(Ceann-duilleig den làrach-lìn, agus Gàidhlig agus Albais air / site banner showing Gaelic and Scots)
Tobar an Dualchais / Kist o’ Riches
Lèirmheas / review
’S e proiseact uabhasach inntinneach is feumail a th’ ann an Tobar an Dualchais do dhuine sam bith aig a bheil ùidh ann an dualchas na h-Alba (Gàidheal no Gall) san fhairsaingeachd agus ann an eachdraidh shòisealta is ceòl tradiseanta gu h-àraidh.
Bha amas fad-fhadharcach aig a’ phroiseact:
….tha [Tobar] an dùil clàir-fhuaim Gàidhlig agus Albais a chur gu cruth didseatach agus a chatalogadh, gus an sgaoileadh air-loidhne. Nì seo cinnteach gun glèidhear am beairteas mòr sgeulachdan, bàrdachd, ciùil agus fiosrachaidh mar chunntas àraid de chultar agus cànan ann an Alba. Mar thoradh, bidh na clàir rim faighinn gu furasta airson feumalachdan foghlaim agus pearsanta.
bho http://www.myspace.com/tobarandualchais
Tha ceithir ‘tobraichean’ cudromach ann às an do thairraing an goireas an stòras luachmhòr aige:
- Sgeulachdan air an clàradh le Iain Latharna Caimbeul ann an 1937
- Beul-aithris air a thogail o air feadh Alba le Calum MacGill-Eain anns na 1950an
- Òrain Albais aig an luchd-siubhail air an clàradh le Hamish MacEanraig sna 1960an
- Prògraman còmhraidh agus ciùil bho Radio nan Gàidheal
bho http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/gd/more
Tha clàraidhean anns a h-uile cànan na h-Alba ann – Gàidhlig, Albais, Doric, Beurla, na dualchainntean Arcaibh is Sealltainn. Faodaidh tu rannsachadh tron mhapa air an duilleig dhachaigh fhèin (tha barrachd air 2000 toraidhean ann airson Siorrachd Rois, mar eiseimpleir), no le faclan / cuspairean / ainmean fa leth. Tha an làrach-lìn fhèin dà-chànanach – ri fhaotainn sa Bheurla is sa Gàidhlig, mar a thogras tu.
(Pairt den duilleag-dhachaigh)
Bha mi a’ lorg ainmean ann an Rois an Ear agus cha robh mòran ann – càil sam bith airson bailtean Machair Rois, gu mì-fhòrtanach, ach bha cuid ann le iomradh air Cromba is Bàgh an Uig, agus Baile Dhubhthaich agus na bailtean nas motha den sgìre. Seo eiseimpleir de dhuilleag-fhiosrachaidh chunbhalach – chì thu cho soilleir is fiosrachail ‘s a tha i:
Title – Prògram Choinnich
Contributors – Donald Roderick MacLeod
Reporters – Kenneth MacIver – Gaelic
Genre – Radio Programmes
Collection – BBC Track ID – 10633
Original Tape ID – Program Choinnich 17.10.1997Summary – The history of Tain and making engines as a hobby.
Former headmaster Donald Roderick MacLeod talks about the history of Tain, including its royal links and the impact of the oil industry on the town. He also gives an insight into his own hobby of making engines.
Track Duration (h:m:s) – 00:09:37
Date Transmitted – 1997.10.17
http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/10633/11 (Accessed 17.02.11)
Tha aon chuspair gu math ainmeil ann a tha an-còmhnaidh san liosta ‘Clàran as trice taghte’ –‘An Iolaire, sgeulan no òrain mun luing mhì-fhòrtanaich sin a chaidh fodha cho dhlùth ri cala Steòrnobhaigh dìreach às dèidh a’ Chogaidh Mhòir. Seo sgeul agus òran sa Bheurla:
Title – The Iolaire
Contributors – Norman Stewart
Reporters – Dr Margaret BennettSummary – Disaster ballad describing the loss of over two hundred sailors and soldiers on board the Iolaire as it sank trying to enter Stornoway harbour on New Year’s Day 1919.
Norman Stewart explains that his grandfather had been transferred from the Iolaire to another ship before it left Kyle of Lochalsh, and thus survived.
Collection – School of Scottish Studies
Track ID – 90837 Original Tape ID – SA1989.044
http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/90837/11 (accessed 17.02.11)
agus òran eile sa Ghàidhlig:
Title – Òran an Iolaire
Contributors – Captain Donald Joseph MacKinnon
Reporters – Dr John Lorne CampbellSummary – The bard composed this lament after the sinking of the ship Iolaire. He says that everything was fine when the ropes were released and she set sail. However, she hit the rocks and although the ship was close to the shore she was plundered. The bard then says that Lewis and Harris are lamenting and that he knew two of the heroes that were lost: one from Northton and another from Leverburgh.
At the end of the song he implores people to tell the youth about the heroes who drowned on the Iolaire.
Collection – National Trust for Scotland Track ID – 42423 Original Tape ID – box_06_D14-B
http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/42423/1 (accessed 17.02.11)
Is truagh nach eil rud ann mu dhèidhinn an Linnet againn fhèin, ge-tà.
Seo eiseimpleir a tha sealltainn mar a tha na sgeulachdan a tha iad air a bith a’ clàradh tro na bliadhnaichean, an tè seo bho choimhearsneachd iasgaich ann an Cataibh:
Title – Sound of screaming was a premonition of a drowning.
Contributors – Donald Grant
Reporters – Tadaake MiyakeThe six crew of a salmon coble, five from Melvich and one from Portskerra, tied up for Sunday and decided to meet at 3 a.m. on Monday to start fishing again. The Portskerra man took the path to Melvich to meet up with the rest, who were late. He had to pass a big stone with iron rings set into it for tying up boats. He put his hand on the stone and repeatedly heard a scream like someone drowning in the sea. When the rest of the crew arrived he tackled them about being late, but when they checked their watches it was just three o’clock. They went to the nets, then came ashore for breakfast, and soon the story was being told around both villages. The following Monday they made an early start again. This time the crew from Melvich found the body of a woman under the stone, drowned. She had been with them the previous night. A week had passed since the Portskerra crewman had heard the drowning noises.
The woman’s son is still [1972] alive, so Donald Grant mentions no names. She was a woman who was fascinated by the sea and would sit on the rocks watching it at night. She evidently gave herself to it.
Collection – School of Scottish Studies Track ID – 50912 Original Tape ID – SA1972.240
http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/50912/5 (accessed 17.02.11)
Seo a’ phrìomh dhuilleag ma bhios thu a’ rannsachadh Arcaibh – chì thu gu bheil e gu math furasda faighinn a-mach dè tha ann:
(accessed 16.02.11)
Tha bhideo inntinneach ann air YouTube a tha a’ mìneachadh sa Bheurla ciamar a bhios iad ag obair leis na seann chlàraidhean gus faidhlaichean didseatach a dhèanamh, ann an oifis Loch Baghasdail:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhiShBJBQVo (Title: English Documentary: Tobar an Dualchais )
agus bhideo eile nas sgoilearaiche ach glè fhiosrachail is mionaideach:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boBzSa1z2rk (Title: Kenny Beaton talks about the Tobar An Dualchais project at the AddressingHistory Launch Event)
Nuair a thig an ath latha gruamach agus thu steigte anns an taigh gun mhiann sam bith obair-taighe no obair-pàipeir ràsanach a dhèanamh, carson nach toir thu sùil air an stòras cho beartach seo? Is fìor fhiach e!
The Iolaire and monument
www.tobarandualchais.co.uk
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Review: The Tobar an Dualchais (‘the Well of Heritage’) / Kist o Riches is an exciting and useful resource to anyone with an interest in Scottish heritage (Highand or Lowland) in general, and in social history and traditional song in particular.
The project had far-seeing aims:
..[it] will use the latest technology to bring to life the voices of the past. It will ensure that our vast heritage of stories, songs, music and factual information – some of it in danger of deteriorating beyond repair – will be safeguarded and made widely available for educational and personal use. In the first stage of the project, which will run for five years, 12,000 hours of recordings in Gaelic and Scots will be safeguarded and made available to members of the public.
from: http://www.myspace.com/tobarandualchais
There are four important ‘wells’ from which the resource draws its rich store:
- Stories recorded by John Lorne Campbell on wax cylinders in 1937
- Folklore collected all over Scotland by Calum Maclean in the 1950s
- Scots songs recorded by Hamish Henderson from travelling people in the 1960s
- Conversations recorded on Radio nan Gàidheal
from: http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/more
There are recordings in all of Scotland’s languages there – Gaelic, Scots, Doric, English, the dialects of Orkney and Shetland. You can search via the map on the homepage itself (there are more than 2000 hits for Ross-shire alone, for example) or via individual words / topics / names. The website itself is completely bilingual – you can access it in English or Gaelic as you wish. I had a look for names from Easter Ross, but there weren’t many results – nothing for the Seaboard villages, unfortunately, but there were references to Cromarty, Nigg and Tain, and the bigger towns in the area. (See Tain example above, which also shows you the usefully detailed but clear layout of the entries).
There’s one very popular subject that is almost always in the ‘favourites’ list – the Iolaire: stories and songs about that unfortunate ship that sank so close to Stornoway harbour just after World War 1. (See The Iolaire and Òran an Iolaire above.) Pity there’s nothing about our own Linnet, though.
I’ve also posted an example of the sort of story that’s been collected and recorded over the years, a spooky one from the fishing community of Melvich /Portskerra on the north coast of Sutherland. (See above: The Sound of screaming was a premonition of a drowning.)
As an example of how easy it is to see what’s there, I’ve given the first page of a search for ‘Orkney’, with some interesting-looking tales about ghost horses, the Black Arts and the like….
There are also a couple of videos on YouTube (links above) introducing the project, a very interesting short one showing the digitalisation of the old recordings in Loch Boisdale (Uist) and the second giving a more academic and detailed presentation.
The next gloomy day that you’re stuck in the house with no desire to do housework or boring paperwork, why not have a look into this kist o’ riches – it’s really worth it!
www.kistoriches.co.uk or www.tobarandualchais.co.uk
Melvich Sands. Horses by Orphir graveyard, Orkney
Photo credits – Creative Commons: Iolaire (anon ), Iolaire Monument (Nicholas Mutton), Melvich (Hugh Venables).
Tobar an Dualchais screenshots / citations for review purposes only. All archive content is copyright. See their Terms of Use: http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/termsofuse
YouTube Videos and photos not part of Tobar an Dualchais site.
