This is a past event
A festival to celebrate the singing traditions of North-East Scotland, Orkney, England, and Ireland in the unique setting of Cullerlie Farm Park, Tom and Anne Reid's farm in rural Aberdeenshire.
The Festival
The weekend is a unique celebration, bringing together outstanding traditional singers from the North East of Scotland, Orkney, England, and Ireland. The event is especially for those who like to hear, enjoy, and join in traditional singing. Essentially informal, friendly, and non-competitive, it will be just the place to encourage the young and less experienced as well as the old hands.
The weekend includes:
- Ceilidhs featuring the guest singers;
- Singarounds for everyone who wants to join in;
- Workshops: - Writing Bothy Ballads (Sheena Blackhall) - Waulking Songs (Margaret Bennett) - Farmhouse Cooking (Anne Reid) - Farm Museum Tour (Tom Reid) - Clipping and Sheepdog Demonstration (Colin Riach) - Quilting (Daisy Kennedy)
- A Talk on 'Highland Folkways' by Dr Margaret Bennett.
About Cullerlie
Cullerlie Farm Park and Heritage Centre is run by Tom and Anne Reid, helped by their family. Tom moved to Cullerlie Estate with his parents when just a toddler in 1935, and worked with his father in the traditional way of farming. He has kept the traditions alive by turning the old original steading into a farm museum with one of the largest privately owned collections of farming and domestic memorabilia in Scotland.
In 1977 Tom was crowned 'The Bothy Ballad King' and still holds the title. Tom and Anne promote the North-East tongue through singing and speaking workshops with school children and adults of the North East at schools and at the museum.
They like nithin better than sittin doon wi a puckle fowk in spikin aboot the auld times. In there's plunty tae keep fowk spikin fan they see aa the auld things at Cullerlie, in if ye speir ye'll get a sang.
At the Park there is a large tearoom where they serve soup, sandwiches, and lots of delicious home baking. They cater for all needs with a baby changing area plus disabled facilities.
There is plenty to see and do - a large collection of ducks, geese, hens, bantams, guinea fowl, pea fowl, and lambs, plus rare breeds of sheep, pigs, and goats, as well as Shelties and Clydesdales.
The Park nestles at the foot of the Hill of Fare where the battles of Corrichie and Cullerlie Moor were fought. It is 6 miles north-east of Banchory and 12 miles west of Aberdeen. From Aberdeen follow the A944 to the Westhill roundabout, then fork left on the B9119 to Garlogie, then fork left again on the B9125 for 3 miles. The Park is on the right.
The Singers
Margaret Bennett, originally from the Isle of Skye, comes from a long line of traditional singers, pipers and storytellers - Gaelic on her mother's side and Lowland Scots on her father's. She has sung at folk festivals and concerts worldwide and is one of the foremost authorities on Scottish folklore. A prizewinning author, she holds an honorary Research Fellowship at the University of Glasgow School of Scottish and Celtic Studies, and lectures part-time at the RSAMD.
Sheena Blackhall of the Elphinstone Institute is a writer of great talent both in English and the local Scots, the Doric. She is also a much-loved reciter and singer in the North East of Scotland.
Billy Budge, from Hoy in Orkney, is former Coxswain of the Longhope lifeboat. He is a great all-round entertainer - singer, raconteur, musician - who is noted for his parodies and is much in demand on the islands as an MC.
Janice and Kathleen Clark, of Aberdeen, developed a love of singing from their mother's family, who came from Deeside. As young teenagers, they learnt songs from Jeannie Robertson, Lizzie Higgins and Stanley Robertson, at Aberdeen's famous folksong club. They have both tutored at Fèis Rois and for SCaT.
Danny Couper, a fish merchant from Aberdeen, is a fine exponent of the singing traditions of the North East. His abiding influences are the great singers he heard in his youth, including Jeannie Robertson, Jimmy MacBeath and Davy Stewart. He has a lively sense of humour, being self-confessed 'second worst banjo player in Britain (after Margaret Barry)'.
Jock Duncan was raised on farms near New Deer and Fyvie in the North East, where he developed his love and knowledge of traditional ballads and songs. Fiddle, melodeon, songs and stories were the only form of entertainment at the 'Saturday necht splores before the days of radio'. Jock is acknowledged as one of Scotland's foremost traditional singers and a national treasure.
Patricia Flynn lives in Mullaghbawn in South Armagh - a beautiful rural area steeped in cultural tradition - and has been singing to great acclaim at festivals and sessions throughout Ireland, the UK, and beyond, for over 20 years. She is a founder member and organiser of the famed Slieve Gullion Festival of Traditional Song.
Vic Legg, from Bodmin in Cornwall, has been singing since he was a boy. Much of his repertoire comes from his family, who were travelling hawkers, as well as from work-mates and fellow singers. He is well known for his cheery disposition and strong singing voice in the South West of England, where he is a great favourite at festivals.
Mick Quinn was born in Carricknagavna in South Armagh and now lives in retirement in Mullaghbawn. He learnt his songs and yarns from his father 'John Ned' and at barn and 'flax' dances in the 1940s. He is a noted writer of comic songs and considered by younger singers to be the father figure of the Northern Irish song tradition.
Anne Reid is our hostess and a lovely singer. She will keep an eye on us all (including Tom) and make sure everyone is just fine.
Tom ('Tam') Reid is the 'Bothy Ballad King'. He sings with great skill and gentle humour and has been a guest at festivals throughout Scotland, France and the USA.
Jim Taylor was brought up on a farm in the neighbourhood of Garlogie in Aberdeenshire, and is Tom's nephew. He is a favourite singer in the North East and past- master at compèring the local village ceilidhs.
Kate Taylor, from Garlogie, is an accomplished singer and a great enthusiast for North-East tradition. She only started singing in public about ten years ago, encouraged by her husband Jim, but has certainly made up for lost time.
Jeff Wesley is a retired dairy farmer from Whittlebury, Northamptonshire, who has worked at many traditional rural crafts, from thatching to hedge-laying. His songs come from his own locality as well as further afield, and he performs them masterfully in his own laid-back style.
- Hosted by
- Elphinstone Institute and Cullerlie Farm Park
- Venue
- Cullerlie Farm Park