Beginnings, new starts, genesis. A new blog, but with an 'old' subject matter. Born out of a community meeting in the town of Dalry in the Garnock Valley, our group decided to use blogging as a method of bringing together and collating aspects of the culture and history of the area. As an experiment/pilot, we are asking group members to submit 200 words and two photographs of one aspect of the culture/history of the area that they have discovered, or that they have a particular interest in. These will then be collated and published in this blog for demonstration and review purposes, before deciding on whether this would be a way of taking the group forward and possibly applying for funding from Garnock Connections.
We are a group called Bypass Art and our aim is to site a piece of public art, a landmark on the new Dalry Bypass. We would like to see Bessie Dunlop (Witch of Dalry) on the Bypass providing a historical gateway to this part of Ayrshire. Bessie Dunlop Bessie Dunlop was an ordinary woman living in the 16th century in the Lynn Glen area of Dalry. She was a skeelywife (midwife) with a knowledge of traditional remedies as well as charms and superstitions which she used to help those around her in times of sickness and disease.She also gained the reputation of being a spaewife and people began to seek her help in finding lost and stolen items, and that’s when things started to go terribly wrong for Bessie.She may have lived to a ripe old age had her apparent skills in locating missing items not interfered with the activities of corrupt officials. (case of stolen plough irons and a sheriff officer was bribed not to find them) Or being asked by Willia...
Comments
Post a Comment