Local Origins Rural Network - LORN Sustainable living in North Argyll

Local Origins Rural Network, LORN , invites you to their third Gaelic Wool Festival - Feis Cothlam 2012 : a Celebration of all things Woolly in Argyll.
A fun filled 3 day event, incorporating all things to do with crafts and products from sheep we can come up with - featuring the much acclaimed Gaelic Waulking Singers - Sgioba Luaidh Inbhirchluaidh - based around Benderloch.

On Thursday 19th July 2012 there is a supersized Local Producers market at Kintaline Farm, Benderloch, with all the usual attractions together with lots more displays, demonstrations, and stalls. There will be shearing, spinning, singing, knitting, horn work, and lots of ideas as to what you can make from sheep. Displays of fleeces, as well as innovative commerical products. Food is, as always a vital part of the LORN market - plenty to buy, and lots to eat on the day, along with cookery demonstrations - come and find out what to do with lamb, hogget and mutton of different breeds of sheep.

On Friday 20th July 2012 there will be a variety of woolly crafty workshops which you will need to book in advance. We are open to suggestions if you would like to run something in the area. Handling fleeces ; Spinning ; Waulking a tweed and the Gaelic Working songs; Peg loom weaving; Felting; Knitting; Crochet work; are just some of the proposed workshops you can book. Please get in touch if you have a course or workshop you would like to offer. The costs of each one will vary.

On Saturday 21st July 2012 the Victory Hall Benderloch is the venue for a day long drop in taster sessions for woolly crafts; stalls; displays and demonstrations. This is also a wonderful meeting time for all woolly enthusiasts to catch up with each other from all over the country, share their years work, explore new equipment and trade some fleeces.

Saturday's finale is a full evening concert performance of the Sgioba Luaidh Inbhirchluaidh (Inverclyde Waulking Singers) who will entertain us all with their gaelic working songs, just as the women of the Highlands and Islands sang to each other over centuries, as they spun, washed, milked and waulked the tweeds. The songs evoke the trials and tribulations of the life of our ancestors, as well as depict the history throughout the Hebrides.