Dingwall: Dig Where You Stand - The Market Town | Am Baile Margaidh

The Market Town | Am Baile Margaidh with Richard Lockett

Late summer. For centuries, Dingwall was one of the great meeting points of the Highland year. Drovers brought cattle and sheep from across the north and west – from Kintail and the far northwest, from Ullapool, from Braemore and Garve, from farms and crofts across Easter Ross. The drovers are one of the most vivid expressions of what made Dingwall a market town, celebrated in a bronze statue outside the mart today.

That world is now largely invisible, but it is still written into the landscape – in placenames that mark crossings, fords, and routes through the hills, in poetry, story and song celebrating colourful characters and dramatic events. Ross-shire farmer, ecologist, and modern-day drover Richard Lockett has helped bring that tradition back into lived experience. Alongside archive voices, he will help us trace the drove routes that converged on Dingwall, discussing the relevance of cattle to ecological restoration in the modern era.

Format:  talk, maps, archives, writing, tea and cake

About the programme

From late summer to midwinter, these sessions invite you to dig where you stand: to explore the cultural memory of Dingwall and its surrounding landscape. Countless generations before ours had a closer connection to nature and the changing seasons, bound up with a sense of community and conviviality across the rhythm of the agricultural year. Each week we explore a different part of that world – from stories of drovers, herring girls and radical resistance, to harvest seeds, plants and birds, to the music and song of the winter ceilidh. Part conversation, part creative workshop. Drop in for one session or follow the season as it turns. Open to all. Bring what you know!

Background

This programme was developed by ethnologist and creative practitioner Mairi McFadyen for Fèis Rois and Dingwall 800, exploring the cultural and ecological memory of the local area through conversation and creativity. Dig Where You Stand takes its name from an international public history movement that invites communities to research and reclaim local histories.