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December 16, 2025
SSSA in 70 Objects: A Superstar
Ian MacKenzie: More of a superstar than an object, but very much SSSA.
by Caroline Milligan
From dozens of ideas on my ‘What shall I write about for my SSSA in 70 objects blog post’ mind map I finally chose to share with you this photograph, of Kath Campbell[ii] and Lizzie Angus which I have loved and admired from the moment I first encountered it, which was probably in a Scottish Ethnology 1 lecture in my first year.
When I worked at the School of Scottish Studies (2004-2018) I would give a couple of lectures a year on Fieldwork Practice and this picture was very often the opening image for my PPT presentation. I love ethnology and thank my lucky stars that I found my way to the School as a mature student in 2000 and for me this image encapsulates so much of what I admire about my discipline.
At its very essence, ethnology is a conversation and an opportunity to share community and pass on knowledge that we, as researchers, can collate, interrogate and then describe in order to understand our shared cultural lives. In this photograph, both Kath (ethnomusicologist) and Lizzie (a sprightly 106 year old who had been a pupil of the great north-east song collector, Gavin Greig) are very obviously enjoying their time together: they’re leaning into each other, meeting each other’s gaze, and smiling like a pair of Cheshire cats. This photograph, and the others discussed in this blog post, were created by my fine, much loved and greatly missed colleague, Ian MacKenzie, who was the School’s photographer and photo-archivist for the best part of 25 years.
Ian was a photographer with a splendid eye for detail who created beautiful images across a range of themes. I especially like his portraits. He was a sociable man who loved people, and his photographs are a lasting testimony to that. He also possessed a great ability to notice, successfully photograph and develop images which celebrate and draw attention to distinct textures and details. In this image of Kath and Lizzie, just look at Lizzie’s cardigan, with its heart-shaped pattern, and the heart-shaped pin brooch on her dress. Kath and Lizzie look at each other as if through a mirror: Kath may be seeing the old woman she hopes she will one day be, while Lizzie sees the enthusiasm of youth and, perhaps, a reflection of the young woman who rests inside her own ageing body. I never tire of looking at this photograph, and always I see the sheer joy of sharing knowledge and life stories that is at the heart of many ethnological fieldwork sessions.
Another portrait by Ian which I adore is this one of singer, songwriter, antiquarian book-seller, teacher, researcher etc. etc.- the splendidly marvellous and multi-talented, Adam McNaughtan. This portrait seems to capture the essence of Adam: his laughing eyes, always with a ready smile, but also self-effacing – he’s almost hiding behind copies of the song-sheets he takes such a delight in. The Songs & Parodies pamphlet he holds, headed ‘The funniest book in the world’ is an entirely fitting choice given Adam’s own song-writing genius when it comes to the comedic – Skyscraper Wean, Cholestoral and Oor Hamlet being particular favourites. This photograph says to me, ‘Life’s a laugh!’, which is exactly the feeling I have whenever I’m in Adam’s company.
For T C Smout, ‘studying photographs [can convey] an untold wealth of detail in social history, and [raise] all sorts of odd questions’.[iv] While the portrait shot of Kath and Lizzie, and the one of Adam, are beautiful in their simplicity, there are other portraits by Ian which work in a very different way, with settings which can be read like a book. For Ian, this was clearly no happenchance. The settings are deliberately recorded so that we can read and understand the people being photographed, as well as the time, place and space they inhabit.
One example of this is Music in the Home, Forrest Glen, Dalry, Galloway, 1985. To my mind, Ian leaves us in no doubt that the seated musician in the middle of the photograph is the most important person in the room. All the others in the photograph seem to look and lean towards him. Although seated, your eyes go first to him, rather than the standing fiddle player to his left, or any of the other figures on the periphery. There’s a stillness and reverence to the gathering: the only hands visible belong to the musicians, the curtains are drawn over: this is all about the music. I also love the textures in this photograph and can readily conjure to mind how the cold tiles on the fire surround, or the textured pattern of the wallpaper, would feel to the touch. This textural richness is something I think Ian worked hard to reveal when he made his photographic prints.
The craft and skill of Ian as a photographic developer and printer is clear in this image. I well remember visiting Ian in his warren of rooms in the basement at 27-29 George Square.[vi] His darkroom, especially the lingering chemical smells, reminded me of evenings spent at the Street Level gallery darkrooms in Glasgow, painstakingly practicing the nuances required in producing photographic prints from my negatives. I remained pretty much a novice, but I remember the thrill of producing a print which I could be proud of and which reflected the nuances of the image I wanted to reveal. I believe working in the darkroom would have been a particularly immersive and rewarding aspect of Ian’s creative practice and this is evident in the subtle precision he consistently managed to achieve in his work.
A series of photographs which illustrate Ian’s skills as an ethnologist and his eye for texture and detail are those he made of the Gourdon fishers. In contrast to the images discussed so far, these photographs were created in a much more dynamic setting. In my chosen image, the woman baiting the fishing lines for the next launch hasn’t time to look up: she’ll be racing to get the baited nets ready in time for the next launch and taking her eyes off the task in hand looks likely to result in injury. Her fingers are working more quickly than the camera shutter and her surroundings are entirely functional and efficient. You can tell at a glance that this is tough, cold, dirty, smelly work and way too important to be paused for a mere photograph. Again, I love the contrasting textures: the startling gleam of the mass of baited fishing line in the tray, the stained buckets, the wall and doorway coverings. We can glimpse a small table and chair in the background, maybe to allow for a short rest if work is going well and there’s time for a 5 minute breather.
This image is one which allows us to appreciate how Ian brings a painter’s eye to his photographic work. Like Vermeer’s, The Lacemaker, this photograph contains everything we need to see so that we can understand what is essential: in this instance about both the baiter and the bait-netting task.
The next photograph is another work-related one. The photographs of Kit Sked, taken in 1987, are perhaps some of the most well-known of Ian’s ethnological portraits. Kit was the fourth generation of the Sked family to work as blacksmith at the Cousland Smiddy, and, when this series of photographs were made, he had recently announced his retirement. With no-one yet identified as his successor, one wonders what Kit’s thoughts were during this session or when he is moving around the workshop.[viii]
Again, we’re in a functional work-space, one that has not changed for perhaps hundreds of years. However, unlike the previous image, this space has a feeling of permanence. This is Kit’s domain. There’s a strong feeling of ‘a place for everything and everything has a place’ about the smiddy. A space that is as much part of the man as the man is part of the space. Like the fish-baiting station, the space is functional and work-ready: the fire is going strong, tools laid out, strong sunlight streams through the window and Kit’s jacket hangs such that we can believe it hangs in that exact place every working day. This time Kit meets our gaze square on. I love his clothing and the precision of the light and the way this falls into the room and over the left side of Kit’s body. Again, this image, like many created by Ian, is like a painting and can be looked at, considered and enjoyed time and time again. The surface of the brickwork, Kit’s shirt, the chalk markings on the fireplace lintel and the wide array of tools (what are they for?), all merit closer attention, yet all of it can also be appreciated and enjoyed in a single glance. Yes, Ian has left us an impressive body of work, but he also left us too soon.
I remember the occasion of Ian’s final resting which took place at Inerinate, Kintail in February 2010 on a cold, clear, bright-blue day. I recall feeling so angry that such a lovely man should be taken so early and of being quite overwhelmed by the sad truth of this. But I also remember feeling happy that so many lovely people had been brought north, to be together, by their love of the man. There was a real sense of joy on that day. Ian was a simple-living, funny, warm man who loved life. He told me more than once that there were few things in life as good as discovering that the pear you had just bitten into was at the absolutely perfect moment of ripeness for eating. This about sums up Ian’s approach to life and the joy he found in it. He lived a very good, albeit far too short, life and I remember him fondly for his humanity, humour, generosity of spirit and for his great artistry and craftsmanship and the wonderful legacy he has left within the cabinets and catalogues of the SSSA photographic archive.
It has been a pleasure to choose Ian as my ‘favourite object’ from the SSSA collection and to have the excuse to set aside a little time to spend in his company and renew our friendship. It feels like he’s given me the gift of some of his quiet joy in return and I think he’d be chuffed (if a little abashed) to be called to mind and remembered by us.
Grateful thanks to Louise Scollay for helping me with the images and photograph credits for a number of items included in this blogpost.
Caroline Milligan, July 2021
All Images by Ian MacKenzie, © The School of Scottish Studies Archives.
[i] Dr Katherine Campbell and Lizzie Angus, Ythanvale Nursing Home, Ellon (Aberdeenshire), 2000
[ii] Dr Katherine Campbell was ethnomusicologist at the School for a number of years and worked on the Greig-Duncan song collection with Dr Emily Lyle.
[iii] Adam McNaughtan – song book, 1989
[iv] To See Ourselves, Dorothy I Kidd, with preface by T C Smout, NMS 1996
[v] NII/8a/8774. Neg. A6/228/19. 6 December 1985. Gathering of Galloway musicians in the house of Robbie Murray at Nether Forrest, Forrest Glen, Dalry, Glenkens, Galloway, From L to R: Alyne Jones, Davy Jardine and Robbie Murray. Evening recorded by Jo Millar.
[vi] Ian wrote to me in 2008, when he was coming back to work after a long period of ill health and he thanked me particularly ‘for keeping the place [his archive] company’. Re-reading this letter, I smile at that line, remembering again the quiet calm of the photographic archive, the back door often open to the garden, the little zen garden on the wide windowsill, the frequent stream of people seeking Ian out for guidance, discussion and good company. He was very much part of that space, as it was very much part of him.
[vii] BIII6c1/8599
[viii] The smiddy had been in Kit’s family continuously since 1882. Kit had announced his intention to retire in 1986, and then retired in 1989).
[ix] BVIII/7/g1/8782
[x] Collage image by Colin Gateley using one of Ian’s self-portraits.
Caroline Milligan is Archives Assistant with the Regional Ethnologies of Scotland Project, at Centre for Research Collections. She is also Research Assistant, within the European Ethnological Research Centre, University of Edinburgh.
Seeing Scott through a Gendered Lens
‘Also read again, and for the third time at least, Miss Austen’s very finely written novel of Pride and Prejudice. That young lady had a talent for describing the involvement and feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going, but the exquisite touch which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment is denied to me. What a pity such a gifted creature died so early!’ Sir Walter Scott Journal entry, March 14th 1826
Walter Scott made his name through presenting daring battles and histories of old; bringing the past back to the present. Scott’s expert use, and even origination, of historical novel techniques still shape the genre today. However, Scott’s writing also presents unique and interesting female characters that can be deconstructed. These reveal subversive truths about the lives of Regency women, as well as how literary constructions attempted to present women’s idealised role within society. This blog post, we will explore three ways in which Scott’s works impacted female authors and how their role was shaped by their gender.
Two intriguing characters that Scott introduces are Minna and Brenda Troil in his 1822 Waverley novel The Pirate. Maggie’s role as a central character is heavily shaped by her gender. She departs from expectations of a social marriage and subverts expectations within the narrative. These sisters cope with being captured by pirates, as well as dealing with turbulent conditions at sea (and within their own personal lives). This story was then included by another great author, George Eliot, in her novel The Mill on the Floss (1860). Scott’s was also mentioned in Chapter 57 of one of Eliot’s most famous novels Middlemarch, which depicts the Garth children reading aloud from Scott, ‘that beloved writer who has made a chief part in the happiness of many young lives’. To Eliot’s heroine Maggie, Scott’s novels provide a sense of great comfort and companionship: ‘if she could have had all Scott’s novels and all Byron’s poems! – then, perhaps, she might have found happiness enough to dull her sensibility to her actual daily life.’ (Book 4, ch. 3). At one point, Maggie is offered The Pirate to read but refuses: ‘it would make me in love with this world again … it would make me long for a full life’. To Maggie, Scott’s heroines Minna and Brenda – as well their transformative love lives – provided a source of great longing and enjoyment. This reveals that Scott’s works did not just provide interesting and subversive heroines, but also that these heroines had a long-standing impact on some of Britain’s best female writers.
According to the British Library, Walter Scott was famed writer Emily Brontë’s ‘favourite author’. She heavily borrowed from his descriptions of the Scottish Highlands in ‘The Gondal Poems’ (1844-1848). Brontë imitated Scott’s vast and powerful descriptions, using them to build powerful images similar to her own native Yorkshire moors. This early poem in The Gondal series was written when she was just 18 years old, showing how important literary influence was in shaping her initial writing career. This highlights that Scott’s readership, as well as the content of his novels, helped to shape powerful women.
“Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. – It is not fair.- He has Fame & Profit enough as a Poet, and should not be taking the bread out of other people’s mouths. – I do not like him, & do not mean to like Waverley if I can help it – but fear I must.”
Emily Brontë Display: British Library.
Perhaps, unusually, Scott remained a fierce devotee of Austen, despite her gender and untimely death. In 1816, Scott reviewed Austen’s longest novel Emma in the journal named Quarterly Review. He described the text as a “class of fictions which has arisen almost in our own times, and which draws the characters and incidents introduced more immediately from the current of ordinary life”. Scott recognises the incredible cultural narrative that Austen curated and was widely known as a fan throughout her literary career. Likewise, in 1826, Scott also lamented her death – acknowledging the strong contribution she made to literature. Thus, through Scott’s patronage and support, female authors also saw wider publicity than they otherwise might have done. This highlights that it is both his novels and his own role as a public author that acted as a way to shift gendered understandings during the period.
Emma First Edition.
This blog has been published in celebration of the university’s new Walter Scott 250 Exhibition, which celebrates the famed author’s relationship with contemporary and historical revolution.
Works Cited
Jane Austen Centre, Sir Walter Scott: Author and Critic, [https://janeausten.co.uk/blogs/authors-artists-vagrants/sir-walter-scott-author-critic]. Accessed 17/07/2021.
The British Library, The Pirate: novel by Walter Scott, [https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-pirate-novel-by-walter-scott]. Accessed 18/07/2021.
The British Library, Manuscript of Emily Brontë’s Gondal poetry [https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/manuscript-of-emily-bronts-gondal-poetry]. Accessed 16/07/2021.
The Industrial World: Scott’s Vision
‘We have accumulated in huge cities and smothering manufacturies the numbers which should be spread over the face of a country and what wonder that they should be corrupted? We have turned healthful and pleasant brooks into morasses and pestiferous lakes.’ – Walter Scott’s Journal.
The early 19th century was a period of many dichotomies. The divide between rich and poor, city and agrarian, the industrial and the baronial seemed starker than ever before.
Scott regularly drew attention to new machines and ideas in his novels. One such example is in Scott’s novel The Betrothed (1825). This features a meeting of shareholders looking to form a joint-stock company. Whilst this scene is intended to satirize the form of novels, it also brings attention to machine inventions. One such invention that is presented is the
“great patent machine erected at Groningen, where they put in raw hemp at one end, and take out ruffled shirts at the other, without the aid of hackle or rippling-comb—loom, shuttle, or weaver—scissors, needle, or seamstress. He had just completed it, by the addition of a piece of machinery to perform the work of the laundress.”
This describes a machine that could do the work of any laundress, or modern-day dry cleaner efficiently and instantaneously. Although this may seem common to those who own a washing machine, for Scott’s day it would have been a revolutionary idea. It also points out a slightly sinister idea. Machines like this could, and did, put the lives of workers (‘the work of the laundress’) at incredible risk. This demonstrates Scott’s interest in machines and his ability to draw them, subtly, into his narrative. However, his fascination with machinery certainly ran deeper than a passing interest.
As scholar Professor Murray Pittock points out, ‘in Scott’s lifetime travel became ten times as fast, and before he died regular rail services had begun.’ It is possible that Scott’s fascination with revisiting the past was a way of negotiating the rapid changes of the present by visiting a more familiar territory.
He also heavily acknowledged the impetus of change, industry and economy within his texts. In the introduction to his novel The Monastery (1820), Scott acknowledges his contemporary James Watt with great esteem. Watt, a pioneer of the steam engine and a prolific inventor, was someone whom Scott appeared to admire, describing him as “not only one of the most generally well-informed,—but one of the best and kindest of human beings.”
Scott’s praise of Watt also extended to machinery itself, stating
“machinery has produced a change on the world, the effects of which, extraordinary as they are, are perhaps only now beginning to be felt.”
This explains, with great awe, about the modern technology advances that shaped Scott’s day. However, there is also a sense of apprehension in Scott’s tone. In both the above introduction and in Scott’s Journal there is a slight hesitancy about the effects of industrialisation, which he senses will go further than anyone can predict. This links back to Scott’s love of history and revisiting historical sites: there is less ambiguity about what the present may hold.
This blog has been published in celebration of Edinburgh University Library’s new exhibtion, ‘Walter Scott and Revolution’, which celebrates the famed author’s relationship with contemporary and historical revolution.
Works Cited
Scott, Walter. The Journal of Sir Walter Scott, February 20, 1828.
Scott, Walter. The Betrothed (1825).
Scott, Walter. The Monastery (1820).
BBC, The Industrial Revolution, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/enlightenment/features_enlightenment_industry.shtml, Date accessed: July 10, 2021.
Pittock, Murray. The Reception of Walter Scott in Europe (London: Bloomsbury, 2006).
Balls, Bridgerton and Betrothals: Walter Scott Meets High Society
“The gentlemen, according to the fashion of the times, indulged, for the most part, in deep draughts of the richest wines, while the ladies, prepared for the ball which always closed a bridal entertainment, impatiently expected their arrival in the state gallery. At length the social party broke up at a late hour, and the gentlemen crowded into the saloon, where, enlivened by wine and the joyful occasion, they laid aside their swords and handed their impatient partners to the floor.” – Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor.
The bewitching world of Netflix’s hit show Bridgerton has overtaken international pop culture this year. For the first since the release of Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice in (2005), regency fashion, manners and entertainments are, once again, at the forefront of our public consciousness. When considering this upheaval in popular culture, it is worth revisiting this arena and considering what it means for both our understanding and our study of Walter Scott.
When thinking of Walter Scott, images of battles or lengthy historical novels may come to mind. However, Scott was, like any Regency man, well-acquainted with the subject of balls and the necessity of social decorum. Although set in the early 18th century, Scott’s work The Bride of Lammermoor (1819) deals intimately with issues of contemporary romance and the pitfalls that could arise from this. The novel tells the tragic story of the doomed romance between Lucy Ashton and her familial enemy Edgar Ravenswood. Throughout the intriguing, and largely tragic, narrative, we are given insight into the courting rituals and expectations of the early 19th century.
Scott himself had lengthy understandings of romance. ‘In his “Essay on Romance” (1824), Scott defines Romance as “a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents.”’[1] Scott had an awareness of romance, balls and the business of courtship and was clear to outline this within the essay. As much as The Bride of Lammermoor exists as an historical novel in its own right, it is hard not to read the tragic love story as a kind of social commentary. This commentary recognises the risks that arose in courtship, when lovers made themselves vulnerable. It also, just like Bridgerton, shows us the importance of family when making decisions about marriage.
Scott’s understandings of romance may have also been impacted by his own turbulent love life. His story of marriage to Charlotte Scott, née Carpenter, could have inspired its own spin-off series. The couple met whilst riding and Scott proposed after just three weeks! She herself was subject to criticism and scrutiny. Scott’s family feared that she was a Catholic and initially objected to the match. However, after much scrutiny and investigation, she and Scott remained happily married for three decades. Scott’s life, like his books, reflected much of the turmoil that these 19thcentury matches could invite. Just as Lucy Ashton’s family objected to a match with Edgar Ravenswood, Scott’s family objected to his own with Charlotte. Thankfully, for both Scott and Charlotte, their union ended far more happily than Scott’s fictional creations.
Thus, the world of Bridgerton is not so far from Scott’s own work as one might initially believe. Whilst it is true that Scott’s repertoire is largely historical novels, he did also invite romance and society commentary in his works. Likewise, just as in the turbulent world of Bridgerton, Scott is quick to illustrate both the benefits and foibles of this society: from the dullness of balls to the spark and potential of young love.
This blog has been published in celebration of the university’s new Walter Scott 250 Exhibition, which celebrates the famed author’s relationship with contemporary and historical revolution.
Works Cited
Hook, Andrew D. “The Bride of Lammermoor: A Reexamination.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction 22, no. 2 (1967): 111-26.
Walter Scott Digital Archive, Edinburgh University Library. “Williamina, Charlotte and Marriage”, available at. http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/biography/marriage.html. Accessed July 6, 2021.
Scott, Walter. The Bride of Lammermoor (1819).
[1] Hook, Andrew D. “The Bride of Lammermoor: A Reexamination.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction 22, no. 2 (1967): 112.
Keeping up to date with Library news
The University Library Services throughout the pandemic have had to work within the limits set by the Scottish Government and the wider University. This at times has been frustrating for staff and students as access to resources has been limited.
As government guidance changes in response to the pandemic then the library services have also had to change and adapt.
But it can be difficult to keep up to date with the changes- and that is where the Library Updates pages come in! These pages are the place to go to find out the latest news including re-opening of services, links to more information, help and advice.
As things continue to develop in the run up to the next semester then keep an eye on this page:
John MacLeod Durward, Queen’s Scholar
Enquiries are very much central to what we do. As well as helping others with their own research, enquiries are often the means by which we learn something new about our own collections. Recently we received one about a (potential) former student, John Macleod Durward, who was recorded in the 1861 as being a Queen’s Scholar.
Newspaper accounts supplied by the enquirer also listed John as having received received various class prizes at the University in 1864 and 1865, including in Moral Philosophy, Rhetoric and English Literature and Mathematics, along with him being from Arbroath. However, we were unable to find him amongst our graduates and the term Queen’s Scholar seemed to have no relation with the University (our initial investigations only uncovered it as something relating to Westminster School).
Nevertheless we persitsed as John had clearly been at the University and we should have some record of him. We discovered that he had in fact matriculated in Arts for the academic years 1863/4 and 1864/5. So, this all tiednicely with the newspaper accounts but what about Queen’s Scholar?
Our colleages at the UK National Archives proved to be a vital part of our deliberations. Their online guide to records of Teacher Training states:
“At 18 pupil-teachers could apply for the Queen’s/King’s Scholarship Examination (later the Preliminary Examination for the Certificate). Successful scholars had the opportunity of attending training colleges for two or three years.”
The University of Edinburgh did not offer teacher training in this period but there were two institutions in Edinburgh which did, the Church of Scotland Training College and the Free Church of Scotland Training College. Both were forerunners to Moray House College/Institute, which is now part of the University but then were independent entities.
While the student records for the latter for this period have not survived, those for the former have. Would we be lucky? As you can see from the image below, we were.
Church of Scotland Training College: Report on Progress of Male Students
This places John at the Church of Scotland Training College in 1861 (the year he appeared on the census as Queen’s Scholar). John then attended the University for two years immediately after undertaking his teacher training.
New home for Edinburgh Research Data Blog!
Tempus fugit. This Data Blog, which has been going since 2013 is now moving to Edinburgh University Libraryblogs. This follows the 2018 organisational merger of the Data Library team at EDINA with Research Data Support in Library & University Collections.
We hope you will actively subscribe to the new blog at https://libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk/datablog/ now, by entering your email address in the right navigation panel so you don’t miss any future posts!
Meanwhile we will redirect the old URL and all the older posts to the new site so you won’t have to remember where to go to catch all the news about the Research Data Service and research data management at University of Edinburgh. Any cited posts or bookmarks will continue to resolve.
Otherwise it just remains to thank our former and future hosts – EDINA, and the Digital Library – for providing the platform.
Robin Rice
Data Librarian and Head of Research Data Support
Library and University Collections
SSSA in 70 Objects: Bha Là Eile Ann
Response by Fraser MacBeath
Hello, I’m Fraser MacBeath, a sound artist/electronic music producer from the Isle of Lewis, currently a postgraduate Sound For The Moving Image student at The Glasgow School of Art and a follower of the archive for the past 5 years or so.
Image: Fraser MacBeath
I became aware of the archive while working at An Lanntair Arts Centre on Lewis. I had been looking for ways in which to integrate aspects of Hebridean life into ambient/electronic music and the archive offered a unique sonic resource to draw inspiration from.
This work was created in response to an open call for soundworks from Radiophrenia Glasgow. I’d always found the folk stories and lore really fascinating. The sense of mysticism alive in the culture with talk surrounding the existence of fairies, mermaids and witches that has been very much stamped out in modern culture is something that seemed worthwhile to try and contemporise. I wanted to further dramatize it however by also building atmospheres and using music to formulate it into a kind of sonic journey. Creating a more immersive listening experience inspired by the kind of emotions and environments that might have surrounded the stories when they were told.
The finished piece is a fully homegrown product of Scotland, although unfortunately I’ve had to rely heavily on the English material due to my very limited understanding of Gaelic at this point, but everything heard is either sourced from the archive or recorded on the Isle of Lewis. The music is made from recordings of small snippets of various traditional instruments and other sounds you might hear floating around the islands. Once recorded there are an infinite number of things that can be done to twist the sound into any kind of music you can think of. The compositions here are made primarily from looping very small segments of audio, after which these can then be time stretched, pitch altered and mapped to the keys of a keyboard, allowing a new instrument to be born out of virtually any sound while still retaining the source texture.
It’s a bit of a crude first attempt production wise, In the future hopefully more of these will materialise with a bit more Gaelic. My hope is that It could develop into an interesting topic for a dreamy podcast series, whilst also providing an educational resource for folklore enthusiasts and Gaelic learners to immerse themselves in the language.
Hope you enjoy it.
You can find more of Fraser’s work on his website: Home | Fraser MacBeath – Music & Sound Design (wixsite.com)
All archive recordings used from SSSA as listed below:
| Contributor | Title | Fieldworker | |||
| SA1973.160 | Betsty Whyte | A changeling baby banished and the real baby restored | Peter Cooke and Linda Williamson | ||
| SA1976.109 | Betsy Whyte | A fisherman saw a mermaid sitting on a rock, | Linda Williamson | ||
| SA1975.107 | Betsy Whyte | A man was changed into a woman and had a family before being… | Linda Williamson | ||
| SA1972.176 | Duncan MacKinnon | An Ataireachd Àrd | Ian Paterson | ||
| SA1957.041 | Essie and Alec Stewart | Essie Stewart gives a description of a fairy she saw. | Hamish Henderson | ||
| SA1955.094 | Brucie Henderson | A woman was rescued from a cliff prison by her lover. | Calum Maclean | ||
| SA1957.043 | Alec Stewart | The contributor discusses his fondness for storytelling. | Hamish Henderson | ||
| SA1989.045 | John James | Santa Cruz | Margaret Bennet and Stephanie Smith | ||
| SA1964.067 | Gordeanna McCulloch | The Shoals o Herrin | Norman Buchan | ||
| SA1971.072 | Dolina Maclennan | Dh’fhàg mi ‘n Seo na Shìneadh e | Peter Cooke | ||
| SA1985.057 | Thomas David Edgar | Unknown/Gypsy Woman | Peter Cooke and Jo Miller |
Future of University of Edinburgh trusted research environments
For the past few years, Information Services (ISG) have been providing a University Data Safe Haven (DSH) service, to host analysis of sensitive research data. Alongside this, Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC) have been delivering national services such as the Scottish National Safe Haven, run on behalf of Public Health Scotland.
EPCC is a key partner in the Data Driven Innovation programme (DDI), and is funded through the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal to deliver the Edinburgh International Data Facility. This will provide similar trusted research environments, such as the DataLoch.
The purpose for which the University DSH service was constructed is now converging with the services which EPCC will be providing as part of the EIDF. ISG and EPCC are now working together to rationalise how these services are provided into the future.
The EIDF and ISG DSH teams will now begin looking at detailed plans for supporting current and future users and the University DSH will stop accepting further projects for on-boarding from 18 June, 2021. Timeframes for research project migrations, where necessary, will be decided on a case by case basis in consultation with principal investigators. We will be contacting all current University DSH project owners to discuss their service provision, and we will similarly contact project owners who were investigating using the University DSH.
For further information contact Robin Rice, Research Data Service Owner (r.rice@ed.ac.uk), Information Services or Rob Baxter, Director of Data Services, EPCC (r.baxter@epcc.ed.ac.uk).
Upcoming Events Celebrating SSSA at 70
As part of our ongoing celebrations for our 70th Anniversary, we are delighted to announce some events which are coming up in August.
Fieldwork & Creative Engagement: Oral History of Port Glasgow Women
Thursday, 12 August 2021, 14:00-16:30.
Online, via Zoom.
Free, but ticketed via Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/157935676861
Our two presentations are rooted in the lived experience of women in the shipbuilding communities of Port Glasgow, recordings of which are held in our collection. Through our presenters’ fieldwork – undertaken almost 30 years apart – we see the importance of fieldwork, the collection and preservation of oral history recordings. It is from this perspective we will explore the value in creative reuse of archive recordings.
Speakers:
Dr Hugh Hagan, Head of Public Records Act Implementation at the National Records of Scotland, is passionate about the shipbuilding communities of Port Glasgow and Greenock on the lower reaches of the River Clyde, particularly in the inter-war period. These towns, being removed by some distance from the large and diverse economy of Glasgow, depended entirely on shipbuilding and they developed a very particular sense of community. This was the subject of his PhD research at the School of Scottish Studies in the 1990s and he will draw on that research, specifically the role of women in these communities, in his talk.
Martine Robertson and Hannah Wood, of GaelGal Productiions, were undertaking studies at the Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh, when they attended a lecture by Hugh Hagan, about his Port Glasgow work. They were galvanised to revisit this fieldwork, recording new material with the family of Cassie Graham, one of Hugh’s contributors. They have also been inspired to take these stories to centre stage, lifting the voices and experience of women of the Port Glasgow community and using these recordings in their creative practice. The presentation at this event is but one postcard-sized venture into their ongoing creative piece, What A Voice.
Q&A
After the presentations we shall have a short break, followed by a chaired question-and-answer session with our presenters. Participants are encouraged to submit questions in the chat facility during the papers and the break.
This session is open to anyone who wishes to attend and those with a particular interest in collecting, researching, or creating with oral history recordings. Please register for the event via the link to Eventbrite. Joining instructions will be sent with your ticket.
SSSA at The Edinburgh International Festival
There will also be two special events centring on the work of The School of Scottish Studies (Celtic and Scottish Studies Department) and on music, songs and singers within the collections here at SSSA. These events are hosted by EIF, and you can buy tickets from the website links provided.
A Folk Song Sharing– https://www.eif.co.uk/events/university-of-edinburgh-a-folk-song-sharing
Sunday, 8 August, Old College Quad. 15:00
An intimate intergenerational exchange of songs and their stories: three artists share their favourite songs, how they came to sing them, the story behind each song and how their interpretation evolved. Features performances from Nancy Nicolson (Scots song and story), Josie Duncan (Scots, Gaelic and original song) and Arthur Cormack (Gaelic song).
The Living Archive – https://www.eif.co.uk/events/university-of-edinburgh-the-living-archive
Sunday, 8 August, Old College Quad. 20:00
A range of song, music and dance inspired by material from the School of Scottish Studies Archive. Performances inspired by material from the School of Scottish Studies Archives from Kirsty Law (Scots song), Mary MacMaster (clarsach, electro harp) and Mike Vass (fiddle, tenor guitar) with Sophie Stephenson (dance).
To be kept up to date with the events happening for our 70th anniversary, please follow our blog here or find us on twitter https://twitter.com/EU_SSSA
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