Get to Know the Face Behind Landscape Lore

Hi, I am Aila and I cannot wait to share my love for lore and the Highlands with you.

After many years of listening to the traveller in my blood and roaming the globe, I have settled in my true home, a Highland village nestled in between the Cairngorms National Park and Monadhliath Mountains. As I revel in the inspiring beauty of nature surrounding the village of Newtonmore, I am eager to share my admiration for this wonderful corner of the world, where nature intertwines with history and the soul of Scotland.

Poetry, stories and tales in all their forms, as well as a fascination with history and travelling have always been huge parts of my life. This passion has taken me on remarkable journeys across more than 50 countries, and also led to my academic pursuit of English and Spanish literature. During these studies, my fascination eventually gravitated towards Highland literature, prompting me to continue with a postgraduate research degree at the University of the Highlands and Islands.

This allowed me to intensely work with literary pieces of the 18th century, particularly James Macpherson’s Ossianic Collections of the 1760s, which initiated Highland tourism, but also many other works rooted in the oral tradition of the Highlands, as well as travel literature. Following this degree, I taught a remote university seminar on ‘Highland Culture and Literature in the 18th and 19th centuries’.

My professional journey ultimately led me to become the Curator and Development Manager at the recently refurbished Clan Macpherson Museum in Newtonmore – a museum with its very own ‘Ossian-corner’. This unique opportunity allowed me to care for an invaluable collection, share the story of the clan and its diaspora with visitors from all around the world, and organise engaging workshops and events. Through this work, I witnessed the profound importance of storytelling and heritage preservation first hand.

After designing the special exhibition ‘Living Landscapes’ at the museum, I was inspired to take all these valuable experiences outdoors, under the open sky, where our legacy and heritage from the past meet with our present right in front of our eyes.

As I believe that storytelling and the oral tradition are absolutely fundamental to our heritage and sense of place, my mission is to contribute towards keeping the oral tradition alive and more than that, celebrating it. I want to bring memories, knowledge and tales into the landscapes they belong, to let you experience them with all your senses and emotions and feel a true connection with a place you hopefully come to love as much as I do.