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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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
Glad you think so! And thankfully I am very organised, tracklist here:
September 8, 2025 at 10:17 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
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
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
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
Canna House has officially reopened after a 9 year period of intricate restoration and repair, allowing visitors to roam amongst Margaret Fay Shaw and John Lorne Campbell's former home, their extensive collection of belongings and historic Gaelic archive.

A total dream to work on this! Go visit!
The grey stone of Canna House with its white windows and the red roof of the conservatory standing proud beneath a cloudy blue sky. The hallway of Canna House full to the brim with furniture and objects belonging to Margaret Fay Shaw and John Lorne Campbell. A black and white portrait of a smiling Margaret Fay Shaw. The study of Canna House projecting footage from the Gaelic archive amongst several objects belonging to Shaw and Campbell.
June 17, 2025 at 10:21 AM
🩵
May 27, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Last week I spent time in Rùm, where I climbed the craggy, volcanic terrain of Hallival in the dark, solo, where I spent the night with a third of the world’s population of Manx shearwaters; their wings slicing the air and coarse crooning for company. One of the most special nights of my life.
An almost-full moon above the volcanic terrain of Hallival mountain, the last of the day’s sun illuminating the landscape. A view of the jagged Isle of Skye cuillins from the top Hallival, the last lick of sunset on the horizon amongst a purple haze of darkness. A Manx shearwater poking out of its burrow, illuminated by the red light from a head torch. A blue, starry night above the rocky Hallival.
May 14, 2025 at 7:07 PM
I’m going to be over there in a few days. The Isle of Rùm from Mallaig. All of the blue.
The blue silhouette of the Isle of Rùm standing proud beneath a clear blue sky amidst the deep blue of the sea. View from a a hotel room in Mallaig.
May 4, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Matching a wheatear tail feather, found outside Edinburgh Park station
May 1, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Next week we will explore the act of writing by hand and how our medium influences our writing voice with gorgeous writer and artist Annie Lord.

Book your place for ‘Regenerative words: the creative act of handwriting’ on Thursday 17th April at Print Culture in Glasgow ✍️

tinyurl.com/4tcd4n66
A swish of black charcoal on white paper
April 7, 2025 at 6:34 PM
I officially have a website!

I've absolutely adored writing for other people these past few months, so it felt like the right time to pull it all together like a little online portfolio.

Available for essays, reviews, copywriting jobs in the nature/music/art sphere.

-> www.bluekirkhope.com
A screenshot of Blue's website, minimal in black and white.
April 5, 2025 at 11:17 AM
An incredible exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. Emotions interchanging from rage to love to awe to sadness from room to room for the duration of it, and forevermore.
A ‘Women In Revolt’ exhibition banned outside the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester featuring a still from Gina Birch’s 3 minute scream. A blank and white badge starting “ARMS ARE FOR LINKING” featuring an illustration of a fence and a row of activists linking arms. A black and white photo of a woman with short blonde hair cutting through barbed wire with a set of bolt cutters. A women against fascism & racism poster.
March 18, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Torridon took my breath away last week, almost as much as a gannet plunging or a fulmar flying. @n-t-s.bsky.social look after almost 1 million seabirds across Scotland, making them the largest custodians of seabirds in the UK and perhaps even in Europe. It is a privilege to help support this work.
The sun setting above the hills over Loch Torridon. The National Trust for Scotland’s ‘Project Fulmar’ presentation. A rainbow over Loch Torridon. A painting of a pair of the sadly now extinct Great Auk.
March 5, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Got a fly on the front page of The Herald

🪰 @n-t-s.bsky.social
February 21, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Have never felt more badass. A winter skills course in the Cairngorms ❄️

Building my confidence back up again after a mountain rescue scare in Glencoe at the end of last year. Reached the top of Cairn Gorm itself using an ice axe and crampons, the sixth highest mountain in the UK!
A view from the snow-covered ridge of Cairn Gorm mountain, with low clouds hanging over snow-kissed mountains in the distance. A women standing amongst a whiteout on a mountain wearing a blue helmet and hiking gear, hair strands and eyelashes covered in ice, and a silhouette of a group of hikers behind her. A view of a teal blue ice axe and hiking boots in the snow from above. Six hiking rucksacks propped up against a large boulder on top of a snowy mountain, each rucksack covered in a layer of snow.
February 17, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Glasgow and beyond - it is a joy and a privilege to announce that we will be welcoming Majazz Project to Glasgow on Friday 21st March at The Glad Cafe for Listening Is Resistance: an audio and visual journey through the Palestinian Sound Archive 🇵🇸 🎶

Tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/listening-...
A blue poster with 'Palestinian Sound Archive' written in red, bold, capitalised text at the top, an image of red and white flowers in the centre, and 'Friday 21st March, The Glad Cafe 2025 Tour' written at the bottom alongside the Murmurations logo.
February 13, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Really excited to announce the first Just Write workshop of the year! Presenting 'Writing the end of Zionism' with Hussein Mitha, a workshop on Palestinian liberation and resistance.

Taking place on Thursday 6th March, 6-8pm at Print Culture in Glasgow. More info and tickets: tinyurl.com/mvnmsrr8
A flyer with a black and white illustration of a person reaching for a dove in a cage, 'the title 'Writing the end of Zionism' in white and green writing and the event details.
February 5, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Feel very lucky to have seen Bethlehem Calling this evening: a special collaboration between musicians and theatre-makers from Palestine and Scotland, as part of Celtic Connections at the Tramway. Respect to the five Palestinian pipers also, whose visas got denied so they live streamed instead 🇵🇸
Bethlehem Calling: musicians, actors and theatre-makers from Palestine and Scotland stand together on the stage at Tramway with a full audience. Five Palestinian pipers are displayed via live stream on a screen behind them.
January 26, 2025 at 12:37 AM
How is my cat REAL
A half-ragdoll mix, with bright blue eyes - laying on a green duvet.
January 24, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Book 2 of 2025. James Baldwin is my favourite writer. He makes me want to be a better writer, a better person. His words consume me, alter me in some way. This book is particularly turbulent, emotional, radical. I loved the passage about the “voyage of the broom across the endless rug”.
A living room view featuring wooden floors, a gas fire stove with flames dappling against the fake coal, a cat sat in an armchair and James Baldwin’s ‘Go Tell It on the Mountain’
January 5, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Book 1 of 2025. Planning to spend more of my days reading instead of mindlessly scrolling. This one had me weeping. A brutal, confronting, yet beautiful story on humanity and womanhood.
‘I Who Have Never Known Men’ by Jacqueline Harpman
January 4, 2025 at 12:01 AM
⛅️
A cat (half-ragdoll & short-haired mix) sitting on a chest of drawers next to a framed black and white 70s motivational poster with a siamese kitten hanging from a branch with the words ‘Hang in there, baby’
December 11, 2024 at 9:46 AM
As well as books by Palestinians and Palestinian diaspora authors, people are encouraged to read non-fiction about Palestinians and Palestinian history, politics, arts, culture, and life, and other books about organising, resistance, and solidarity for a Free Palestine.
‘Joyful Militancy’ by Nick Montgomery and Carla Bergman ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine’ by Ilan Pappe ‘Whites, Jews, and Us’ by Houria Bouteldja ‘Burn Out’ by Hannah Proctor
November 29, 2024 at 9:14 PM