From the Alleghenies to the Hebrides

From the Alleghenies to the Hebrides PDF Author: Margaret Fay Shaw
Publisher: Birlinn Ltd
ISBN: 0857902857
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Margaret Fay Shaw's life spans a century of change. Orphaned at 11 she left home and school in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia aged 16, crossing to Scotland to spend a year at school near Glasgow. It was there that her love for Scotland was born. After studying music in New York and Paris, she returned to live for six years with two sisters in South Uist. Life on the island had changed little from previous centuries, and material comforts were few. But the island was rich in music and tradition, and Margaret Fay Shaw's collection of Gaelic lore and song are amongst the most important made this century, whilst her photography evocatively captures the aura of a vanished world. Her autobiography is the remarkable testament of a remarkable woman as well as a powerful plea in defence of a Gaelic culture and world under threat. It is written with a sharpness of observation, directness of humour and zest for life which make it a marvellous record of the twentieth century.

From the Alleghenies to the Hebrides

From the Alleghenies to the Hebrides PDF Author: Margaret Fay Shaw
Publisher: Birlinn Ltd
ISBN: 0857902857
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Margaret Fay Shaw's life spans a century of change. Orphaned at 11 she left home and school in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia aged 16, crossing to Scotland to spend a year at school near Glasgow. It was there that her love for Scotland was born. After studying music in New York and Paris, she returned to live for six years with two sisters in South Uist. Life on the island had changed little from previous centuries, and material comforts were few. But the island was rich in music and tradition, and Margaret Fay Shaw's collection of Gaelic lore and song are amongst the most important made this century, whilst her photography evocatively captures the aura of a vanished world. Her autobiography is the remarkable testament of a remarkable woman as well as a powerful plea in defence of a Gaelic culture and world under threat. It is written with a sharpness of observation, directness of humour and zest for life which make it a marvellous record of the twentieth century.

Cycling in the Hebrides

Cycling in the Hebrides PDF Author: Richard Barrett
Publisher: Cicerone Press Limited
ISBN: 1783622865
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
This guidebook describes 37 day rides for all abilities, and 22 linking routes for more experienced cycle tourists, allow riders to visit all the essential sights in over 20 islands of the Hebrides and of the Firth of Clyde. Routes range from those suitable for short weekend breaks to a challenging 600-mile tour (includes the 200 mile Hebridean Way / NCR 780 along the length of the Outer Hebrides). Whether you're putting together a fortnight's tour or just enjoying a few day rides from a single base, this guide is packed with useful information to help you make the most of your trip. The Hebridean islands offer a wealth of wonderful scenery: the majestic Cuillin mountains on Skye; the otherworldly palm trees on Bute; the marvellous white shell sands on Tiree and Harris. This guidebook features detailed custom mapping and elevation profiles for all routes, and comprehensive information of ferry and transport routes, accommodation, food and drink, supplies, cycle spares and repairs. Island hopping in these islands is a magical experience. The guide visits over 20 of them and each has its own interesting history and wildlife. Reasonably fit cyclists can enjoy these routes at their own pace; experienced cycle tourists will eat up the miles.

Outer Hebrides

Outer Hebrides PDF Author: Mark Rowe
Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides
ISBN: 1784770361
Category : Hebrides (Scotland)
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
adt's new guide to the Outer Hebrides: The Western Isles of Scotland, from Lewis to Barra, by experienced writer and journalist Mark Rowe is the only full-size guide to focus solely on the islands of Lewis, Harris, St Kilda, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, Eriskay, Barra and Vatersay. Masses of background information is included, from geography and geology to art and architecture, with significant coverage of wildlife, too, as well as all the practical details you could need: when to visit, suggested itineraries, public holidays and festivals, local culture, plus accommodation and where to eat and drink. Walkers, bird-watchers, wildlife photographers, beach lovers and genealogists are all catered for, and this is an ideal guide for those who travel simply with curious minds to discover far-flung places of great cultural, historical and wildlife interest. The Outer Hebrides is an archipelago of 15 inhabited islands and more than 50 others that are free of human footprint. Huge variations in landscape are found across the islands, from Lewisian gneiss, which dates back almost three billion years, to rugged Harris with its magnificent sands running down its western flanks and the windswept, undulating flatness and jagged sea lochs of the Uists. This is a land where Gaelic is increasingly spoken and ancient monuments abound, where stunning seabird colonies and birds of prey can be watched, and where the grassy coastal zones known as the machair are transformed into glorious carpets of wildfllowers in late spring and summer. Whether visiting the Standing Stones of Callanish, the Uig peninsula, Barra's Castle Bay, or historic St Kilda, or if you just want to experience the romance of the Sound of Harris, one of the most beautiful ferry journeys in the world, Bradt's Outer Hebrides: The Western Isles of Scotland, from Lewis to Barra has all the information you need.

CCC Cruising Scotland

CCC Cruising Scotland PDF Author: Mike Balmforth
Publisher: Imray, Laurie, Norie and Wilson Ltd
ISBN: 1786794500
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
This lavishly illustrated book has been designed as a companion to the Clyde Cruising Club's Sailing Directions and covers the Scottish west coast from the Clyde to Cape Wrath and all the outlying islands. Cruising Scotland makes inspiring and informative reading for anyone considering sailing the area. It provides additional information, points of interest and many photographs and is a fascinating and invaluable addition to the Club's publications. No yacht cruising the Scottish west coast should be without a copy. It was first written by the late Journal Editor, Mike Balmforth, in conjunction with the Editor of the Sailing Directions, Edward Mason, who has now prepared this third edition with Imray.

The Celtic Breeze

The Celtic Breeze PDF Author: Heather McNeil
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313009686
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Delve into a world of kelpies, mermaids, selkies, ghosts, warlords, and fairies. This collection gives you Celtic tales, previously unrecorded or only found in obscure compilations. Mostly collected by the author on her ancestral home of the Isle of Barra in the Hebrides, these lesser-known tales from Scotland, Ireland, and Wales are supported by a brief history of the Celts, a glossary of the Gaelic integrated in the stories, an appendix of superstitions about fairy protection, and bibliographies that reflect the author's extensive research. Seventeen ballads collected almost one hundred years ago and excerpts from the author's journal of travels in Scotland make this book a unique and valuable resource for anyone who tells stories.

Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales from Burns to Buchan

Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales from Burns to Buchan PDF Author: Gordon Jarvie
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141900202
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Mystery and excitement abound in this lively collection of fairy tales, folklore and legends, which celebrate Scotland's enormously rich oral tradition and offers a carefully chosen combination of old favourites such as Tam Lin, Thomas Rymer and Adam Bell, as well as more modern stories by master story-tellers like Andrew Lang, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and John Buchan.

Return to Muck

Return to Muck PDF Author: Marg Greenwood
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1803139455
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
An older woman travels solo through the Hebrides, recounting her adventures, local history, the natural world and folklore in prose, poetry and song, beautifully illustrated by photographs she takes along the way

The Sea House

The Sea House PDF Author: Elisabeth Gifford
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1466841400
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
In 1860, Alexander Ferguson, a newly ordained vicar and amateur evolutionary scientist, takes up his new parish, a poor, isolated patch on the remote Scottish island of Harris. He hopes to uncover the truth behind the legend of the selkies—mermaids or seal people who have been sighted off the north of Scotland for centuries. He has a more personal motive, too; family legend states that Alexander is descended from seal men. As he struggles to be the good pastor he was called to be, his maid Moira faces the terrible eviction of her family by Lord Marstone, whose family owns the island. Their time on the island will irrevocably change the course of both their lives, but the white house on the edge of the dunes keeps its silence long after they are gone. It will be more than a century before the Sea House reluctantly gives up its secrets. Ruth and Michael buy the grand but dilapidated building and begin to turn it into a home for the family they hope to have. Their dreams are marred by a shocking discovery. The tiny bones of a baby are buried beneath the house; the child's fragile legs are fused together—a mermaid child. Who buried the bones? And why? To heal her own demons, Ruth feels she must discover the secrets of her new home—but the answers to her questions may lie in her own traumatic past. The Sea House by Elisabeth Gifford is a sweeping tale of hope and redemption and a study of how we heal ourselves by discovering our histories.

The Man Who Gave Away His Island

The Man Who Gave Away His Island PDF Author: Ray Perman
Publisher: Birlinn
ISBN: 0857900781
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
In 1938 John Lorne Campbell bought the Hebridean isle of Canna. He wanted to prevent it becoming a rich man's playground (like so many other islands and Highland estates), to preserve a part of traditional Gaelic culture and show that efficient farming methods could be compatible with wildlife conservation and sustainability. But his determination to get the island left him burdened by debt, and even after he gave it to the National Trust for Scotland in 1981 he still had to fight to secure his legacy. This acclaimed book is an insightful and human portrait of one of the twentieth century's most significant scholars of the Gaelic world, and of his 60-year partnership with Margaret Fay Shaw, who together created the world-famous library of Gaelic song and other material at Canna House.

Biographical Dictionary of ScottishWomen

Biographical Dictionary of ScottishWomen PDF Author: Elizabeth L. Ewan
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748626603
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
This single-volume dictionary presents the lives ofindividual Scottish women from earliest times to the present. Drawing on newscholarship and a wide network of professional and amateur historians, itthrows light on the experience of women from every class and category inScotland and among the worldwide Scottish diaspora.The BiographicalDictionary of Scottish Women is written for the general reading public andfor students of Scottish history and society. It is scholarly in itsapproach to evidence and engaging in the manner of its presentation. Eachentry makes sense of its subject in narrative terms, telling a story ratherthan simply offering information. The book is as enjoyable to read as it iseasy and valuable to consult. It is a unique and important contribution tothe history of women and Scotland.The publisher acknowledges support fromthe Scottish Arts Council and the Scottish Executive Equalities Unit towardsthe publication of this title.