As part of our launch programme in 2019, artist Martin McGuinness, was commissioned to create a major piece of landscape art at the Spittal of Glenshee. A giant portrait of legendary Scots poet, Hamish Henderson, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Born in Blairgowrie and brought up to speak Gaelic, Hamish is recognised as one of the most brilliant Scots of his age. He spent his first five years at the Spittal of Glenshee, going on to be schooled in England at Dulwich College, and then at Downing College Cambridge.
He is considered to be the most important Scots poet since Robert Burns and was one of the founding fathers of Scotland’s 20th century folk renaissance, making more than 9,000 recordings of working people from all over Scotland, discovering such notable performers as the Stewarts of Blair, Jeannie Robertson, Floea MacNeil and Calum Johnston and preserving an oral tradition of stories and songs dating back hundreds of years.
An exceptional man in many ways, he served as an intelligence officer in Europe and North Africa, helping Jewish people escape Nazi Germany; was a communist, linguist and intellectual; a political activist, involved with the peace movement, Anti Apartheid and the campaign for Scottish Home Rule; co-founded the School of Scottish Studies; and wrote songs in addition to poetry, one of his most famous lyrics being ‘The Freedom Come-All-Ye.’
In this section, you can watch the film of the making of the piece by Stefan Morrocco with a poem especially written for the artwork by our Makar Jim Mackintosh: