Over the last two years MSDS Marine have worked with Moder Dy on a project investigating how we can achieve inclusive heritage engagement for Scotland’s island communities, undertaking work in Shetland, Skye and the Western Isles. The project was commissioned by Historic Environment Scotland and Historic England under their wider Outreach to Ownership project, and ran until September 2023 with a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Scotland’s Island Heritage
Scotland has over 900 islands which account for c. 13.6% of the country’s total landmass. Of the 900 islands, 93 are inhabited by Scotland’s island communities and these communities live amongst a rich and varied cultural heritage. Each island community has a unique identity that coalesces around its geography, demography, identity, politics, and economy, and heritage engagement is influenced by all of these factors.
Scotland’s islands contain rich evidence of past human activity, ranging from the iconic Neolithic settlement of Skara Brae on Orkney, to the Callanish standing stones of the Western Isles. Monumental broch towers exist across the islands, as do Norse settlements. Later history is represented by the imposing medieval castles of the Scottish clans while crofting settlements and cleared villages are found across Scotland, and the islands are no exception. Heritage is also intangible, and represented by a rich folklore, Scotland’s languages, place names, traditions, crafts and customs many of which remain strong on island communities. Together these remains, practices and traditions attest to the rich cultural heritage of Scotland’s islands.
Scotland as a whole has a rich history, however, higher densities of sites are recorded within island areas by Canmore, and there are also higher densities of some designated sites, including Scheduled monuments and World Heritage Sites. While these facts give a crude reflection of the tangible cultural heritage of islands, the consultation which accompanied the formation of The National Islands Plan (2019) found that islanders ‘feel strongly about preserving built heritage and the natural environment, not just for their economic value through tourism, but for the quality of life they support and as a legacy for future generations’, demonstrating the importance and potential of cultural heritage for island communities. The National Islands Plan (2019) further found that the identity of many islanders is deeply based within the culture and heritage of the island on which they live.
While island heritage is recognised to be extensive, significant, and of importance to island communities, engagement with this heritage faces numerous barriers, ranging from poor public transport to poor disabled access and other social and economic factors, and with barriers and challenges varying between islands. Our project explored these barriers (many of which also affect rural communities) and investigated strategies for dealing with them in island contexts, to enable inclusive heritage engagement.
Project Phase 1: 2022
Phase 1 of the project ran in 2022, and involved teaming up with other archaeologists, maritime ethnographers, museum curators, archivists and local history societies in Skye and Shetland to explore maritime and coastal heritage and inclusive engagement in Scottish island communities. We worked with the Museum of the Isles, Sleat Local History Society, Skye and Lochalsh Access Panel (all Skye-based) and Moder Dy, Shetland Museum and Archives, Archaeology Shetland, Ability Shetland and the Moving on Employment Project (all Shetland-based) to better understand how to achieve inclusive engagement in island communities. We did this by coming together with communities to research maritime and coastal heritage of Skye and Shetland through a series of events planned for the summer, through which we tested barriers and means to inclusive engagement. The events we ran included:
- Coastal archaeological surveys;
- Archival research workshops;
- GIS workshops;
- An arts commission;
- Pop-up events; and
- Exhibitions
Our Phase 1 report, which includes all we learned about the barriers facing heritage engagement in island communities, and strategies for overcoming these barriers, can be found here.
Project Phase 2: 2023
Phase 2 of the project was undertaken in 2023 and focused specifically on engaging young people with heritage – following the recognition that young audiences were poorly represented during Phase 1 of the project. This phase of work also focused on legacy, impact and dissemination for the project and its findings.
During phase 2 of the project we ran a series of events for young people, to test means to inclusive (youth) engagement, these were:
- Bone workshop (Western Isles, with Grimsay Community Association and Sgoil Lionacleit)
- Environmental workshop (Western Isles, with Grimsay Community Association and Sgoil Lionacleit)
- Youth walk (Western Isles, with Grimsay Community Association and Sgoil Lionacleit)
- Artist workshops and mural creation (Shetland)
We also collected information from young people on how they think heritage engagement could be improved, and spoke at numerous conferences and events on our project.
Conclusion
During this project we carried out work and research in eight different islands, spread across the Northern Isles (Shetland), Western Isles, and Skye, ran c. 40 different events, and spoke with over 800 people on the topic of inclusive heritage engagement in islands.
The project has culminated in the production of a Charter for Island Engagement. This charter pulls together our learning from the project, on how best to engage with island communities. The charter can be found here.