Our call for support
We, the Shieling Collective, formed last year around September 2024 - in response to the reality that what was known to be ‘‘The Shieling Project’’ was at risk of closing down.
A group of friends, of old and new, have come together to revive this project and create a hub of cultural learning in the Scottish Highlands. Since taking on the project and site at Dungmaglass, we have been working tirelessly through zoom calls and in-person meetings - volunteering our time, energy and money to ensure the continuation of what we believe and know to be an incredible space for learning, both locally, nationally and wider afield.
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.
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. Part of this is the financial state in which we received it - this has caused 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 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.
