Last week when Pennie Taylor held the fort on Riddoch Questions, I was in Iceland on an ICHI sponsored cultural exchange. That’s an EU programme and it allows people to explore other cultures – My big mission was to find out how a community on an isolated fjord in an isolated country can be confidently developing natural and cultural heritage when similar communities in Scotland seem overwhelmed by red tape, regulation, health and safety rules and a shortage of volunteers. The place is Skalanes -- bought four years ago by the family of Elfa Hlin Petursdottir -- a young historian and Museum curator in East Iceland.
The 3000 hectare estate lies 17 kms beyond Seydisfjordur – now known as the “turn of the century town” after a group of local women blocked a project to create a sterile new harbour and instead refurbished the old Nordic wooden and tin pier buildings to house hotels, museums and young families.
At Skalanes. Elfa’s family are managing their native arctic tern and eider duck colonies successfully, and have boldly gone where “professional” conservationists fear to tread, exploring local archaeology, culture, place names, genealogy, wildlife and botany in one combined heritage project.
Aided by teams of volunteer zoologists from Glasgow University and by our ICHI bunch of Scottish heritage experts, the owners of Skalanes have cheerfully cut across funding streams, bureaucracies, specialisms, national boundaries and areas of expertise to offer a new model of human and natural development.
This podcast features a discussion between Elfa, Sharon Webb, of Kilmartin Museum in Argyll, Mia Scott of the Highland Buildings and Preservation Trust and Annie MacSween of Lews Castle College in Stornoway. They’re discussing how best to lead visitors around the amazing rugged natural environment of Skalanes without having signs everywhere…….. Click here to listen to the Iceland Aftermath.
Comments