Where can you:
• discover the footprints of a flesh-eating dinosaur?
• touch 175 million-year old wave ripples?
• find the best rock pools for plant and animal life?? explore the original hunting grounds of Skye’s stone-age people?
• watch eagles and take a bird’s eye view yourself?
• communicate in Gaelic as a living language?
• feel the rhythms of crofting life?
• watch a waterfall tumbling down a 200 ft basalt cliff with a kiltlike appearance?
• or drive through a theatre of geology along Europe’s longest inland cliff??…
Ceumannan (footsteps or paths in Gaelic) invites you to explore Staffin’s Ecomuseum in north-east Skye. There are 13 unique sites to be disovered in the landscape - each with its own story to tell. For three years Urras an Taobh Sear (Staffin Community Trust) – has been creating Scotland’s first ‘ecomuseum’. The work was financed by the North Highland LEADER+ Programme, Scottish Executive, Heritage Lottery Fund, SNH, HIE Skye & Wester Ross, The Highland Council, Highland 2007 and Comann na Gàidhlig.
What makes Staffin unique is the assemblage of natural and heritage elements. The Trust has built on the natural resources of the area, by opening up the landscape for all to explore through interpreting the vast worlds of An Taobh Sear - ‘the East Side’. It aims to raise awareness, encourage people to go outdoors and, above all, share the heritage of the area.
A network of paths was built and upgraded throughout the district of Staffin. A number of its hidden stories have been carefully selected for communicating through interpretive panels and artwork at An Stòrr, Tobhta Uachdrach/Upper Tote, An Lethallt/Lealt, Rubha nam Bràithrean/Brothers’ Point, Creag an Fhèilidh/Kilt Rock, An Corran, Brògaig, Loch Shianta, Flòdaigearraidh/ Flodigarry, Cuith-raing/Quiraing, Staffin Museum, Columba 1400 and Staffin Hall. The high quality design was provided by Peter McDermott, mcdcreative of Sleat.
Details of the sites and walks can be found in the leaflet and on the website www.skyecomuseum.co.uk
Ecomuseums
An Ecomuseum is a dynamic way in which communities preserve, interpret, and manage their heritage for a sustainable development. The Trust has discovered that there are all round benefits for community involvement and longterm good.
The original concept of an ecomuseum was introduced by the French museologist Hugues de Varine in 1971. “Mondi Locali - Local Worlds”, the European Network of Ecomuseums, is an active network of ecomuseum practitioners and theorists in Europe (mainly Italy). It holds regular meetings in a variety of countries to share experiences and new ideas. www.ecomuseums.eu or www.localworlds.eu
Professor Peter Davis, Professor of Museology, International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies at Newcastle University, is an expert in the field. In his book 'Ecomuseums' (1999) he referred to the initiatives at Kilmartin and Easdale Island on the West Coast of Scotland, both of which had employed 'ecomuseum-type' approaches to safeguarding heritage, and had toyed with the idea of calling themselves an ecomuseum. www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/about/icchs
The Talking Landscape
In 2007 the Italian ecomuseum community set up the first Landscape Day. It was not a simple celebration of the landscape, but an occasion to provide real pro-active actions for it - and provided a step towards the implementation of the European Landscape Convention. www.mondilocali.eu
In 2008 Ceumannan has been invited to join the Landscape Day by setting up activities during the period between the summer and the winter solstices (from June 21 to December 21 2008). During this period, walking tours, workshops and evening talks will take place - starting on the 21st June with Dùthchas an aghaidh nan creag - Poetry of the Land. In the morning there will be a walk on the Quairing with Gaelic poet Maoilios Caimbeul, Dugald Ross of Staffin Museum and Sìne Ghilleasbuig. The walk (which is free of charge) will explore geology, history, place-names, stories and song. It starts at 11.00am (lasting approx. 2 hours - a reasonable level of fitness and sturdy footwear is required, bring a packed lunch, Meeting point: the car park at Flodigarry alongside Loch Langaig). At 2.30pm there will be a session on local placenames with a debate at Columba 1400 (£3.00, including tea/coffee, booking required).
Further information: Meike Schmidt (Tel 01470 562 449) staffintrust#OBFAT#technacom#OBFDOT#com or Sìne Ghilleasbuig donaldsine#OBFAT#aol#OBFDOT#com (Tel 01470 562 325).
Heritage North