Action, music, drama, reflection and poetry in the mellow season

Here’s just ten events being staged across the islands in November. These are great clues to the tremendous welcome and pleasure you’ll get if you take a trip to our islands this autumn. This is a truly splendid time to visit, with the great outdoors in the day and warm fires, good food, fine words and stirring music in the evening.

The islands are not far, and these top-class events will make short trips all the more rewarding. Our selection spreads across the month and entices with easy hops to Arran, Skye and Raasay, Mull and Islay and short flights to Lewis and North Uist, Shetland and Orkney.

Gents Arran Golf Challenge

21 Oct – 6 Nov 2011, Arran

Come and take part in the Arran Challenge. Held at the Shiskine Golf Course, this small competition allows people of all abilities to take part to discover who is the overall champion! Play 3 rounds on the days of your choosing (provided they’re between now and 6th November). The best 2 count. Great value and superb prizes. Accommodation providers are offering great packages including entry to the competition, 3 rounds of golf and green fees. Some include Ferry travel to and from the Island.

The Shoogle Project: ‘Shooglenifty’ and ‘PlanB dance’

3-4 Nov, Skye

WARNING! May cause unrestrained movement of the body! Highly acclaimed dance company, plan B, invite you to join them for an explosive, toe-tapping, foot stomping night out! Featuring the highly infectious and energetic live music of Shooglenifty, the evening brings together these two dynamic forces in a meeting of music, dance, performance and a joint passion for really getting people moving.

Shetland Food Festival

5 – 13 Nov 2011, Busta, Shetland Mainland, Unst and Yell

Shetland produces some wonderful food: exceptional lamb, fine beef, sumptuous cheeses, superbly fresh fish and shellfish and some more unusual specialities such as seawater oatcakes, Shetland Black potatoes and more-ish fudge! This festival has events and participating eateries across the Shetland islands and is timed to tempt your palate while you enjoy the treasures of the Shetland Arts and Crafts Fair and the fabulous music of the Thomas Fraser Memorial Festival.

The Hunted – Visible Fictions

11 Nov 2011, Mull

There are paths you should not leave. There are dreams you should not dream. There are beasts in the forest that know your name. A lone girl dares to be something nobody has been – in a place nobody dares to go. The path is long, there will be trouble ahead and there are things out to get her . . . Take a deep breath, step into the unknown, and be prepared for your world to turn upside down. Join the hunt. This fantastic new theatre production is directed by Douglas Irvine, from the company that previously delighted audiences with The Curse of The Demeter and How To Steal A Diamond.

Buisneachd: Witchcraft, Sorcery, Enchantment (An Exhibition by Moira Maclean)

3 Oct 2011 – 19 Nov 2011, Lewis

The Outer Hebrides are saturated in tradition, custom and folklore. The talented Moira Maclean is from Lewis. She has immersed herself in the past by ‘raiding’ the abandoned croft houses on the Islands to explore issues of dereliction, decay, transience and diaspora, notably from a female, domestic perspective. Buisneachd focuses and assembles these ideas. Rescued domestic detritus, mirrors, bibles, maternal paraphernalia, accretions of wallpaper and images of abandoned spaces insinuate unseen forces and malign influences.

The Islay Sessions

11 – 13 Nov 2011, Islay

A brand new mini festival of live music, workshops, sessions and a grand concert ceilidh. There’s a stellar line-up of musicians from all across Scotland, including Anarkali, The Maverick Angels, Lori Watson & the Rule of Three, Eilidh Shaw & Ross Martin and Darren Maclean. It’s guaranteed to be a lively weekend of traditional and folk music and Islay’s finest traditional musicians will be joining the sessions throughout the weekend too. There’s accommodation still remaining so book soon!

Harris Tweed – Past, Present and Future (celebrating the centenary of the Orb 1911-2011)

This one-day event, arranged by the Island Book Trust in conjunction with the Harris Tweed Authority, will mark the centenary of the Orb, the Harris Tweed registration symbol. Involving talks, poetry, film, story-telling and discussion sessions, the day’s programme reviews the history of this vitally important and distinctive island industry, celebrates its successes and achievements and reflects on the current and future challenges it faces.

Island Song Weekend

19 – 20 Nov 2011, Orkney Mainland

Artists from Shetland, the Western Isles, Highland and Aberdeenshire visit Orkney to entertain and teach participants about their native song tradition. The weekend is built around day-time workshops and topped off by two great concerts, the first in Kirkwall on Saturday 19th November, the second in Stromness on Sunday 20th.

An Evening with Meg Bateman

24 Nov 2011, North Uist

Fresh from her appearance at the Aldeburgh Festival at the beginning of the month, Meg Bateman will entertain and inform with an evening of enchanting poetry. Meg is one of the nation’s leading Gaelic poets. She teaches at the Gaelic college Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on the Isle of Skye and is an honorary senior lecturer at the University of St Andrews. She has brought out three collections of Gaelic poetry with English translations and has co-edited and translated three anthologies of medieval, 17th century and religious verse.

Calum’s Road

25 Nov, Raasay

A National Theatre of Scotland and Communicado Theatre Company co-production, Calum’s Road is an inspirational story – the stuff of modern folklore. It is the remarkable true story of one man’s single-minded determination to challenge the powers-that-be. It’s hardly believable that one man carved almost two miles of road out of the rocks and trees of north Raasay and here, now, is his story staged in the fresh new surroundings of Raasay’s Community Centre on the island where it all happened.

Scotland’s Islands website

Source: Scotland’s Islands