NEW COMMUNITY PROJECT LAUNCHED

This week marks the beginning of an innovative project that aims to collect and conserve the Isle of Skye’s Gaelic oral culture. Stòras Shlèite, a project led by the library team at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture, will showcase the stories, folklore and music of the Sleat peninsula in south Skye.

Over the next year, the team hope to collect stories, songs, and dialect material from Gaelic speakers within the community, whilst also drawing on Sabhal Mòr Ostaig’s existing archives, to create an online local heritage resource that can be used by locals, educators, and anyone interested in Gaelic language and culture.   

Greg Thomson, Project Lead and Assistant Library Manager at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, said:

“The aim of this project is to collect and preserve the folklore, song, and dialect of the parish of Sleat. A large part of the project will be recording the memories of local people and utilising pre-existing song and language archives. The end goal is to create a web resource and teaching materials that will feature old and new recordings of songs, phrases, and dialect from this corner of Skye.

“Collection of oral history can sometimes be associated with storage in academic archives with uncertainty about access but the aim of this project is to give knowledge back to the people it belongs to. The community will hopefully play a role in building this archive, as it is their stories, songs, and traditions that we wish to collect. We’re inviting Gaelic speakers and people with knowledge of Sleat’s traditions to bring their stories about the area and play a role in capturing and conserving Skye’s local culture and history.”

Donnie MacKinnon, acting Chair of Camuscross and Duisdale Initiative and former Chair of Sleat Community Council said:

“I am delighted to hear about the project Sabhal Mòr Ostaig is undertaking. It will be very helpful to bring together an online and accessible ‘stòras’ of knowledge, traditions and local history of Sleat.

“I can foresee the resource being used by many individuals and groups to help them learn more about this beautiful part of the world where we live, and to support its healthy future development – mo bheannachd orra!”

The project has received financial assistance from Bòrd na Gàidhlig and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.

Anyone who is interested in taking part is asked to contact Greg Thomson, in the Library at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig at:  or on +44  1471 888205.