Tag: scotland

Travels in Another Country; A Guide to Gaelic Scotland

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Acair are delighted to announce the launch of their latest title which will be published next month.

We are thrilled to launch Travels in Another Country; A Guide to Gaelic Scotland by Coinneach Maclean on Friday 27th June 2025.

Until relatively modern times Scotland was largely a Gaelic-speaking nation. Areas that were described by Doctor Johnson in 1775 as being as remote and as unknown as Borneo or Sumatra became one of the first sites of modern mass tourism and the subject of more travel writing than any other part of Scotland. Recent learned writers have variously described Scotland as the ‘land of dreamtime’, the Highlands as ‘Fancy’s Land’, and the country as the site of the ‘invention of tradition’.

Unfortunately, that narrative often bears little relation to the actual lived experience of the native people. In this book Coinneach Maclean journeys through the present and former Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland from the perspective of the native Gaels. Extensively illustrated with songs, poetry and place names, he introduces some of the gods and goddesses, witches and warlocks, heroes, heroines and villains who once populated these often largely emptied landscapes. Their own words give an insight into the Gaels’ hopes and aspirations, loves and losses, their soaring literary achievements and vivid depictions of their beloved landscapes, giving the reader a more rounded understanding of the history and culture of the Gaelic peoples of Scotland.

Coinneach Maclean is a Gaelic speaker from the island of South Uist. Although he initially trained as an archaeologist at Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities he has had a diverse career, including deer farming, rural development and working at a senior level in the heritage industry. After retirement he trained as a Blue Badge tourist guide which led to guiding work all over Scotland. He also successfully defended a doctoral thesis entitled ‘The Tourist Gaze on Gaelic Scotland’ at Glasgow University. He has been a Board Member of Historic Environment Scotland. Now living on the Isle of Skye, he gives talks to tourists, sharing his wide knowledge of Gaelic and Highland history with them.

A special launch event will take place at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow. This will be held on Friday 27th June 2025 at 6pm. Coinneach will be in conversation with Alasdair C Whyte about his new book, with readings and there will also be an opportunity to ask questions. A warm welcome awaits and entry is free.

Angus Morrison, Acair Manager, said: “We are thrilled to publish Travels in Another Country and look forward to sharing Coinneach’s work with the public. The book contains a wealth of information and will be hugely popular with many.”

Acair are grateful to Bòrd na Gàidhlig, The Gaelic Language Promotion Trust, Urras an Eilein, Foundation Scotland, The Gaelic Books Council, The Andrew Tannahill Fund, The McCaig Trust and The Gaelic Society of London for their support and funding.

Travels in Another Country, 500 pages, Paperback, Acair, £20

Year of Scotland’s Stories 2022

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Acair are joining in to celebrate Scotland's Year of Stories 2022!

VisitScotland are celebrating stories as part of Scotland's culture through the use of community tales rooting from Scotland told by means of spoken, written, song or film. Acair Books are joining in the celebrations through means of books, many to be launched from mid-summer onwards. Join in yourself on social media using #TalesOfScotland.

What is ahead for Acair Books in 2022?

Keep an eye out for a variety of exciting releases with a mix of genres from music, fiction and non fiction! Here is a little detail on what's to come...

Cha Till Mise by Ruaraidh Maclean

On the 11th of September 1928, HMS Achates (H12) was built at the John Brown Ironworks, Clyde River. On the 31st December 1942, HMS Achates (H12) was sunk in the Arctic Ocean by the Kriegsmarine. Cha Till Mise conveys a heartfelt story about the Russian convoys and the heroes who sailed on them – with particular attention on the HMS Achates.

Publication Date: July 2022

D516KC The funnel and bridge area of the destroyer HMS Onslow
Whalers of Harris by Ian Hart

This is the first book to describe comprehensively the history of the Whaling Station in Harris in the Outer Hebrides.

The account spans the establishment of a whaling station in 1904 and the effect that it had on the local population and its economy; the consequences of the First World War and unfavourable trading conditions; the purchase of the station by Lord Leverhulme’s Harris Whaling and Fishing Company and his grandiose ideas for experimentation, to introduce whale meat into the food market and create opportunities for other whale products; and finally, the demise of the station caused by the decline in North Atlantic whale populations and alternative sources of relatively cheaply procured whale oil.

The study incorporates original research based on archives in Norway, Iceland, the United Kingdom, United States of America and Spain, and on communication with crofters and islanders whose families formerly had an association with the trade.

Publication Date: August 2022

Crann-Fìge by Duncan Gillies

 A new collection of short stories from the author of Tocasaid ‘Ain Tuirc, bringing the same sharp wit and observational skill to this evocation of Lewis life and people from last century intertwined with stories situated entirely in the imagination, giving as authentic a voice to an angry child’s resentment, a woman’s regret or an old man’s fears. Fig Tree is Duncan Gillies’ fourth collection but his first to include an English translation.

Publication Date: August 2022

  Doras Gun Chlaimhean by Catriona Macleod

This is a single volume of the Gaelic poems and songs of the well-known Murdo MacFarlane, the Melbost Bàrd from the Isle of Lewis. The bilingual anthology edited by broadcaster and writer Catriona Murray features MacFarlane’s extant verse and includes work published in An Toinneamh Dìomhair (1973) and Dàin Mhurchaidh (1986) and in periodicals and newspapers and also work which has never been published. A Gaelic biographical account of the bàrd prefaces the verse and includes photographs of MacFarlane. English translations of the poetry reflect meaning rather than being literal translations and information on the poems and songs, where available, also form part of the volume. A CD featuring the unique voice of the bàrd singing a selection of his songs will accompany the book.

Murdo MacFarlane died in 1982. Throughout the seventies his name became a household name for a generation of Gaels who came to know and love his songs through groups like Na h-Òganaich, Na Siaraich and the Lochies. No single volume of all his verse was ever published. This anthology and CD will help to ensure that his work is preserved and presented to a new generation of Gaelic speakers and that Murdo MacFarlane’s verse is included in the canon of collected works by Gaelic poets of the 20th Century.

Publication Date: End of September 2022

Gun Sireadh, Gun Iarraidh - The Tolmie Collection 
by Kenna Campbell & Ainsley Hamill

This is a comprehensive collection of Gaelic songs of Skye collected by Frances Tolmie. It includes music and informative notes. Frances Tolmie collected songs from oral tradition and a collection of these were published in 1911 as One Hundred and Five Songs of Occupation From the Western Isles of Scotland in the Journal of The Folk-Song Society. This publication omitted Gaelic text already available elsewhere. This new edition of the collection recovers these discarded song-texts and presents the songs in the form in which Frances learned them.

Publication Date: End of September 2022

Haar by Murdo Alex Macritchie

This is a food book featuring recipes and ingredients and lavishly illustrated with stunning photographs from the Hebrides. The author worked on the book before his death in 2019. All royalties are to be shared between Bethesda and the Pancreatic Cancer Trust.

A number of years ago the author came up with the idea of a pop-up restaurant called HAAR, so that he could bring almost forgotten Hebridean dishes to locations throughout the country. The HAAR pop-up was intended to be a complete dining experience, inspired by outstanding produce and by the natural and cultural history of the Hebridean Islands of Scotland.

The author was intent on sourcing and using ingredients that came from the Hebridean Islands, particulary Lewis and Harris, including hand dived scallops from Uig, creel-caught langoustines, squatties and lobsters from Harris, grouse, woodcock, snipe from the Barvas moor, wild red deer from Eishken Estate, Aberdeen Angus beef and Cheviot lamb from a family from the district of Ness, organically grown vegetables and salads from the west side of Lewis and fresh, locally caught fish from a number of different fisherme.

The author began to notice the similarities between traditional Nordic food and the food he grew up eating on the Isle of Lewis. Smoking, salting, curing and fermenting were all important techniques used in both cultures. HAAR was intended to be a complete dining experience driven by outstanding produce and the natural and cultural history of the Hebridean Islands of Scotland. The landscape, along with the Gaelic culture, had a heavy influence in the way each dish was prepared and cooked.

This book is the result of the author’s experience with the Haar restaurant and is a celebration of the finest traditional Hebridean cuisine with a very modern take on it. It is also a celebration of local produce.

The book is intended to be an impressive hardback which can be a coffee-table book but also a working cook book. It is thought that it could be an ideal gift.

Publication Date: November 2022

Mnathan Nan Eilean by Joni Buchanan

Researched through archives and from the authors own interviews, Mnathan nan Eilean chronicles the lives of a large cross section of women who contributed to the lives of their community in the Outer Hebrides from the turn of the 20th Century up to about the 1960’s. The book is in both Gaelic and English depending on which language the original interview or archive was rendered in.

Publication Date: Winter 2022

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