The Great Tapestry of ScotlandA Unique Project to Stitch the Story of Scotland

from Pre-history to Modern TimesInitiated by Alexander McCall Smith

Birlinn

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Birlinn Ltd.

About the Project

Some Sums!

Scotland in Stitches

Alistair Moffat Explains...

The Great Tapestry of Scotland is the brainchild of one of Scotland’s most prolific authors, Alexander McCall Smith. The 44 Scotland Street author, together with historian Alistair Moffat, and with the incredible artistic talents of Andrew Crummy, (not to mention all of the dedicated stitchers from all over Scotland!) form the team that is set to produce one of the world’s longest tapestries through one of the biggest community arts projects ever to take place in Scotland.

Creating the tapestry will take 50,000 sewing hours (equivalent to sewing 24 hours a day for 6 years!), 49,000 meters of yarns (enough to lay up and down Ben Nevis 37 times!), 12,012 years of Scottish history and over 150 panels which willall add up to 1 beautiful tapestry, depicting the entire history of Scotland!

The creation of the tapestry is a unique opportunity to exquisitely regale our nation’s history while getting as many people as possible involved in the telling. The end goal is to create a series that tells the key stories in Scottish history - from Duns Scotus to the formation of Rangers! Every panel focuses on a specific historical event, and interwoven through the borders of each will be other tales of the time. These stories will add interesting layers and reflect on some of our shared history, while telling individual stories of place and family. This exciting project will use a wide range of embroidery skills to translate Andrew Crummy’s descriptive artwork into a colourful, skilful and textural depiction of the history of Scotland. To date there are over 300 stitchers committed to taking part, all of whom share a passion for Scottish history and some pretty impressive sewing skills. These volunteers will work together for over 400 hours per panel from locations around the country, islands and mainland, to help make Andrew Crummy’s artistic vision a reality, and then gift The Great Tapestry of Scotland to the nation. The project will take over a year to complete and the finished tapestry will go on display from August 2013.

The Great Tapestry of Scotland will be created – like the Bayeux Tapestry – on embroidered cloth, rather than a woven tapestry. It will be annotated variously in English, Gaelic, Latin and Scots, with surface stitching in a variety of yarns, creating a wonderfully rich and tactile artwork. A defined range of stitches will be used including stem, split and chain, with filling stitches like long and short, satin and darning, and composite stitches where appropriate. Each panel measures approximately 100 × 50 cm.

“As political statements like Bayeux or medieval draught excluders like most of them, tapestries have never gone out of style. These freeze-frames of history still fascinate. To make a tapestry for a nation, something attempted nowhere else, involves a glorious process of ruthless editing. Pitfalls open on every side. One of the deepest is the military option, our history as a series of invasions, wars and battles, many of them grey defeats. Another is to show Scotland and the generations of nameless people who made the landscape and built the towns and cities as a soft-focus background for colourful, stately aristocratic processions. While some pivotal set-pieces simply insist on inclusion, such as Bannockburn and Culloden, other episodes of our hidden history rightly claim a place; the great timber halls of prehistoric farmers at Balbridie, Claish and Kelso, James Small and hisinvention of the swingplough or John Watson Nicol’s composition of An Ataireachd Ard. Most important have been our efforts to make a tapestry that distils Scotland’s unique sense of herself, to tell a story only of this place, and without bombast, pomp or ceremony, to ask the heart-swelling rhetorical question; Wha’s like us?”_

ALISTAIR MOFFAT

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Birlinn Ltd.

Above: The Wildwood and Its Fauna, c8,500bc. Below: The Coming of the Vikings.

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Birlinn Ltd.

Above: William Wallace and Andrew Moray, 1290s. Below: English Advance, Gaelic Retreat

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Birlinn Ltd.

Above: The Scotsman Founded, 1817. Below: Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Birlinn Ltd.

Above: 1914-1918, War. Below: Dolly the Sheep Cloned in Edinburgh, 1997.

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Birlinn Ltd.

Left: The Parliament of the Ancestors. Right: Parliament for the Future.

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Birlinn Ltd.

Above and Below: The Great Tapestry of Scotland

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Birlinn Ltd.

The Great Tapestry of Scotland project was initiated by one of Scotland’s best-known and most popular writers, Alexander McCall Smith. His highly successful No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series has sold over twenty million copies and his books have been translated into over forty-six languages and become bestsellers around the world. Other popular series of books by Alexander include 44 Scotland Street, Corduroy Mansions, The Sunday Philosophy Club and over 30 books for children. Alexander is Co-Chairman of the project and forms an important part of the wonderful team working to turn this beautiful idea a success.

Alistair Moffat is both a festival director and historian. He co-ordinated the Edinburgh Fring Festival for several years, before he become Director of Programmes and Chief Executive of Network Production for Scottish Television. In 1999 he went on to become the Director of the Lennoxlove and Borders Book Festivals and he is currently Lord Rector for the University of St. Andrews. His recent books include The Reivers’ and The Scots: A Genetic Journey. His books have featured on many Scottish bestseller lists often, and several titles have been made into television and radio series. Alistair is the Co-Chairman for the Great Tapestry of Scotland project and is responsible for advising the board on historical content.

Andrew is the artist and designer for the Great Tapestry of Scotland project. He has a wealth of experience under his belt as he was the Convenor of the Prestongrange Arts Festival and the principal artist and illustrator of the Prestonpans tapestry. He first trained as an illustrator at Duncan of Jordanstone college of Art. Andrew has developed multiple large scale, collaborative artworks in public and community settings across the world, as well as been involved with a range of book publications, multimedia events, festivals and educational programmes. He was chairman of the Craigmillar Communiversity when they were awarded the Saltire Award for a Short Scottish Documentary at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2005.

Alexander McCall Smith

Andrew Crummy

Alistair Moffat

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Birlinn Ltd.

Who’s Involved?

James Naughtie is an author and radio presenter. He has been one of the main presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme since 1994. He worked for The Press & Journal, The Scotsman, The Guardian, and The Washington Post in the past. In 1991 Naughtie was voted Sony Radio Awards - Radio Personality of the Year in and Voice of the Listener and Viewer Award in 2001. He has also previously been the chancellor of the University of Stirling in 2008. He sits on the Board of Trustees for the Great Tapestry of Scotland project.

Dorie Wilkie has always been interested in textiles, sewing clothes and making ‘things’. In the 1980s she founded the Bonnyrigg patchwork group, and went on to study for a City and Guild in Art, Design and Embroidery at Telford College with further studies at Leith School of Art. After answering an advert for volunteers, Dorie became the stitch co-ordinator for the Prestonpans tapestry project. With the Great Tapestry of Scotland project, she is responsible for supervising sewing techniques, running workshops, and preparing the finished tapestry for exhibition.

Hugh Andrew is the Managing Director of Birlinn Ltd., Scotland’s largest independent publisher. After studying history at Oxford University Hugh progressed through the book trade working in book shops and as a sales rep. He founded Birlinn in 1992 and was also joint managing director of Canongate for four years. Birlinn now publishes approximately 200 books a year, with a particular focus on Scottish interest titles. He sits on the Board of Trustees for the Great Tapestry of Scotland project.

Lesley Kerr is a lawyer with McKay Norwell and has worked with the firm for many years as partner and, at present, associate. She heads their property marketing department and carries out private client work as well. She sits on the Board of Trustees for the Great Tapestry of Scotland project.

James Naughtie

Dorie Wilkie

Hugh Andrew

Lesley Kerr

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Birlinn Ltd.

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Birlinn Ltd.

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Birlinn Ltd.

Panel Numbers and TitlesNo. Title

1 The Great Tapestry of Scotland2 Ceaseless sea3 Land formation of Scotland4 The Ice Melts, Scotland Emerges, The First Pioneers Come5 The Wildwood and its fauna c8,500BC6 Encampment at Cramond. Scotland’s First House at Barn’s Ness East Lothian C8,000 BC7 The First Farmers Build Their Monuments C3,000 BC7a Broch, Cairn, Quarn (P164)8 Pytheas Circumnavigates Scotland C320 BC, Visits Calanais9 Mons Graupius 83AD, The Romans Build Walls10 Ninian at Whithorn c40011 Irish Warbands Invade, Dalriada Founded, Columba at Iona 563 AD, Dunadd12 Cuthbert at Melrose c670AD, Book of Kells, Lindisfarne Gospels13 Ruthwell and Bewcastle Crosses, and the arrival of the Angles, 7th to 9th Century14 The Picts Defeat the Angles at Dunnichen 685 AD15 The Coming of the Vikings16 The Vikings take Dunbarton Rock 870 AD17 Constantine climbs The Hill of Faith 904 AD18 Battle of Carham on the Tweed 1018 The Border Settles in the South19 King Macbeth in Moray 1050s20 St Margaret at Dunfermline c108021 The Great Border Abbeys are built 22 David I Fosters the Wool Trade C1130s23 St Andrews Cathedral24 Duns Scotus and The Schoolmen25 Somerled, First Lord of The Isles c116026 Haakon’s Fleet at Kyleakin, Skye and Battle of Largs 126327 Death of Alexander III at Kinghorn, 128628 William Wallace and Andrew Moray 1290s29 Bannockburn 131430 Bruce’s Siege of Carlisle 1315 and Beginning of Little Ice Age31 The Black Death, Deserted Farms c1350s32 St Andrews University 141332a Ancient Universities33 Orkney and Shetland Ceded by Denmark to Scotland 146933a Roslin Chapel34 Chepman and Miller set up the first printing press 150734a Blind Harry34b Harris Waulking (P145)35 Flodden 151335a The Three Estates - Greatest Scottish Play35b Court of Sessions/law (P48)36 Scottish Reformation - A School in Every Parish, 1560s37 Mary Queen of Scots38 The Border Reivers, Rescue of Kinmont Willie, 159639 Robert Carey’s Ride from London to Edinburgh 160340 The Making of the King James Bible 161140a Hamilton40b Witches41 The National Covenant at Greyfriars Kirkyard 1638

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Birlinn Ltd.

41b Drovers42 Montrose Defeated at Philhaugh Near Selkirk 164543 The Killing Times in 1680s, Field Conventicle at Irongray 44 Massacre at Glencoe 169245 Bank of Scotland Founded 169546 The Darien Scheme47 The Act of Union, Edinburgh, 170748 moved to 35b49 Jacobite Rising 1715, Chaotic Battle at Sherriffmuir50 Modern Kilt Invented, Lochaber 172351 Jacobite Rising 174552 The Ordnance Survey Begins53 English Advance, Gaelic Retreat54 Royal and Ancient Golf Club Founded in St Andrews 175455 First School for Deaf and Dumb Children Established in Edinburgh,176056 James Small Invents the swing plough 177057 Enlightenment Edinburgh, Encyclopaedia Britannica established at Anchor Close 177157a Edinburgh New Town58 James Watt and the Steam Engine58a Tobacco Lords (P60a)59 Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Kirkcaldy60 David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rosseau in Paris

61 Highland and Lowland Clearances Gather Pace61a Home weaving, reeling and spinning (P153)62 James Hutton’s Theory of the Earth, Siccar Point, Berwickshire62a James Boswell and smoked fish (P125)63 The Forth and Clyde Canal, Irish Navvies, Burke and Hare64 Scotland and the drive for The Empire65 Robert Owen and New Lanark 178366 Robert Burns’ Tam O’Shanter, 179167 The False Alarm, Threat Of Napoleonic Invasion 180167a Henry Raeburn (P163)68 Walter Scott, Early 19th Century, Romantic Scotland and the Beginnings of Tourism68a Fingal’s cave69 The Scotsman founded 181770 George Smith founds The Glenlivet Distillery 182470a Borders Tweed71 The Growth of Glasgow c 1820s71a Sheep shearing (P159)71b removed72 First Reform Act 183272a Kirkpatrick McMillan

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Birlinn Ltd.

73 Victoria at Balmoral, 1850s/60s73a Disruption (P40a)73b Indian Head73c Hill and Adamson74 The Railway Boom and The Forth Road Bridge75 A Caithness school 185175a Celtic and Rangers Old Firm76 Irish immigration after the famine, Founding of Celtic and Rangers Football Clubs76a James Clerk Maxwell77 Scotland in Africa77a Highland Games78 Scottish Rugby Union Founded 1873, First match between England and Scotland78a Shinty and curling79 Scots in America, 19th Century Emigration79a Paisley Peacock (P141)80 Battle of The Braes, Skye, 1882, Napier Commission80a Paisley Lady (P156)82 Robert Louis Stevenson82a Workshops of the empire (P135)83 Scottish Trades Union Congress Forms in Glasgow 189783a Keir Hardie83b Herring Girls (P126)

84 The Discovery sails from Dundee84a Dundee, Jute Jounalism (P146)84b Shetland, Ibster sisters (P148)85 Charles Rennie Mackintosh Designs Glasgow School of Art85a Munros86 1914-1918 War87 The Building of HMS Hood, Battle of Ypres 191787a Elsie Ingles88 The Sinking of HMS Iolaire off Stornoway 191988a Eric Liddle89 Women get the Vote89a Whaling90 General Strike 192690a Fair Isle (P151)91 Hugh MacDiarmid writes A Drunk Man Looks at The Thistle92 Ramsay MacDonald Prime Minister, rise of the Labour Party93 Great Depression in 1930s93a Glasgow Tenement94 The Second World War95 The Clydebank Blitz 1941

We hope you enjoyed the sneak peek!

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Birlinn Ltd.

95a Concrete Pill Blocks96 D-Day 194497 The first Edinburgh Festival 194797a East Kilbride98 National Health Service founded99 Television arrives 1950s STV Grampian, Border TV, BBC99a Washer Woman100 Cumbernauld New Town101 North Sea Oil Licenses Granted 1965, Aberdeen, Nigg Bay101a Aberdeen102 Linwood Begins Production of Hillman Imp103 Pop Music Booms103a Glenrothes104 Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Work-In, Jimmy Reid, 1971105 Stop Yer Ticklin Jock! Scottish Comedy106 The Rise of the SNP, 1974 Elections107 Scotland at the Movies108 Scotland’s World Cup Campaign in Argentina, Ally’s Army, 1978109 Miners’ Strike 1984, Decline of Heavy Industry110 Gaelic Resurgent111 Glasgow European City of Culture 1990112 Dolly the Sheep Cloned in Edinburgh 1996113 The Scottish Parliament Reconvenes 1999114 Parliament of the Ancestors - Parliament for the Future 1115 Parliament of the Ancestors - Parliament for the Future 2116 Parliament of the Ancestors - Parliament for the Future 3117 Parliament of the Ancestors - Parliament for the Future 4118 Parliament of the Ancestors - Parliament for the Future 5119 Parliament of the Ancestors - Parliament for the Future 6120 Parliament of the Ancestors - Parliament for the Future 7121 Parliament of the Ancestors - Parliament for the Future 8122 Map of Scotland today123 North-wind blows/geese/ceaseless sea124 Credits