Blue Kirkhope
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Blue Kirkhope
@bluekirkhope.bsky.social
250 followers 170 following 120 posts
Writer. Communications Executive at National Trust for Scotland.

Trudging through the bog, always heading northwards.

Glasgow, Scotland | (she/they)

www.bluekirkhope.com
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Reposted by Blue Kirkhope
asls.org.uk
Oidhche Shamhna – a South Uist #Halloween

Ethnomusicologist, photographer, folklorist, & scholar Margaret Fay Shaw (1903–2004) recorded a traditional Hebridean Halloween on South Uist in the 1930s, in photographs & on film

—via the National Trust for Scotland
#Gaelic
www.nts.org.uk/stories/oidh...
A black and white image of two children dressed for Halloween, standing on a flat patch of scrubby ground with a rocky hillside rising behind them. The children are wearing multiple layers of outsized clothes, bundled and knotted around them. Their hands are hidden within their sleeves, and they have huge adult work-boots on their feet. The figure on the left is wearing a crude mask with tiny eyeholes and a mouth hole; tufts of dried grass have been added to create a beard and moustache. The figure on the right doesn't seem to have a mask – just a large clump of heather for a head, protruding from a jacket collar swathed in scarves.
October 31, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Blue Kirkhope
insuhi.bsky.social
Following the discovery of mosquitoes in Iceland, Dr Andrew Jennings, @thinkuhi.bsky.social Associate Professor in Island Studies, discusses the need to build resilience #islands in the face of rapid climate change.

@adammarkham.bsky.social #climatechange

open.substack.com/pub/resilien...
Climate’s New Invaders: Iceland and Shetland’s First Mosquitoes and the Warning for Northern Islands
As an academic living in the windswept Shetland Isles, I’ve always been fascinated by how climate shapes the fragile ecosystems and cultures of remote islands.
open.substack.com
October 28, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Reposted by Blue Kirkhope
shetnews.co.uk
Shaetlan has finally been recognised as a language in its own right.
The recognition comes after the local language was given its own ISO code by SIL Global, the organisation that handles the international Ethnologue database has been tasked with the handling of international language ISO codes.
Shaetlan receives full recognition as a language
SHAETLAN has finally been recognised as a language in its own right. The recognition comes after the local language was given its own ISO code by SIL Global,...
shet.news
October 15, 2025 at 2:43 PM
It began with meadow pipits and ended with a rainbow over the Sloy dam. Raindrops like pearls cast by bright sunbeams, sparkling slabs of glistening granite, scrambling up the craggy scree slopes and hauling my body 3000 ft high to panoramic views of the Arrochar Alps, Loch Lomond and beyond.
A rainbow descending into a valley, surrounded by bright green mountains and scattered rock beneath a cloudy yet blue sky. A shadow of a person holding walking sticks on a road leading into a beautiful valley, Ben Vane towering overhead. The peak of Ben Vane, in a luminescent green and featuring jagged rocks under an ominous grey sky. 3000 ft at the top of Ben Vane, with panoramic views of Loch Lomond.
September 16, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Blue Kirkhope
ross-greer.bsky.social
Gaelic is on the verge of extinction. The rural housing crisis caused by an explosion of second homes & buy-to-lets is one of the major driving forces.

Next week MSPs will vote on my proposal to increase the tax rate on those buying second homes in communities where Gaelic is still widely spoken.
Greens to force vote on tax for second homes in Gaelic-speaking communities
THE Scottish Greens are set to force a vote on increasing taxes on holiday homes and short-term lets in Gaelic-speaking communities.
www.thenational.scot
September 15, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by Blue Kirkhope
shetnews.co.uk
Summer is not quite over yet:

A beautiful day-flying hummingbird hawk-moth in a Shetland garden earlier this week.
September 13, 2025 at 8:34 AM
My latest Clyde Built Radio show is now up, where I rediscover my love for Kim Gordon and quite clearly forget to iron my trousers.
Fragments w/ Blue (23/8/25)
Stream Fragments w/ Blue (23/8/25) by Clyde Built Radio on desktop and mobile. Play over 320 million tracks for free on SoundCloud.
m.soundcloud.com
September 8, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Reposted by Blue Kirkhope
lenski666.bsky.social
My poetry collection, Bodily Fluids, is now available to preorder from @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social 💦💘

www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page...
Len Lukowski - Bodily Fluids | Broken Sleep Books
Len Lukowski’s Bodily Fluids is a charged, unflinching examination of desire, transgression, and the shifting boundaries of selfhood. Moving through sex, memory, digital detritus, and fleeting intimac...
www.brokensleepbooks.com
September 3, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Please excuse my absence, I have been staring at the floor.
Sunlight spilling over a living room with cheap, dark wooden flooring and white wooden Glasgow tenement windows. Renovations begin. The cheap, wooden flooring is pulled up and door removed to reveal the original timber and an old bookcase. The transformation: the old dirty timber floors are now shining bright under the sun in their pale hues. Me showing off with my new floors. I’m a professional floor renovator now.
September 3, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Reposted by Blue Kirkhope
asls.org.uk
Whan du telt me hoo du thowt o ‘luck’
as nae mair as chance, de happy hubbelskju
o aentropie, I thowt onnly o de ben-end
o my grandmidder’s hoose an aa her talismans
o tat…

—Roseanne Watt, “Lukkie”
#poem #poetry #Shetland
www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/lukkie/
Lukkie Roseanne Watt Whan du telt me hoo du thowt o ‘luck’ as nae mair as chance, de happy hubbelskju o aentropie, I thowt onnly o de ben-end o my grandmidder’s hoose an aa her talismans o tat. Inbi, luck wis acht an lenned lik coins, hot fae de löf. Dere wis wyes aboot it: a sixpence fir de scratchcairds; tree skoilts o a gingernut wid gie dee a wish; a dram onnly ivvir gied sungaets roond de room. Ee time, ower supper, shö telt me hoo shö won an aamos fae a haafman; a beaded bag fir a skurtfoo o her luck at sea. I browt him tae de dance dat week, but someen took him fae de cloakroom. Less. Dere’s joost some tings dat du canna keep a haad o. Dat’s true enoff. It seems tae me wir luck his aye been wattir cupped by hands at prayer, in a langwich at his mair wirds fir ill-luckit tings as fair. Nivir leet, shö says. De lotto’s demoarn. Can I git dee a gingernut?
August 29, 2025 at 4:41 PM
A big day ✨
The sun spills through the windows of a Glasgow tenement flat on to the wooden floor, an arm outstretched and holding a set of keys in the foreground.
August 8, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Blue Kirkhope
mondoweiss.net
THREAD: 🚨 Leaked Israeli government documents just dropped. Here’s what they reveal:

Israeli media outlet Channel 13 published internal war cabinet transcripts from March 2025.
They confirm that the Israeli government knowingly pursued a strategy of starvation in Gaza.
August 6, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Front page! It was a real pleasure to work on this story with @craig-nisbet.bsky.social @stkildawhs.bsky.social @ellingbry.bsky.social on the first drone census of the gannet population at St Kilda, which has determined that it is once again the world’s largest colony #NTSSeabirds

shorturl.at/PQxSg
‘Gannets milestone for St Kilda’ story on the front page of the Herald ‘St Kilda now has largest colony of gannets in the world’ story on page 7 of The Herald
August 1, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Reposted by Blue Kirkhope
stkildawhs.bsky.social
Results from the 2023 #StKilda Gannet census are to be published in the December issue of #ScottishBirds, revealing relative stability in what is once again the world's largest colony, despite fears that #HPAI may have had a greater impact on the population
#NTSSeabirds
@scottishbirding.bsky.social
A bird’s-eye view of the gannet colony at St Kilda
The first drone census at St Kilda has revealed the islands are now home to the world’s largest gannet colony.
www.nts.org.uk
July 31, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Blue Kirkhope
rspbscotland.bsky.social
A dark day for Scotland’s seabirds.

We're incredibly concerned that Scottish Government have granted consent for the Berwick Bank offshore windfarm, which could catapult some of our most vulnerable species toward extinction 🚨

We will carefully scrutinise the details and consider our next steps.
“This is a very dark day for seabirds. Berwick Bank would be catastrophic for Scotland’s globally important seabirds which are already facing alarming declines. Its impacts are so damaging it will make it very difficult for other, less-harmful windfarms to come forward. We are incredibly concerned that Scottish Government have granted consent for a project which could catapult some of Scotland’s most-loved seabird species towards extinction.” Gannet pair courting
July 31, 2025 at 12:00 PM
We love to see it!
Heritage coalition saves Scottish modernist ‘jewel’ in fiercely fought auction
Derelict studio built for textile designer Bernat Klein in 1972 goes for £279,000 after starting price of £18,000
www.theguardian.com
July 30, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Blue Kirkhope
lauraewebster.bsky.social
NEW: The Scottish community-owned island of Eigg has announced a boycott of Israel

The island of 120 people has backed BDS and its sole shop will stop stocking goods from Israeli firms

www.thenational.scot/news/2533509...
Scottish community-owned island announces full boycott of Israel
The Isle of Eigg has announced a full boycott of Israel amid its genocide in Gaza ...
www.thenational.scot
July 23, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Reposted by Blue Kirkhope
mondoweiss.net
Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza.
July 21, 2025 at 2:03 PM
LOVED Daisy LaFarge’s Lovebug. Ironically I have been too lovesick and heartbroken to ~consume~ anything related to love of late, but this both joyfully and horrifically demonstrates the destined symbiotic nature of all living things, the network, as opposed to the hierarchy, of it all.
Lovebug by Daisy LaFarge, a yellow cover with a microscopic image in pink. “The now-ubiquitous genre of nature writing and its healing, revelatory encounters with an enchanting natural world wouldn't cut it. It is not always easy to be on the side of life; some relationships on earth remain irreducibly violent for one party involved.” “All beings circulate through each other - Denis Diderot”
July 20, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Reposted by Blue Kirkhope
ashleylynch.bsky.social
WeTransfer just changed their TOS giving themselves permission to train AI on any content you transfer and produce derivative works based on content you transfer that they are allowed to monetize and you are not allowed payment for.

Stop using WeTransfer.
July 14, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Reposted by Blue Kirkhope
natalie-berry.com
At climbing sessions near Lviv in west Ukraine, the Mountain Seed Foundation gives children and families impacted by Russia's war an opportunity for respite on the rock, helping them to cope with trauma.
July 14, 2025 at 10:44 AM
When I was 22 years old (10 years ago now), I embarked on my first long-distance trail, with the assumption this may help cure my CPTSD in some form along the way. But it merely enhanced it, exacerbated it, in that I came out of it #NOTHEALED. I felt cheated, that there was something wrong with me.
July 7, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Reposted by Blue Kirkhope
hjm.bsky.social
Oh does it turn out that going out into nature can't cure rare neurodegenerative diseases? huh.
July 6, 2025 at 9:15 AM
I am SO HERE for The Salt Path scandal. Up yours, the “nature cure”. Happy fucking Sunday.
July 6, 2025 at 9:19 AM