Celebrating 20 years since the publication of At Home in Mackay Country

To celebrate 20 years since the publication of At Home in Mackay Country by the Mackay Country Community Trust Strathnaver Museum and NorthWest2045 have launched a community research project to revisit this seminal piece of work. The project has been made possible through funding from the Protection through Connection Fund and the North Highland Initiative Community Infrastructure Support Programme.

At Home in Mackay Country was the culmination of the Mackay Country Community Trust project Back to the Future, a project inspired and created by local communities to record their heritage and enable sustainable local development defined and implemented by local folk themselves. The publication records a multitude of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) such as living traditions, practices and knowledge which has been passed down through the generations from songs and place names to traditional crafts.  

Traditional boat building project organised by Strathnaver Museum

This new pilot project recognises the importance of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in sustaining resilient empowered communities and will run until March 2027. The team includes Ronnie Lansley, Tradition Bearer in Residence supported by Sophie Clark of NorthWest2045 who together will collaborate with tradition bearers within communities in northwest Sutherland to create an Action Plan to record, protect and share our intangible cultural heritage.

Fiona Mackenzie, Strathnaver Museum Manager explains: “Within our communities there exists a wealth of knowledge and skills that are at risk of being lost in our fast-changing world. Our pilot project At home in Mackay Country 20 years on: the carrying stream flows on will see our Tradition Bearer in Residence, Ronnie Lansley, work with apprentice Tradition Bearer, Sophie Clark, to explore, record, share and importantly safeguard this valuable body of knowledge and skills. Collaborating with NorthWest2045 and the many tradition bearers within our communities we will specifically explore how our intangible cultural heritage contributes to placemaking and what we can learn from our heritage to create a more sustainable future for all of us.”

The project brings together Strathnaver Museum and NorthWest2045 Regional Land Use Partnership in a new partnership to identify the state of intangible cultural heritage held within 7 communities across Mackay Country today. It will explore how that ICH can help shape our future towards creating sustainable and equitable communities.  

Rachel Skene, NW2045 Regional Land Use Partnership says: “We, at NorthWest2045, are inspired to be beginning this new collaboration with Strathnaver Museum. It will see strands of our respective work combine to support community-led research and development. The project will seek to build our collective agency through new ways of collaborating, with the intention of achieving a more embedded, and greater understanding of the intrinsic power of the intangible cultural knowledge interwoven throughout all placemaking.” 

NorthWest2045 at the Durness Gathering

As well as knowledge the project will explore skills and practices connected to place and the adaptability demonstrated by specific environmental conditions such as care of the landscape through traditional practices. The project will explore land management techniques and traditions, access to and use of local resources demonstrated by objects in the Strathnaver Museum collection, the preservation of local traditional skills such as the Heritage Crafts Red Listed clinker-built boat building and sail-making project led by Strathnaver Museum, and environmental restoration such as peat restoration at the newly designated UNESCO World Heritage Site The Flow Country.

Ronnie Lansley, Tradition Bearer in Residence says: “I welcome this opportunity to be part of this venture 20 years on as “Tradition bearer in residence’ to collaborate with and mentor, Sophie to actively bring forth a model of passing on knowledge intergenerationally. A Mackay Country legacy was created and this is a wonderful opportunity to ensure this is preserved and continued. Heritage is not something people did in the past and stopped it’s a statement of pride in place and it’s ongoing.”

Peter Hewitt, ICH Project Co-ordinator said: "The ICH Partnership in Scotland is very excited to support this innovative project which seeks to identify and understand the true value and rootedness of intangible cultural heritage and its tradition bearers in Mackay Country. With Strathnaver Museum as a base, the project will enable a 'tradition bearer in residence' to help establish intergenerational transmission of skills, stories and song. Support will also come from the innovative NorthWest2045 Regional Land Use Partnership (RLUP), one of 5 pilot RLUPs established in 2021 by the Scottish Government to support stakeholders to work together with communities to make equitable land use decisions."

Genevieve Duhigg, Chair of North Highland Initiative said: “NHI are delighted to be helping to fund Strathnaver Museum.  It’s an important part of our cultural heritage and community life and we’re grateful to all the trustees and volunteers for the work they have done and will no doubt continue to do”.