A Scottish Storyteller

Being a storyteller and really into folklore, traditions and all that kind of thing, I do enjoy a good fire festival. Nothing like celebrating a particular time of year by getting a bit rowdy and setting fire to something. In fact I remember well a conversation with a few friends a couple of years back... Me: Ah yes, nothing better than a good old fire festival Friend: Fire festival? Is that a Scottish thing then? Me: Not at all! It's done all over. I admit I can think of a good few though. There's the Viking one up in the Shetlands - Up Helly Aa. Vikings march through the streets, set fire to a full size Longship and then revelry happens. Ummmm. The Burning of the Clavie at Burghead... Ancient tradition. A New Year thing. Set fire to a big barrel of tar and other burny things. March round the village and then revelry happens. Stonehaven Fireballs - that's Hogmanay - set fire to big balls of burny stuff. March up and down the High Street. Revelry Happen...

So, the other weekend, I was storytelling for Scottish Natural Heritage at the Burn O Vat. For those of you that don't know, the Burn O Vat (part of the Muir Of Dinnet Nature Reserve) is just the most amazing place to go of a weekend - no matter what time of year it is. The Vat is a giant pothole carved by a huge meltwater stream during the last Ice Age, and the whole area is great to walk round, picnic in and so on. Whenever someone comes to visit me, we tend to take a visit there. As a child, my parents would go walking a lot. I wasn't too fond of this generally, being particularly attractive to midgies for some reason... but getting me out of the house to go to places like Dinnet was just fine! One year, on the September monday holiday my mum and dad took me, and a friend, to the Burn O Vat. To cut a long story short - we ran on ahead to the vat itself and as we got closer we could hear humming and chanting. On entering the Vat, we saw a group of pleasant looking grey ...