The Prize
By supporting our craft ''prize draw'', you will not only be donating to a good cause - but you'll be in with a chance to win some epic handmade crafts by our very own collective and wider community,
Prizes up for grabs:
Traditionally tanned Scottish sheepskin from Woodland Tannery
Handmade buckskin pouch & deer antler earrings, by Bethan Bray & Aoife Lowden
Highlander Wool hat gifted by Fandabi Dozi, (Tom Langhorne) and Scottish Tales for telling book by Dougie MacKay
Handmade woollen Crios belt by Aoife Lowden & Eco-print scarf by Rosalie Schmidt
Collection of Sacred Roots Apothecary herbal goodies, by Freya Broad
ADDITIONAL PRIZE: If you buy 3 or more tickets you get added into an additional draw to win a place on the ''Salmon of Wisdom'' course. This draw takes place on the 5th of July 2025. Any 30+ donations on this date and afterwards will not avail of this draw.
Who we are & ''The Cause''
We, the Shieling Collective, formed last year around September 2024 - in response to the reality that what was known to be ‘‘The Shieling Project’’ (formed in 2013) was at risk of closing down. The legacy of the Project before at Dunmaglass has left us with full facilities to host workshops and events, including camp kitchen, composting toilets, teaching space, and 6 wooden clad cabins.
A group of friends, of old and new, have come together to revive this project as a hub of cultural learning in the Scottish Highlands.
We are crafters, tradition-bearers, storytellers, ecologists, social activists, land-workers and cultural revivalists. All of us with a great passion for rekindling old ways and culture.
The Shieling Revival Initiative
We are working to revive the Shieling (àirigh) way of life: a place for bringing people together on the land, in tune with the seasons to learn, practice and pass down native Highland culture, and care for the land and ourselves as communities rooted in these lands, ancestry and traditions.
Help Us Make A Change
This project will benefit a wide range of intergenerational community members, both locally, nationally and internationally.
Our intention is to create a variety of different community events, courses and ceilidhs which can enable people to engage with the Shieling Revival with both our tangible and intangible cultural heritage at the core.
Some of the courses may include but are not restricted to; dry stone dyking, traditional tanning, Gaelic language & culture immersions, wool craft, weaving, basketry, seasonal community ceremonies, butter making, animal husbandry, healing retreats & more....
Through the Shieling Revival Initiative, community members will:
-Have access to affordable, hands-on learning of land-based, traditional skills;
-Receive opportunities to reclaim cultural identity: through learning Gaelic language; Highland traditions; engaging in Ceilidh culture; facilitated events rooted in ''Dùthchas'', belonging, and our roles as active stewards to the land and people;
-Learn to embody ecological stewardship, to practice sustainable food production, animal husbandry and other tangible skills to bring to their home communities;
-Resilient, place-based solutions to modern challenges.
Where we stand now:
When we ‘‘inherited’’ this project, it came with many blessings. It also came with some burdens, which we have been getting to grips with managing over the past 10 months. Before we took it on, it was at risk of shutting down completely. After the founder left a few years ago, the directors and other folk involved did a miraculous job to keep it alive for the time that they did. By the time we came around, they were spent and had well and truly ''done their time''.
So one of the main burdens we face at present is the financial state it has been in this last cycle - which has in turn meant for us to not only be volunteering (some of us on an almost full-time basis) but also paying out of our own pockets to cover basic overheads, site repair & running costs. This is not a sustainable model as we all need to live, to keep the project and our own lives afloat simultaneously.
So with this fundraising ''draw'' we begin to open the gates to welcome your support, of financial (and otherwise) so that we can tend to this mission at a steady pace which does not sacrifice the wellbeing of those who are driving it forward. We have already applied for numerous grants to bring in funding, and have a few small-scale events happening this year - but it is really next year which will be our first proper year of programming and ''launch'' into enacting the vision we are carrying for ''The Shieling Revival''.
You can read more about us via our website here
How to Enter our ''Draw''
You can enter this fundraiser by pledging
- 1 ticket is £12
- 2 tickets are £20
- 3 tickets £30
5 tickets for 50, and so on.
If you pledge 30+ you are added into an additional draw to win a place on the ''Salmon of Wisdom'' course taking place 11th-15th July 2025.
If you aren't able to attend the course, you can gift the place onwards so it may be of benefit to someone else.
Tapadh leibh, thank you all -