Capital set for St Kilda Day celebrations

Published on Friday 31 July 2009 10:02

THE remote archipelago of St Kilda will be celebrated in the Capital next month.

The first ever St Kilda Day: Latha Hiort will fall on 29 August and will be marked in Edinburgh with theatre, song and worship over two weeks.

From 15 to 17 August Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles will present its multimedia production, St Kilda – Island of the Birdmen at the Festival Theatre. The performance, which is in Gaelic, French and English, uses vintage film footage and acrobatics to celebrate the "birdmen" of St Kilda, who harvested seabirds and their eggs while hanging from ropes on steep cliffs.

Theatre Workshop will present its production, Aig oir na cruinne – At the Edge of the World – at its theatre in Hamilton Place on 28 August. On 29 August songs and stories will be told by Catriona Watt and Calum Ferguson at The National Trust for Scotland in Charlotte Square, and there will be a St Kilda Day Gaelic Service on 30 August at Greyfriars Church, Greyfriars Place.

It is hoped that the day, organised by the Gaelic Arts Agency, Prosieact nan Elan, will become an annual event.