Strathnaver Museum is a fully accredited community led local history museum operating in the geographic area of Mackay Country in northwest Sutherland. We regularly run co-curated community research projects exploring diverse aspects of our heritage. These cover wide-ranging topics such as 18th century Gaelic bards, traditional boat building and telling the story of WWI pipers. We are particularly interested in exploring our intangible cultural heritage (ICH) or living heritage and how this relates to placemaking.
We recognise the importance of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in sustaining resilient empowered communities. These living traditions, practices and knowledge have been passed down through the generations from songs and place names to traditional crafts are in danger of being lost in our fast-changing world. We are interested in exploring how our living heritage can contribute to placemaking and what we can learn from our heritage to create a more sustainable future for all of us.
We are working in partnership with NorthWest2045 on a pilot project to celebrate 20 years of the seminal publication At Home in Mackay Country. This was a co-curated research project to record local heritage and enable sustainable local development defined and implemented by local folk themselves. The findings from the pilot are due to be published in the autumn with an Action Plan of projects to be implemented from early 2027.
https://www.strathnavermuseum.org.uk/
Latheron, Lybster and Clyth Community Development Company (LLCCDC) is a community development charity (SC046731) which strives towards a connected, resilient, and prosperous community that celebrates its heritage, embraces innovation, and offers a high quality of life for current and future generations.
LLCCDC aims to empower the Latheron, Lybster and Clyth area through projects which lead to sustainable development, improved well-being, shared resources, local opportunities being realised, and, ultimately, a thriving community.
Heritage and culture form a significant part of ‘pride of place’ as well as fostering a sense of connection, and so LLCCDC shall continue to support projects and initiatives which can contribute to these ideals.
Timespan is an award winning museum and cultural organisation based in Helmsdale, Sutherland. It brings together a local history museum, contemporary art programme, archive, geology and herb gardens, shop and café.
At its core, Timespan works with art, heritage, research and community practice as tools for social change. Its programme connects local histories with wider planetary questions, including land, labour, ecology, extraction, migration and social justice.
Timespan understands cultural organisations as public spaces that belong to society. Through exhibitions, commissions, learning, community work and heritage projects, it supports critical thinking, collective care and civic action. Its work is rooted in Helmsdale and the wider north Highlands, while also building international relationships with artists, researchers, activists and communities.
Timespan takes a holistic approach. The museum, gallery, gardens, café and public programmes are part of one shared civic project: to make culture meaningful for local residents, visitors and wider audiences, and to use it as a way of imagining more equal, just and sustainable futures.
Lairg Learning Centre has been part of the community for over 20 years, providing a welcoming space where people can come together to learn, share ideas and build confidence. Based in the centre of the village, we work with people of all ages and backgrounds, responding to local needs and creating opportunities that might otherwise be difficult to access in a rural area. Our approach is rooted in relationships, listening to what matters to people and supporting them to take part in activities that are meaningful to them. Community is at the heart of everything we do.
Creativity has always been an important part of our work. Over the years we have been involved in projects exploring local stories, heritage, the environment and everyday life in Sutherland, often working in partnership with artists and community groups. For example, our In On The Act project with Eden Court, saw us working with a writer for over a year: Eden Court producers and their technical team. The result was a community play featuring all ages, from nursery children through to older members of the crofting community, local primary and Golspie High School Students. The play was sold out.
Lairg is at the centre of the northern highlands, often referred to as the crossroads of the north. A gathering place for drovers, a large sheep sale in the mart, Loch Shin and the dam, Ferry Croft and Ord Place, it’s surrounded by a beautiful landscape. Lairg is a great place to live and work, with a real sense of community.
https://www.lairglearningcentre.org.uk/
Lyth Arts Centre (LAC) is housed in a beautiful old building surrounded by trees and aged stone walls. From the outside it retains the character of a Victorian village school whilst the interior has been imaginatively converted to a dynamic multi-purpose arts centre.
LAC presents a programme of live performances which brings the best – local, national, international – work of small-scale touring companies to Caithness and North Sutherland. This includes theatre, dance, family events, jazz, folk, classical and contemporary music. Lyth Arts Centre also presents performances and creative workshops in village halls and community centres across Caithness and North Sutherland with the main resource in Lyth used as an important incubator space for artists to undertake research, develop and share new work.
In addition to the touring proramme, LAC supports and develops an exploratory programme of activity which aims to break new ground and challenge how best to meet the needs of artists and communities. A wide variety of spaces around the county are used to host socially engaged residencies, place-based events, performance and creative workshops. Issues explored include social isolation, climate action, land ownership, cultural repair and mental wellbeing. Through creative activities and conversations LAC also seeks to address urgent questions about whose voices and stories may be missing from our archives, taking a long term approach to relationship-building and developing approaches to best address this working together with communities.
