THE long-buried stories of extraordinary Highland women will be retold to a new audience in a podcast series which goes live this week.
Commissioned by Museums and Heritage Highlands and in collaboration with Highlands and Islands creative business support organisation XpoNorth Digital, the series is hosted by Pauline Moore, formerly from the BBC and who is now an award-winning podcast host and producer.
Focusing on uncovering previously obscured stories of remarkable Highland women, each podcast uses archived material to highlight fascinating individual narratives.
The first in the series recounts the rags-to-riches story of Mary Marjory MacDonald, who became a prolific jewel thief after being orphaned as a teenager. Subsequent episodes spotlight artist Margaret Swanson, a champion of women’s creativity in the 1800s, and Orkney-born doctor and photographer Beatrice Garvie, who blazed the trail for women in medicine when she became one of the UK’s first female GPs in the 1930s.
Nicola Henderson, heritage specialist at XpoNorth Digital, said: “More than a year ago, Nick Lindsay from Clyne Heritage Society approached Museums And Heritage Highland with the story of Caroline Ross, a powerful story of a brave young woman, a story that had been lost to time that he believed the world needed to hear.
“This idea then came to XpoNorth and with support from the team went on a journey to discover the many amazing stories of remarkable women from across the Highlands.
“I am delighted that we can finally tell these stories to the world and hope these pilot episodes lead to people wanting to know more not just about these women, but about the many more amazing women from Highland history whose stories have been hidden for far too long.”
Recorded live at a series of events earlier in the year, the podcast series was facilitated by audio production company and network The Big Light, whose mission is to connect an international community of listeners with Scottish history and culture. Co-founder Janice Forsyth said: “We are delighted to host Unforgotten Highland Women on The Big Light Network. Pauline Moore is a world-class producer and presenter and we’re thrilled that she’s bringing these extraordinary Highland women to life in this six-part boxset.
“Fiona White and I co-founded the network to tell powerful and important stories and share them with audiences around the world. Unforgotten Highland Women proudly takes its place alongside more than 20 other titles.”
This event and podcast series has been supported by the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund and is one of the final projects being launched in celebration of this theme. The fund is being delivered in partnership between VisitScotland and Museums Galleries Scotland with support from National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to National Lottery players. The podcast, along with further information about it, can be accessed at www.thebiglight.com/unforgottenhighlandwomen
