Case Studies

The project aimed to collect, research and share Orkney family legends about surnames and place names. These aims were all achieved.

The project collected 226 legends in a database (including some variants of the same story). These were drawn from both oral and written sources: Interviews with Orkney people, oral history audio archives at Orkney Archive and School of Scottish Studies, published books (e.g. George Marwick Yesnaby’s Master Storyteller), pamphlets (e.g. produced by heritage groups and projects), magazines (e.g. Sib Folk News) and websites.

Actual audience figures for the film screening were nearly 50% higher than forecast, and a 4.75/5 ping-pongometer score (our audience feedback system) was our highest for many years.

Our invited director Eva Charlotte Nilsen travelled with her husband and both were invited to be guests of honour for Norwegian Constitution Day on May 17th. Eva gave a speech outside St Magnus Cathedral and her husband Erik Bugge gave a speech at the dinner reception in the evening. This was a nice positive outcome which wasn't forecast and made their visit extra special.

The project is aimed at both local people and visitors to the islands.  The project benefits the people of Orkney directly, enabling them to participate in the storytelling and workshops, enjoying our own local storytellers and visiting professional performers. Visitors to the islands enjoy out-of-season activities that involve local traditions and culture. A collaborative story-telling event hosted at Stromness library for local teenagers was one of the fully-subscribed events (this was a donations only event, not paid tickets) - there was a waiting list in case spaces opened up.

The project has enabled three young people to form their own group within the organisation – Soulisquoy Young Associates – and to feel confident in developing new projects that reach out to other young people within Orkney.

The three young people taking the initiative in this project established a clear outcome of producing a set of individual lanterns. They developed a set of inter-connected workshops that involved papermaking, creating lino cuts, and then printing these onto their handmade paper. The final session saw the prints constructed into lanterns, which were then photographed. https://www.soulisquoy.co.uk/art-evolution-youth-project

We aim to encourage people of all ages to enjoy playing with other musicians and continue their musical journey, develop their aural skills and have fun, make friendships, easily accessible to all, with no economic barriers to access. We provide a one-hour tutor led music session of “local session type tunes” with music notation and music stands made available to all. By playing the tunes slowly and repetitively it allows musicians to gain confidence and develop their aural skills to play with a group of musicians.