen Stewart, Jonet Bruce, Agnes Bischope, Agnes Vassie and Marion Gibsone. We know that people at Calder were kept in stocks, made to wear sackcloth, were sleep deprived (Margret Thomsone was kept awake for 26 days), and beaten. They were also forced to name other people as witches. In 1644 the minister, Hew Kennedie, wrot... Read More

“The Journey: Personal Testimonies of Africans living and working in Scotland" consisted of interviews conducted with members of the Scots-African community by Dr Sue Morrison; there was also music by Glasgow Small Pipers and food provided by Olivia Ndoti and other members of Women Integration Network (WIN) who prepared varied delicious array of International food & beverages. Olivia made a speech about importance of Black History Month, and Sean Reid facilitated "Integration through Proverbs", an explora... Read More

Clifftop Projects partnered with local filmmaker Joseph Dalton and traditional storyteller Anne Pitcher to film 'The Wee Birlin' Bannock's Adventures in West Dumbarton' in September 2022. We worked with a community cast of 20 to tell local stories filmed in a number of locations from where William Wallace is said to have hidden from the English to Knowetop farm where Robert the Bruce had his hunting ground. The film will be screened in November in Dumbarton West before being available to view online. ww... Read More

A jewel thief, a witch, a doctor and an inspirational teacher are just some of the stories of incredible Highland women revealed from museum archives. Unforgotten Highland Women is a short podcast series, recorded at live events across the Highlands of Scotland, about remarkable local women. Pauline Moore - podcaster and freelance producer - with support from the team at XpoNorth was commissioned by Museums and Heritage Highland to host these events, interviewing the keepers of the tales, sharing the storie... Read More

The project shone a light on the Crichton Royal in Dumfries; an asylum with many hidden histories. Patients’ and staff’s first-hand stories were shared, in words and songs, as well as tours of the landscaped estate. ‘Up the Middle Road’ is the local name for the former Crichton Royal Asylum, founded 1838 in Dumfries. This event shared its lived experiences of mental health – until recently, buried in a culture of silence. Through words and music, the voices of former patients, nurses, support s... Read More

Super Power Agency premiered new works from the pupils of Halyrude Primary (Peebles), Wardie Primary (Edinburgh), Dunfermline High (Dunfermline), Broughton High (Edinburgh) and Tynecastle High (Edinburgh) at this YOS supported event. One by one, young people took to the stage to share their writing, ably supported by those who’ve turned story telling into their profession – author Ian Rankin and comedian Craig Hill. This event was supported by the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund. This fun... Read More

Held in collaboration with Moray Libraries, this exhibition and series of events took place between February and March 2022 at Elgin Library. The exhibition focused on a village on the South shore of the Moray Firth which was destroyed and abandoned as a result of the Great Sand Drift of 1694. While there are scientific and natural explanations for the disappearance of the village, stories of myth and legend about the people, land and events that unfolded have shrouded Culbin in mystery. This exhibition ... Read More

"Shivery bite" is an expression used to describe a little something to eat after a dook(swim) in the sea. It was usually a biscuit or chocolate bar or maybe a packet of crisps. I first heard it when I moved to the East Neuk of Fife in the early 1960's. Children were hardy souls in those days and everyone used to swim in the outdoor sea-water swimming pools which still existed in Cellardyke, Anstruther and Pittenweem as well as in many other coastal towns and villages. The water was usually freezing even in ... Read More

For years I have carried a piece of wood around on my key ring. I use it along with the saying 'touch wood that ... does not happen to me'. I use it for luck and to ward off bad luck. I have no idea why I do it and I think I must have just picked it up from my parents. I have noticed others searching for wood to touch when they have said the saying and tapping their head as ifmade of wood as a joke and as an alternative to the real thing.... Read More