Shieling Hill

Inspired by a visit a few years ago to the Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore, a couple of miles outside of Kingussie. This museum is a reconstruction of a highland 'township'. My painting 'Shieling Hill' is an impression of one of the many cottages/dwellings that have been reconstructed to show visitors what highland life was once like. My interpretation of this small building has been created from my own photographs and memory of my visit in 2016. Covid unfortunately stopped me returning to do the other paintings I had hope to create as part of a project, so for now there is only this one painting from my visit. I hope to make a return visit in the not too distant future to perhaps pick up the project I had started some time ago.

The words around the canvas are taken from the first four lines of Robert Tannahill's song 'I'll Hie Me To The Sheeling Hill'. Robert Tannahill (1774-1810) was a Scottish (born in Paisley) poet and songwriter. He left school at the age of 12 and was apprenticed (to his father) as a handloom weaver. He lived and worked in Bolton for a few years then returned to his home town where he was one of the founding members of the Paisley Burns Club.