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Sabhal Mòr Ostaig
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig ([ˌs̪ɔɫ̪ ˌmoɾ ˈɔs̪t̪ɪkʲ]; lit. 'Great Barn of Ostaig') is a public higher education college situated in the Sleat peninsula in the south of the Isle of Skye, Scotland with an associate campus at Bowmore on the island of Islay. Sabhal Mòr is an independent Academic Partner in the federal University of the Highlands and Islands. Its sole medium of instruction on degree courses is Scottish Gaelic.
Since its foundation in 1973 Sabhal Mòr Ostaig has played a crucial role in the linguistic and cultural renaissance of Gaelic in Scotland. The college enjoys an international reputation for the study of the history and literature of the Gàidhealtachd, past and present; for research into political, educational, and community aspects of minority language maintenance and revitalisation; and for its engagement with Gaelic creative arts, as well as with broadcast and online media.
Sabhal Mòr's research base has been further strengthened to take in sociolinguistics, through the Soillse initiative; corpus planning and historical lexicography, through the Stòrdata Nàiseanta na Gàidhlig/Gaelic Terminology Database and the Faclair na Gàidhlig/Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic projects; and toponomy, through the Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba/Gaelic Place-Names of Scotland advisory partnership, all based at the college. Research capacity is underpinned by the Sabhal Mòr Ostaig Library with its internationally important collections of material related to Gaelic and to the Highlands, and further complemented by the proximity of two major Highland archives: those of MacDonald of Sleat in the Museum of the Isles by Armadale Castle, and the MacLeod papers in Dunvegan Castle. Through academic collaboration and student exchanges, the college maintains links with partner institutions in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Nova Scotia.
With residencies for writers, artists, musicians, and dramatists; its degree courses in media and traditional music; its hosting of the national folklore digitisation project Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches; and Fàs, its £8-million centre for creative industries, Sabhal Mòr fulfils an important cultural remit both in the Highlands and in Scotland more generally.
In early 1972 Iain Noble, financier, merchant banker, and Gaelic activist, bought the northern portion of the Sleat estate, in the south of the Isle of Skye, from the then owner, Godfrey Macdonald, 8th Baron Macdonald of Sleat. Noble's vision for his new Eilean Iarmain estate was inspired by a visit he had made to the Faroe Islands in the late 1960s. There he had been impressed by how the local linguistic and cultural renaissance had helped to create what was at the time a correspondingly dynamic economic and creative revival:
When I asked the Faroese, I was amazed when they all replied that things began to happen when they decided to be Faroese and stop being Danish. This sparked the whole thing off. It gave them a sort of self-respect… I am convinced that through the revival of the language there came a pride in identity and all else followed. We mustn’t be frightened of being a small community. Instead we must create our own internal binding factors. People here have never believed that things are possible. But there is virtually nothing that could not be achieved in the Highlands.
Noble set about putting his ideals into practice. Gaelic speakers were recruited and employed in running new fishing and textile enterprises; a bar was set up beside the estate headquarters as a Gaelic-oriented social and cultural focus for the district; and he was soon involved in a series of wrangles with Inverness County Council over bilingual Gaelic roadsigns on his land. Noble was also inspired by the idea of renovating a semi-derelict farmhouse steading at Ostaig as a Gaelic cultural centre. Plans at first focused around the establishment of a Gaelic library, quickly growing through donations to become the largest public collection of Gaelic-related material in the Hebrides. In Noble's words, however:
a library by itself is like mustard without beef. It would have to be open to the public and should become a centre for students. Teachers and an academic ambience were the logical extensions of the new theme.
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Sabhal Mòr Ostaig
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig ([ˌs̪ɔɫ̪ ˌmoɾ ˈɔs̪t̪ɪkʲ]; lit. 'Great Barn of Ostaig') is a public higher education college situated in the Sleat peninsula in the south of the Isle of Skye, Scotland with an associate campus at Bowmore on the island of Islay. Sabhal Mòr is an independent Academic Partner in the federal University of the Highlands and Islands. Its sole medium of instruction on degree courses is Scottish Gaelic.
Since its foundation in 1973 Sabhal Mòr Ostaig has played a crucial role in the linguistic and cultural renaissance of Gaelic in Scotland. The college enjoys an international reputation for the study of the history and literature of the Gàidhealtachd, past and present; for research into political, educational, and community aspects of minority language maintenance and revitalisation; and for its engagement with Gaelic creative arts, as well as with broadcast and online media.
Sabhal Mòr's research base has been further strengthened to take in sociolinguistics, through the Soillse initiative; corpus planning and historical lexicography, through the Stòrdata Nàiseanta na Gàidhlig/Gaelic Terminology Database and the Faclair na Gàidhlig/Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic projects; and toponomy, through the Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba/Gaelic Place-Names of Scotland advisory partnership, all based at the college. Research capacity is underpinned by the Sabhal Mòr Ostaig Library with its internationally important collections of material related to Gaelic and to the Highlands, and further complemented by the proximity of two major Highland archives: those of MacDonald of Sleat in the Museum of the Isles by Armadale Castle, and the MacLeod papers in Dunvegan Castle. Through academic collaboration and student exchanges, the college maintains links with partner institutions in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Nova Scotia.
With residencies for writers, artists, musicians, and dramatists; its degree courses in media and traditional music; its hosting of the national folklore digitisation project Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches; and Fàs, its £8-million centre for creative industries, Sabhal Mòr fulfils an important cultural remit both in the Highlands and in Scotland more generally.
In early 1972 Iain Noble, financier, merchant banker, and Gaelic activist, bought the northern portion of the Sleat estate, in the south of the Isle of Skye, from the then owner, Godfrey Macdonald, 8th Baron Macdonald of Sleat. Noble's vision for his new Eilean Iarmain estate was inspired by a visit he had made to the Faroe Islands in the late 1960s. There he had been impressed by how the local linguistic and cultural renaissance had helped to create what was at the time a correspondingly dynamic economic and creative revival:
When I asked the Faroese, I was amazed when they all replied that things began to happen when they decided to be Faroese and stop being Danish. This sparked the whole thing off. It gave them a sort of self-respect… I am convinced that through the revival of the language there came a pride in identity and all else followed. We mustn’t be frightened of being a small community. Instead we must create our own internal binding factors. People here have never believed that things are possible. But there is virtually nothing that could not be achieved in the Highlands.
Noble set about putting his ideals into practice. Gaelic speakers were recruited and employed in running new fishing and textile enterprises; a bar was set up beside the estate headquarters as a Gaelic-oriented social and cultural focus for the district; and he was soon involved in a series of wrangles with Inverness County Council over bilingual Gaelic roadsigns on his land. Noble was also inspired by the idea of renovating a semi-derelict farmhouse steading at Ostaig as a Gaelic cultural centre. Plans at first focused around the establishment of a Gaelic library, quickly growing through donations to become the largest public collection of Gaelic-related material in the Hebrides. In Noble's words, however:
a library by itself is like mustard without beef. It would have to be open to the public and should become a centre for students. Teachers and an academic ambience were the logical extensions of the new theme.
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