Highland Council has been running the ‘spirit:360’ project – which is gathering stories and artworks to celebrate the Spirit of the Highlands – and Contin resident Phil Baarda was commissioned to create a series of short audio dramas inspired by the placenames around Contin. There are six episodes, all at around 10 minutes long, and they follow a recentlybereaved fictional father and daughter who explore their locality and find the old Gaelic names in the landscape have stories behind them which seem relevant now. ‘Like many people, I’m fascinated by placenames,’ said Phil.
‘They might seem to be obscure, but they’re often highly descriptive or have myths and tales associated with them. That was the starting point of these plays – me finding out what certain placenames mean, which inspired me to create new stories around them.’
Phil Baard
The dramas feature place-names like Preas Mairi (the Mackenzie family mausoleum – meaning ‘St Maelrubhe’s thicket’, and Meall na Gulbean which is next to Lochan nan Tuirc (‘hill of the snout’ and ‘boar’s lochan’) – both referring to a legend about the giant Finn McCool and his warriors.
They’re freely available to listen to at https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblogbv2ib-d3d430 and there are other stories of the Highlands at www.spiritofthehighlands.com/