Cluaran Heritage Project – Cluaran is hands on, living, breathing, heritage

Events Making Christmas 2024

Christmas Ghosts

But what! I hear you exclaim as you read. Ghosts are Halloween, and not Christmas…

Perhaps it is easier to think about the spirit of Christmas. It might be an accident whether you think of Santa Clause, Sinterklaas, Santeclaus. Much has been written about connections with Father Christmas, Yule, Saturnalia. But is there something deeper about gift giving, lights in darkness and a suspension of the normal order of things when the night is at its longest and we wait for summer to return?

In the run up to Christmas 2024 we have been making space for making in the Loreburne Centre. People have dropped in and encountered surprises from their past. they have worn hats (and other clothes) plucked from the stream of time and have taken selfies with shields.

By ringing a bell they have made time for stories, or have simply sat and watched fish swimming into a river labyrinth. On the tables young and old have made board games, leather pouches and jewellery from left over and discarded things.

In doing so we make space to discover, though making, what ghosts of Christmas past we have experienced. We have explored possibilities about what the spirit of Christmas might be, and lay the groundwork for finding out what might happen in the future. We aim to help people see things differently, ask questions, and get a taste for looking for answers.

This weekend we will be in the Loreburne centre on both Saturday and Sunday for the last weekend of Making Christmas 2024

Please drop in for a chat, to make something, or just to relax in the space.

Making Christmas 2024 News

Making Managed

Five volunteers, Wordsmith Crafts props and tools. Add henerous handfulls of members of the public wandering around the town on a saturday. Mix in a Stove Network space for one Saturday then cook.

Be careful not to overheat, and only use the finest volunteer ingredients and you can be sure of an excellent outcome (“Best day ever” – a weegie student).

Thanks to Galloway Longfhada for joining us, hopefully there will be more gigs and recruits on their way!

More photos will follow.

schools

Beattock Primary

Cathbad visited Beattock Primary School recently. Here is their post on facebook which gives you an insight into how we navigate our way through history.

boat building Making Christmas 2024

I Saw Free Ships

Dumfries is a port. Dock park has mooring bollards – so where are the boats?

This week at “Making Christmas” There will be a focus on boat building. We will be joined by reps from “Nith Skiff” The Dumfries Coastal Rowing and Boat Building Group.

There will be the core activities of making things from recycled and donated materials, and essentially making time to relax in the storytelling tent.

Could you be part of a plan to build a St Ayles Skiff in Dumfries next year? We could take part in Nithraid and other activities along the Solway and beyond.

The Cluaran crew at Nithraid 2024 – (The Riverside Animal Union)

Oh, and this is what inspired the pun in the title of the theme “I saw three ships come sailing in …“

Arts Installations Making Christmas 2024

Making Christmas Day 1

Making St Andrews Day

Mission Accomplished! Well at least stage one is. We have set up the space, made room for stories, and people dropped in to make stuff.

We have conversations about mindfulness, crafting over wine and Historical Hat Selfies were taken.

More to follow this week – with added boat building as the theme.

Drop in between 10 am and 3 pm. We are easy to find in the Loreburne centre!

Here are some photos of what to expect.

Find out more about the “Making Christmas” project from the menu or clicking the links.

Events Making Christmas 2024 News

Making Christmas

St Andrews Day

(Nov. the 30th)

Final preparations are underway!

We will be setting up in the Loreburn Centre on Saturday. Come and drop in to say hi and make something!

More info here

https://www.cluaranhaven.org.uk/making-christmas-2024/

Making Christmas 2024

Site visit

Post author By Cathbad
Post date 22/11/2024
No Comments on Site visit

It’s all go for “Making Christmas“!

That is the site visit complete and access routes are scouted out. After the next blacksmithing session in Whithorn it will be all go getting ready. We are excited.

Our programme will be:

30th of November
- “St Andrews Day”
7th of December
- “I saw free ships come sailing in”
14th of December
- “Dress Sense”
21st and 22nd of December
- “Ghost of Christmas Past”

With a chance to make things every week and special themed activities each week.

Visit the main page on the Cluaran website to get involved.

You could think of it as training to become an elf, if that helps. Whether that is an elf from Greenwood the great, Valinor, Alfheim, Svartheim, Finland, Faerie, or somewhere like the Sword Coast can be discussed.

Or simply drop in and say hi and to have a go !

There may be stories …

https://youtu.be/IHqBBHaOtQY?feature=shared — The Mead of Poetry

Uncategorized

Legends of Mann

The Isle of Man is in the centre of a Viking era highway. This pdf book give insights into some of the stories told, crosses carved and ways in which the people living there remembered their dead.

Viking_Myths_and_Rituals_on_the_Isle_of_Man

Events Making Christmas 2024

Making Christmas

“Making Space” on Saturdays in the Loreburn centre

Wordsmith Crafts is moving into the Loreburn centre in Dumfries. We will occupy a space to help you make space for making. The costs of this have been covered so you won’t need cash. Craft cool gifts using recycled and donated materials, help make materials available for others to use.

No cash needed – others have covered the costs to make this happen.
Sit down, de-stress, do something with your fingers.
All age (but not free childcare!) craft activities
Tap into the skills and techniques that made Christmas before consumerism
Time travel and discover Christmas past.

Like a floating monastery we have collected relics from the history of these islands. Come and sit in the storytelling tent and hear stories that are older than Scotland. Escape the present for a moment and let your imagination take you on an adventure.

We will be open on Saturdays 10 – 4

(30th of November)
- Launch day is St Andrews day
(7th of December)
- With added Nith Skiff activities
(14th of December)
- Time travellers fashion parade
(21st of December)
- With Summerhill community centre activities

Events News schools storytelling

Autumn travels

In Dumfries and Galloway there are two weeks of school holidays in October. Traditionally this was to free up young people to help howk the tatties from the fields. For Cluaran it meant that we could run a story and crafts session for kids on hokiday at Annan museum. It also meant that we could be joined by Kate for a school visit in Oban, taking time off from being a teacher to volunteer at a school! Perhaps it continues the time of from work to work of the Holidays.

A medieval cross in the celtic style, near Oban — Researching Clan MacDougal at Kilbride

Then it was off even further north to tell stories of St Columba on the shores of Loch Ness with History Matters. Cathbad joined a collection of historical characters in the orchard of castle Urqhuart. We helped visitors catch a glimpse of the past in a stunning setting.

Cathbad standing under a picture of Columba — Fabulis vivere per vera veritate

Perhaps one year we will bring the boat! But until then we will continue to give people the opportunity to find a fragment of the past and hear the story that goes with it.

Hopefully this will act as an appetiser, and they will seek to find a place at the table where the feast is in full swing.

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