Kingussie High School
During the summer term of 2010, along with a wide range of people whose work connects them to the landscape - artists, writers, musicians, survival experts and others - I joined S2 of Kingussie High School on a series of creative journeys into the local landscape.
The larger project was conceived by Dr Joyce Gilbert, Education Officer for RSPB Scotland. My small part involved me in taking a circular walk with a small group of pupils, up into the hills above the town. I encouraged them to take note of whatever drew their attention and to reminisce about times they had been there before or any other connections that came to mind. My aim was to get them to create a landscape of memory, an entirely different way of mapping a place, but one which I hoped would encourage and enrich the pupils' relationship with their own surroundings.
When we returned to school, the pupils created a map, full of mood colours and with a roughly circular route marked upon it, with invented names for landmarks and any events or memories also marked on the map in whatever way they wanted. No two of these memory maps were anything like each other and certainly bore little relation to Ordinance Survey maps, which was just as I had hoped. And to house these maps, a bit like hiding secret treasure maps, they carved out niches in old books and hid their maps inside, ready to be found sometime in the future and for the memories to be discovered all over again.
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