Gathering

by Alec Finlay (Artist), James Dyas Davidson (Contributor), Hannah Devereux (Contributor)

Gathering is an innovative mapping of the Highland landscape in poems, essays, photographs and maps by Scottish artist and poet Alec Finlay (born 1966). Created for The Fife Arms hotel located in the heart of the Cairngorms, it guides the reader to modest, forgotten places in this complex region.

Finlay worked from a published collection of names assembled by Adam Watson, one of the most significant modern contributions to Scottish folk culture, consisting of over 7,000 local place-names, covering every ruined farm, shieling, hill, glen, spring, burn and wood in the region. Over a period of years, Finlay expanded Watson's catalog into a generous ecopoetical account of the Cairngorms, accompanied by photographs showing the hills in all their seasonal variety and a series of walk guides. Essays guide the reader to names that reveal the haunts of wolves and wildcats, and cast a vivid impression of the great pinewoods that once grew there.

283 pages, Hardcover

First published August 28, 2018

About the author

Alec Finlay (b. 1960) is a Scottish poet and artist whose work crosses over a range of media and forms. In 2020 he received a Cholmondeley Award for services to poetry. His I remember: Scotland's Covid Memorial was completed in 2022. Publications include I remember (2022), description (2022), a far off land (2018), and gathering (2018). A collected shorter poems, play my game, was published by Stewed Rhubarb in 2023.