Voices: The Hebridean Story

Over the course of the last 6 weeks, we have successfully launched our pilot project, Voices: The Hebridean Story. I’m Taylor Webb and have been involved in this project as a Robertson Trust Intern and a student at the University of St Andrews. The aim of this oral history project was to interview, publish and archive a snapshot of the unique stories and experiences of people living in the Scottish Hebrides during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This project offers the stories of a diverse range of people living in the Hebrides and is part of a larger community engagement programme for 2022: Scotland’s Year of stories. The recordings have been catalogued and will be permanently archived and available at the local authority archive, Tasglann nan Eilean (Hebridean Archives)

The SCA would like to say a huge thank you to our partners for their expertise and support: Dom Miller-Graham, OurStory Scotland; Connor T Walker and Jeni Park, Scotland’s Sounds, National Library of Scotland; and Seonaid McDonald, Archivist, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and Tasglann nan Eilean (Hebridean Archives).

We also want to extend a massive thank you to Shona MacLellan the Digital Heritage Project Officer at Museum nan Eilean who translated the Gaelic introductions of some of our participants which can be found here. Finally thank you to all of our volunteers – this would not be possible without all of you being willing to share your story with us!

If you are curious to gain insight into what life was like in these remote communities during a national lockdown, we welcome you to enjoy these recordings.