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The Sound of Scotland's Traditions

The Sound of Scotland's Traditions

Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches is Scotland’s online resource dedicated to the presentation and promotion of audio recordings of Scotland’s cultural heritage. Its principal content is songs, music, history, poetry, traditions and stories, recorded from the 1930s onwards. The website contains material from three archives: The School of Scottish Studies, The Canna Collection and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal and there are recordings in Gaelic, Scots and English. Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches’ principal aim is to ensure that Scotland’s rich oral heritage is safeguarded and made widely available for present and future generations.

The People Behind the Collections

The recordings on this website would not exist without the willingness of thousands of individuals to extol their local knowledge and share their oral traditions. They would also not be available without those pioneers who travelled the length and breadth of Scotland, and beyond, to record them. Many of the earlier recordings were made in people’s homes, with fieldworkers often carrying heavy recording equipment to reach them. We have selected some of the most noteworthy people associated with the collections so you can learn a bit more about their lives as well as listening to their recordings. We will be adding more profiles each month so please remember to re-visit these pages.

Projects & other Information

Alongside our work developing the website, we often work in collaboration with other organisations and individuals to develop projects, events, and courses for the benefit of the wider user community. Some examples of these projects are given below.

Gaelic Resources for Schools

Gaelic Resources for Schools

Tobar an Dualchais has created a range of Gaelic-medium resources for educators at pre-school, primary and secondary levels. These resources will assist in making the wonderful range of material on the website more easily accessible to teachers and students. We recognise the importance of young Gaelic speakers being able to connect with the rich cultural heritage associated with the language and the website is an excellent resource to enable this. Other resources will be added to the Schools section as they are developed.

Latest Blog Posts

A north Skye event to treasure and celebrate what we have

Events to celebrate the Gaelic language and culture of Trotternish recently included an opportunity to listen and talk about some of the oldest locally-made recordings in the Tobar an Dualchais collection. Tobar an Dualchais Director Flòraidh Forrest explains more about some of these recordings.
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Legend, not historical record, behind a name

Liam Alastair Crouse discovered recordings on the Tobar an Dualchais website which show the folklore that shaped place and place names in the Hebrides…
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Iseabal Hendry: Residency Progress

My local landscape is my greatest love, and my rural upbringing in the north west coast of Scotland has in many senses characterised who I have come to be. As such it also drives and impacts my practice in ways that I'm only just starting to uncover and understand.
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