Sand, Silt, Flint – Sound Walks
Walk through the landscapes behind Sand, Silt, Flint.
Experience the songs in the places that inspired them through a series of free geo-located soundwalks on the Echoes app. Using your smartphone and headphones, music, stories, and folklore are unlocked by GPS as you move through forests, coastlines, castles, and forgotten paths across Northeast Scotland.
Text for the walks researched and written by Lesley-Anne Rose at Open Road, with thanks. Images, with thanks to Isla Goldie Photography
The craggy granite peak of Bennachie dominates the Aberdeenshire countryside. Embedded in the folklore of this ancient landscape is the tragic tale of John Hosie and sweetheart and bride to be Jean.Based on the legend of Hosie’s Well, from the Battle of Harlaw in 1411, Scotlands biggest clan battle.
The wild and beautiful Inverboyndie Beach is a favourite for local walkers and surfers. But it’s old sea–soaked rocks are also the setting for the tragic tale of poor Maggie Machlin cast out for becoming pregnant by ‘a Boyndie man of highest degree”
Based on the traditional ballad, “The Burning Of Auchindoun” or “Willie Mackintosh”. The ruins of Auchindoun Castle strike a dramatic pose over the heart of the Speyside countryside. Take a windswept walk around the remains of its striking tower and vaulted great hall whose old stones hold the memory of atrocious acts committed as part of Scotland’s notorious clan feuding.
Based on the traditional ballad, “Bessie Bell and Mary Gray”, the story of two girls who tried to escape the great plague by retreating to a bower built from rushes, near the bank of the river Almond in Perthshire.
(Lyrics based on “The Sang O’ The Fisherman’s Wife by Zetta Sinclair, co-founder of Aberdeen Folk Club) The village and harbour of Gardenstown is one of the numerous fishing communities along the Aberdeenshire coast where wives of fishermen once sang lullabies to calm their children and their worries for their husbands out at sea
Inspired by the legend of the sands of Forvie, Forvie National Nature Reserve. Beneath the wild, uninhabited sand dunes of Forvie lie the ruins of a village, which according to local legend was engulfed by a mighty storm roused by the curses of three wronged sisters.
Based on one of Aberdeenshire’s favourite ballads, the traditional song about the picturesque village of Udny. Samples of John Strachan from the Alan Lomax Collection at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. Courtesy of the Association for Cultural Equity.
Inspired by the true story of the tragic death of Margaret Cruikshank, a young woman who took a wrong turn in a sudden violent blizzard that descended over these remote hills, has been immortalised in the song “Lass o’ the Lecht”. Here is a new telling of the story, with archive audio form local singer James Tayler, courtesy of the School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh
Based on the traditional ballad, “Andrew Lammie’ The tranquil estate of Fyvie and woodland at nearby Tifty were the romantic setting for young Annie to fall in love with Andrew Lammie, Lord Fyvie’s trumpeter, and suffer the cruel and fatal consequences from a disapproving family.
Based on the traditional ballad, Forglen’s Plantins. Discover the romantic peace of woodlands and secret gardens in Forglen’s little known estate which inspired this ballad of young love and the heartbreak of separation.
