
Winter's Last Festival (Online)
Presentation: Dàir Na Coille: Imbuing the Woods
2pm 23rd January 2021
A vision of ecosystem restoration is taken out onto the land of Airigh Drishaig, Applecross, on the day traditionally known within Gaelic folklore as Dàir na Coille (‘the imbuement/ impregnation of the woods’). The land, a former shieling site, is in a process of partial restoration with trees beginning to return, but the transhumance presence and ecological benefit of grazing herds and human communities are no longer present. A vision of how contemporary transhumance might return to the land is presented to the land itself on this day of Dàir na Coille, in a ritual that seeks to bring two distinct ways of knowing together: the language and scientific discourse of ecosystem services/ ecological restoration in relation with the traditional Gaelic understanding of how life force comes to be renewed.
