Category Archives: News

Interviews with the Walkie Talkie Group

November 22, 2013News, The Kilmodan BlogAlana Mathers

Today, we were thrilled to be joined at our Glen of the Red River Workshop by Mrs Sybil Peters and Mrs Eileen Connon from the ColGlen Walkie Talkie Group – a group of keen walkers who get together every week for some walkin’ and talkin’ in the Glen and surrounding areas, to keep fit, and have fun!

The Kilmodan Primary School pupils had lots of questions to ask Mrs Peters and Mrs Connon, who were wonderful interviewees!

The pupils asked about when the ladies moved to the area, what changes they have noticed in the Glen over the years, where their favourite place to walk in the Glen is, and if they had any stories to share from the Glen’s past. The pupils were very pro-active, asking lots of great questions and carrying on conversations with our guests. The interviews were recorded, and will be on our website shortly!

Many thanks to Mrs Peters and Mrs Connon for taking the time to come along and be apart of the Glen of the Red River project!

The Red River Rap goes live!

November 22, 2013NewsAlana Mathers

Performed by the pupils of Kilmodan Primary School, written by Sadie Dixon-Spain, and filmed by Powan Media, the Red River Rap music video is now LIVE!

So sit back, relax, make sure your volume is right up, and enjoy The Red River Rap!!

Parish of Kilmadan

November 8, 2013NewsCharles Dixon-Spain

Our Logo

October 28, 2013NewsAlana Mathers

Ever wondered where the Glen of the Red River logo came from? Who designed it? Who chose the colours? Who decided to place one of our very own Glendaruel sheep right at the front?

The answer…our fantastic pupils from Kilmodan Primary!

Find out all about the design process on our Designing Our Logo page!

New Interview about the Glendaruel Hotel

October 7, 2013NewsClachan, Glendaruel, Glendaruel Hotel, History, interview, Michael KaufmannCharles Dixon-Spain

Fiona Lochheed has interviewed Michael Kaufmann about the Glendaruel Hotel and life in the glen — click here to listen to it

We Love Trees

October 3, 2013NewsARC, Forest, Glendaruel Village Hall, Jean Donaldson, Powanmedia, Summer SchoolCharles Dixon-Spain

This Summer the children participating in the Arts and Recreation Club at Glendaruel Village Hall made a film to celebrate the Community acquisition of Stronafian Forest. The movie is here.

The Glendaruel Rap: Dress Rehearsal!

October 2, 2013NewsAlana Mathers, All Our Stories, Argyll, Community, Cowal, Family, Glen, Glen of the Red River, Glendaruel, Heritage, Heritage Lottery Fund, History, Kilmodan Primary School, Online, Performance, Portal, pupils, Rebecca Bloom, Red River, Sadie Dixon-Spain, Scotland, The National Lottery, Visitors, Walking Youth Theatre, Workshop, WYTAlana Mathers

Date: [Afternoon] Wednesday 2^nd of October 2013

Location: Kilmodan Primary School, Glendaruel

Workshop: The Glendaruel Rap: Dress Rehearsal!

Walking Youth Theatre Team: Rebecca Bloom, Sadie Dixon-Spain, Alana Mathers

This afternoons session focused on the performance of The Happening History of the Red River Glen rap! The pupils, still on a high from this mornings Mesolithic Forest School, had some great ideas for actions to be performed within the piece! It was great to hear how inspired the pupils were by the project, and to see them putting their Glen of the Red River knowledge into action when performing the Rap! Following some group work, preparing and rehearsing lines and actions, and a whole rap run-through, it was time to bring out the costumes – a much anticipated part of the dress rehearsal! With mighty Mesoliths, groovy Vikings, cool Jacobites, and a few hip modern day Glendaruel-ers, it was obvious not only were the pupils having fun, but they had also picked up on a number of historical fashion ideas throughout the sessions!!

It was time to begin staging our modern day Timeline Crew, and a lot of fun was had! The pupils were already beginning to show some great performance ideas, and many were already performing without script!

Our next workshop will include putting the final touches to the performance, and having the performance filmed to go on our website. We can’t wait!

Workshop: Mesolithic and Neolithic Life in Glen

October 2, 2013NewsAlana Mathers, Alison Sykora, All Our Stories, Argyll, Cowal, Food, Foraging, Forest, Forest School, Gatherer, Glen, Glen of the Red River, Glendaruel, Heritage Lottery Fund, History, Hunter, Kilmodan, Kilmodan Primary School, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Outdoors, Primary School, pupils, Sadie Dixon-Spain, Susan Gaffney, Timeline, Weaving, websiteAlana Mathers

Date: [Morning] Wednesday 2^nd of October 2013

Location: Kilmodan Primary School’s Forest School, Glendaruel

Workshop: Mesolithic and Neolithic Life in the Glen

Walking Youth Theatre Team: Sadie Dixon-Spain and Alana Mathers

Guests: Susan Gaffney and Alison Sykora

The aim of this exercise was to encourage the pupils of Kilmodan Primary to use their imaginations and experience what life would have been like in Mesolithic and Neolithic Glendaruel. This is where the timeline the pupils created begins, and by bringing to life this era, it allowed the children to have a realistic knowledge of how life has evolved, how the Glen has changed, and of course, aspects of life in the Glen which have remained from the Early Settlers.

We took part in ‘Forest School’, a weekly excursion to an allocated outdoor classroom the pupils undertake each week. Sadie and Alana from The Walking Youth Theatre were accompanied by weaver Susan Gaffney, and professional chef Alison Sykora, who kindly shared their expertise to give the pupils hands-on experience of Meso & Neo-lithic life.

Susan taught the pupils how to weave plates and bowls, the way our Early Settling descendants would have done so in the very beginning of life in the Glen. This fantastic hands-on experience was enjoyed by all, and our pupils made some expertly designed serving dishes, just in time for a Mesolithic feast!

Alison cooked up a Mesolithic feast, with a little help from our hardy pupils! Food foraging brought to our attention the vast variety of ingredients that lie in the Glen, and by using traditional methods as far as possible, our pupils had a real-life Hunter Gatherer experience! From fruit to fish, vegetables to seaweed, an extraordinary insight into the feasting habits of 10,000 years ago brought the history of the Red River to life in a very exciting way!

Archaeology Pages Complete

September 27, 2013Newsarchaeology, Charles McLaughlin, maps, photos, prehistoric timesCharles Dixon-Spain

Over the last weeks we have slowly been uploading all of the images and maps produced by our own local and very eminent archaeology expert Charles MacLaughlin. You’ll find lots of sites in these pages, all marked on the maps and with photos of them below. Its a wealth of material and we hope to include Charles’s maps in our master map of Glendaruel shortly (another very big project indeed!). The pages are all here:

[shortmenu menu=”Archaeology” list=”ul” ]

What if …? Tearoom & Exhibition at Kilmodan

September 24, 2013NewsArt, Ceramics, Exhibition, Kilmodan Primary School, Project, Robert Stewart, TearoomCharles Dixon-Spain

Throughout August and September the children from Kilmodan Primary school have been creating a fantastic range of artwork in response to the Robert Stewart ceramic mural situated in the school. Inspired by Stewart’s use of natural motifs, colour, pattern and texture the children have explored new materials and techniques to produce an impressive body of work. On Friday 4 October there will be a celebration of this work in the form of a tearoom, exhibition and programmes of drawing workshops for the community to take part in.

Here’s the project page