Our overall aims:

Grace Notes Scotland aims to conserve, nurture and promote the traditional folk culture of Scotland, both Gaelic and Scots, and to disseminate the wealth of songs, tunes, stories and widespread tradition that comprises Scotland’s intangible heritage (UNESCO 2003). In ‘handing on tradition to new generations’:

• young people learn to appreciate traditional culture and incorporate it in their lives,
• people of all ages and abilities can participate and gain cultural confidence; and
• all ages benefit from being recognised, appreciated and valued as tradition-bearers.

As Grace Notes Scotland aims to improve access to traditional knowledge at all levels (from amateur to scholarly) the organisation is also committed to planning for the future and to undertaking new programming for general participation and the broadest audience.

Specific Aims:

1. To involve a wide number of people, particularly in rural areas with limited access to any heritage projects, in participation in a range of cultural heritage activities. We aim for exchange among the young, people of all ages and abilities, and especially the elderly, who are custodians of knowledge and skill.
2. To increase the awareness, appreciation and understanding of local and national heritage, particularly language and cultural tradition in the broadest sense.
3. To offer mentoring and training to ensure the continuation of the knowledge, skill, expertise and enthusiasm that will not only conserve cultural heritage but also perpetuate it for new generations.
4. To improve accessibility to heritage skills by producing printed, audio, visual and/or web-based material of all HARVEST projects, such as booklets, displays and teaching packs, which can be distributed and/or purchased by new practitioners.

Grace Notes Scotland was launched with a two-year project
Toradh• HARVEST •Hairst
sponsored by Heritage Lottery Fund

HARVEST aims to develop a wider and greater interest in the preservation, promotion and enjoyment of all forms of Scottish folklore and folklife. The project will both serve as a magnet for tradition bearers, young people and the general public and reach out into communities across Scotland via performance, mentoring, research and documentation, rooted in the Gaelic, Scots, Norne and English-language heritage of the people of Scotland.

HARVEST includes:

1. Perthshire Memories: An oral history project in rural Perthshire involving people of all ages and abilities, talking about life in the glens and villages of Perthshire. (Opportunities for volunteers; training included.) Personal memories of shepherds, stalkers, trappers, estate workers, farm labourers, gardeners, service workers in ‘the big house’, professionals and trades-people will be recorded, then digitised, archived, indexed and selectively transcribed so that they will be accessed locally and nationally via a book of published excerpts. Venue: West Perthshire communities including Balquhidder, Killlin, Ardeonaig, Lochearnhead, St. Fillans and the Crieff area.


2. A Reunion Celebration: HARVEST will facilitate an exchange between the community of Ness, Isle of Lewis and a Scottish-Québecois group of descendents of Ness emigrants to re-establish links between people separated by emigration. A tri-lingual exhibition (Gaelic-French-English) will display heritage items from the Ness Heritage Society and photos of the landscape, homesteads and lifestyle of ‘Les Ecossais’ in Quebec. The groups will prepare and share heritage menus of Lewis and Quebec traditional foods followed by a cèilidh. All aspects open to the public. Follow-up with pen-pal set up between schoolchildren in Lewis and Quebec— ‘practice your French/English’. Venues: Ness Heritage Society and Ness Community Centre, Isle of Lewis, North Uist & Harris.