Hallaig
DESCRIPTION
Hallaig' is perhaps the most celebrated work by Sorley MacLean (Somhairle MacGill-Eain), the Raasay-born poet who wrote in Scottish Gaelic.
The poem takes its name from the deserted township located on the Isle of Raasay, cleared of its inhabitants in the 1850s by a cruel landowner. MacLean takes the reader around the emptied landscape, using highly evocative language to bring the lives of the now gone families back to life - 'The dead have been seen alive.'
This new publication, a limited-edition collaboration between the Sorley MacLean Trust and photographer Alex Boyd, brings the words of Sorley MacLean together with Boyd's striking images of Hallaig, captured using infra-red photography.
Depicted in deep reds, these landscapes are vibrant, alive and bring the tragedy of the Highland Clearances into focus. They were recently exhibited at Streetlvel Photoworks in Glasgow, and as projections on Brodick Castle in Summer 2021.
In Discussion
with Alex Boyd