The Scottish International Storytelling Festival (SISF) returns to Shotts next month.

Top of the bill is another telling of In the Hartwood by Jane Mather and Heather Yule which was commissioned for the festival last year.

This event, which was a sell out in 2023, is a tribute to the hundreds of people interred in pauper’s graves at the now derelict Hartwood Hospital, and the friends who tend the cemetery and make it a tranquil oasis of peace and calm.

Through stories and harp music, audiences will be taken into a faerie realm where dreams are powerful and nature spirits abound.

Hartwood Hospital was a 19th century psychiatric hospital which was closed at the end of the 1990s.

Storyteller Jane Mather, originally from Caithness, has a background in psychology and community well-being and loves Scottish folk tales, myths and fairy stories and the wonderful way that storytelling can bring communities together.

Hartwood Hospital was a 19th century psychiatric hospital which was closed at the end of the 1990s.

Storyteller Jane Mather, originally from Caithness, has a background in psychology and community well-being and loves Scottish folk tales, myths and fairy stories and the wonderful way that storytelling can bring communities together.

The Scottish International Storytelling Festival’s Go Local programme includes over 50 events taking place all over Scotland between October and November and is supported by Creative Scotland through its PLACE [Platforms for Creative Excellence] Programme.

Hartwood Hospital (Image: WSH])

Events take place in village halls, pubs, castles and gardens, where storytellers will share stories about building bridges between cultures, artists and audiences through the power of storytelling.

In the Hartwood takes place at the Henderson Theatre in Kirk Road, Shotts, on Saturday, October 19, at 2.30pm and 7pm.

Tickets cost £5 (children go free). For booking and more information visit www.spotlightshotts.org

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