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Sound walk SWS23 2022

Machair

Gathering Seaweed
Liniclate, Isle of Benbecula, UK
35 minutes
Free
Gaelic

environment

4 sub-collections · 188 items

field recordings

Collection · 56 items

place

Collection · 201 items

Regions

Ireland

Country · 13 sub-regions · 159 items

environment

4 sub-collections · 188 items

field recordings

Collection · 56 items

place

Collection · 201 items

Regions

Ireland

Country · 13 sub-regions · 159 items
This soundwalk explores the traditions and ecology of Uist’s machair.

This soundwalk explores the traditions and ecology of Uist’s machair. A Gaelic word meaning fertile, low-lying grassy plain, machair is one of Europe’s rarest yet most species-rich habitats; only occurring on the exposed west-facing shores of Scotland and Ireland, 70% of which is found on Uist. Generations of low-intensity farming have shaped this unique landscape and encouraged wildlife over millennia. Developed in partnership with the local community, this work combines spoken narratives, field recordings, and compositions with archival sound recordings from Edinburgh University’s School of Scottish Studies, that chart over 70-years of recorded history.

This work was commissioned by Dandelion and Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre, with funds from Event Scotland.

Credits

Production Team: Duncan MacLeod (composer), Mairi McFadyen (creative ethnologist), and Sorcha Monk (creative producer),

Contributors: Alisdair MacEachen, Freddie MacDonald, Seoras MacDonald, and Matthew Topsfield.


Hosted by: Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre, Lochmaddy, Isle of North Uist

APA style reference

MacLeod, D. (2022). Machair. walk · listen · create. https://walklistencreate.org/walkingpiece/machair/

conspectus

A place to gaze. Conspectuses are viewpoints where the terrain opens itself naturally to the viewer, where the eye can thread in and out of the circle of hills, and names suggest a narrative sequence offering the possibility of beginning to know where you are. Traditional conspectus include suidhe (Gaelic, seat), used to view hunting.

Added by Alec Finlay
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