Project

A new project is formulating in my mind - We Walk Through Empty Glens

its title is coming from the line in a favourite Runrig song

the impetous behind this project is that there still remains evidence of the glens pre-clearances in an area not far from my home. I want to document it before it slips away. The ruins are quite humbling, in that the more remote they are the more preserved they tend to be. The landlords and overseers may have torched the roofs of these dwellings but they were built of sound stone and fine construction and much of them still remains in the more remote glens.

I want to capture them, and the impressions of the lost lives and spirits within them while the evidence remains there. Every year the weather takes it toll and tourists are venturing into the remoter glens often taking little souveneirs of their visits and this is also taking it toll on these ancient dwellings.

Many, particularly those close to villages and town, have been robbed out. The stone removed, and reused in slightly more modern building but the remote ones are left to crumble slowly. There is one I especially want to get to that I have only briefly looked at which still has the picture frames on the wall, the pots in the fireplace and a broken chair and table at one wall. This has stood, complete like this, since the clearances dessimated the glen. Its a fine walk in - about 5 hours from the nearest car parking point (and you have to do the same back). I guess that's why so much of it remains. I have only once glimpsed it. There are four cottages in the glen. The condition gets better the further into it you go, but its boggy and has no paths. Its little used, even by the sheep, that ousted the original occupants of the glens.

Here you walk with one foot in the past and hear the voices echo through time to you of those displaced and lost to their homeland. Here you really feel the full force of the sentiment behind Runrigs most excellent song. And though you walk through empty glens you can feel the people returning, the desire to make Scotland great again.

I feel it, I hear it, and I'm only 1/4 Scot.

Jan