Earlier this year, a new display opened at the Isle of Lismore Gaelic Heritage Centre. It reflects on broad themes around water, culture, and history on the island, drawing on sources including community memories, archival materials, oral histories, and recent research. The display looks at how water has shaped daily life on Lismore over time, highlighting its importance in the island’s cultural and everyday history.
I’m now beginning to explore a larger exhibition in 2026. One of the central themes will be tracing water use and practices through the changing life of a single island home. This “house through time” approach offers a way to explore how water connects everyday routines, social change, and sustainability across generations. I hope it will also invite visitors to reflect more deeply on the role of water in the past, present, and include further contributions from islanders. Memories of how water was once collected, changes in infrastructure, or day-to-day routines could all help shape this next phase. If this is something you’d be interested in sharing, I’d be very glad to hear from you.
This blog supports the development of that work while also sharing reflections from contemporary research already completed on the island. That research explored how people manage their water systems today, the challenges involved, and the practical and thoughtful ways people adapt. Like many rural parts of Scotland, homes on Lismore rely on private water supplies: springs, boreholes, and rainwater systems. These may be tucked out of sight, but they’re central to everyday life and require local knowledge, upkeep, and care.
Rather than presenting the research findings in a single report, I’ll be posting a series of short, themed reflections here. These won’t identify individuals unless permission has been given. Instead, they’ll draw out themes that emerged across the research and link them to wider insights from work I’ve been part of across Scotland, as well as to current conversations around water policy, infrastructure, and climate resilience.
Thanks for reading, I hope you’ll follow along!
Laura Major 