Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches Launches New Interactive Map in Highland Schools

Floraidh Forrest, the Director of Tobar an Dualchais/Kist of Riches, has visited pupils at Plockton High School as part of a series of sessions to launch its new online interactive map to Gaelic-medium pupils across the Highlands. The sessions are being delivered in collaboration with Highland Council, with some of the sessions being held during Seachdain na Gàidhlig (World Gaelic Week: 23 February – 1 March).

As part of the session with the pupils at Plockton High School, Floraidh gave a demonstration of how the interactive map works and the pupils were given the opportunity to explore it for themselves, with a particular focus on their own area. Pupils then participated in a fun quiz activity that was tailored to the school’s surrounding area.

Other schools being visited as part of this outreach work include Inverness Royal Academy, Glenurquhart High School, Gairloch High School, Portree High School, and Tain Royal Academy.

The georeferenced, interactive map displays the location of traditional songs, stories and contributors across Scotland https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/map It serves as a significant tool for researchers, community members and Gaelic learners, allowing for greater exploration of Scotland’s intangible cultural heritage at a local level.

Biz Campbell, Councillor for Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh, and a member of the Highland Council Gaelic Committee said: “Both the map, and the training sessions offered with them, are an excellent resource for our Gaelic-medium pupils. Gaelic is such an important strand of our culture in Highland, and we are all rightly celebrating that during World Gaelic Week.

Seeing so many young people embracing the language in their learning gives us all real cause for encouragement. This project will support all the great work that goes on to sustain our traditional language and culture in our schools and our communities across Highland.”

Flòraidh Forrest commented: “We are delighted to be working with Highland Council to deliver these sessions across the region and are very grateful for its funding towards the cost of this outreach work. For a number of years, users have expressed a desire to navigate the collection geographically and the TAD team has undertaken extensive work to prepare and refine the data so that it can be represented accurately on a map-based interface, offering a fresh perspective on the extraordinary breadth of material held in the TAD repository.

Engagement with users is very important to us and it’s great, at this early stage of launching the map, to see the ways in which pupils are connecting with Gaelic heritage in their own areas.”

TAD received funding from the Scottish Government, the University of Edinburgh, and TRACS (Traditional Arts and Music Scotland) towards the development costs. Money was also raised though TAD’s JustGiving crowdfunding page.

The launch marks an important milestone for TAD and users are encouraged to explore the map, while bearing with it as parts of it continue to be refined. A video explaining how to use the map in more detail has also been released and is available on TAD’s social media.