More wonderful local talent to come at our joint celebration on Saturday - get your FREE ticket here: Lewis Grassic Gibbon 125 Year Celebration Tickets, Saturday, August 15 • 7 PM - 9:30 PM | Eventbrite Jonathan Ball is a semi-freelance geographical modeller who fills his spare time with music and learning Gaelic. He is a regular member of the Stonehaven Folk Club and took up Gaelic as a lockdown-hobby but now is very slowly working towards a degree by distance learning.

Our joint celebration with the Grassic Gibbon centre is on Saturday 15th August and you can get your FREE tickets here: Lewis Grassic Gibbon 125 Year Celebration Tickets, Saturday, August 15 • 7 PM - 9:30 PM | Eventbrite We will be joined by Gloria and David Potter who will be sharing their words and music. In their own words... Gloria Potter singer, writer, wife, friend...loves countryside, seascapes, reading, dreaming, all kinds of music. David Potter singer, song writer,

We're delighted that Alistair Lawrie will be joining us to celebrate Lewis Grassic Gibbon on 15th August. Alistair grew up by the sea in Peterhead, Scotland. His poetry and short stories have been published in a variety of magazines; he coedited the Scottish Sea Anthology A Glimmer Of Cold Brine; he won the William Soutar Memorial Prize in 2016 and the McLellan Scots Poetry Prize in 2023. His poetry collection Caal Cries was published in 2023 and Opent Petals in 2026, both Dr

Berlin 87 are a new all-girl band from Stonehaven and Aberdeen. The three – and sometimes four – band members perform songs ranging from New Wave to contemporary rock covers, from Talking Heads to Franz Ferdinand . . . And they're working on their own material! The band will be joining us at our celebration event at the Grassic Gibbon Centre on 15th August. Get your free ticket here: Lewis Grassic Gibbon 125 Year Celebration Tickets, Saturday, August 15 • 7 PM - 9:30 PM |

Next up for our celebration on 15th August is Wee Gaitherin Trustee and fine poet, Lesley Benzie. (Get your FREE tickets here: Lewis Grassic Gibbon 125 Year Celebration Tickets, Saturday, August 15 • 7 PM - 9:30 PM | Eventbrite) At the event, Lesley will be performing her poem 'Sunset Song and the Terminators' , her prize-winning poem inspired by Grassic Gibbon's best-known novel. Here's Lesley giving us flavour of her style with 'Woodstock tae Aiberdeen'. Lesley Benzie is

As well as some fabulous poets, we're delighted that our line-up for our joint celebration of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's anniversary on 15th August includes music from Lenny Helsing. Guitarist and vocalist with long-running Edinburgh-based garage beat group ‘The Thanes’ as well as drummer and vocalist with vintage punk-style rock’n’rollers, ‘The Wildebeests’, Lenny Helsing has been writing, playing and recording since the late 1970s. His inspiration is drawn from a vast cauldron

Next up on the fabulous event line-up for 15th August is Andrew Urquhart, here to tell us aboot the Wifie o Troy... get tickets for the free event here: Lewis Grassic Gibbon 125 Year Celebration Tickets, Saturday, August 15 • 7 PM - 9:30 PM | Eventbrite Andrew Urquhart - originally from Glasgow, has lived in the North East for many years. He is a former teacher and writes poems and stories in both English and Scots. His work has been published, in the award nominated pamphl

We're delighted that Northeast poet Marka Rifat will be performing at our celebration of Lewis Grassic Gibbon on 15th August. Marka's visual and written works appear in more than 70 websites and anthologies worldwide, the latest is Pushing Out The Boat’s 25th anniversary collection. Winner of the 2025 Toulmin story award (the first scifi story in its 17 year history) and other commendations, her debut chapbook is The Sitting Room Lunar Mission (Grey Hen Press). Audio publishe

Join the Wee Gaitherin and the Grassic Gibbon Centre on 15th August to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of James Leslie Mitchell, better known as the novelist Lewis Grassic Gibbon, author of Sunset Song and its sequels, the unforgettable story of Chris Guthrie as she lived through the fast-changing society of the Northeast in the early twentieth century. This free event will include poetry and music, and we'll be sharing some snippets and tasters here over the nex

Wee Gaitherin supporters have again generously donated to our Crowdfunded appeal, in memory of poet Sheila Templeton. The bursary aims to recognise young, talented poets, and financially support them to participate and perform at the festival. A huge thanks to everyone who contributed. This year we are able to award one bursary, and we're delighted to announce that it will be provided to Glasgow based poet, Spencer Mason. Spencer Mason reading 'Sonnet to a Tinderbox' Here's a

Thanks to all the wonderful poets who applied to perform at The Wee Gaitherin 2026. We were overwhelmed by the amazing response, the largest we've ever had! While we had the greatest number of applicants ever, unfortunately, in common with many other charities in the current economic climate, we are also putting the festival together with the smallest amount of funding ever and are still awaiting the outcome of some funding applications. This has meant some tough decisions,

Creative writing workshops We're gearing up for the Wee Gaitherin with a series of free creative writing workshops in June. With events at Stonehaven Library, The Grassic Gibbon Centre and online, there's one for everyone and we'd love to see you there. All the details and booking are on Eventbrite: The Wee Gaitherin Poetry Festival & Fringe Events

In memory of much-admired Scottish poet Sheila Templeton, we're crowdfunding to enable two young poets to take part in the Wee Gaitherin Festival. The Wee Gaitherin is Scotland's most democratic poetry festival – offering a forum for poets from the renowned to the unknown, of all ages and backgrounds, to read, perform and share their work on an equal footing. This year – 2026 – the free festival will take place over three days from 3rd to 5th September, in the coastal town o

We're looking forward to welcoming poets fae a the airts to Stonehaven in September (3rd-5th). Could you be one of them? If you'd like to apply for a slot to perform your work, suggest a workshop or have a publisher's table, follow this link to complete our submission application: https://form.jotform.com/261052510230337 We look forward to reading your applications. The submissions window is open from 4th-24th May 2026. Please note that submissions cannot be considered after

Hey Poets, Publishers and Friends! Take part in 2026 3 -5 September, Stonehaven Gaither with us for this year’s festival when, as well as a terrific array of poetry in all the languages of Scotland, we’ll be creating plenty of space for socialising and enjoying our wonderful location. We aim to subsidise travel and accommodation expenses and, where possible, provide a fee to poets and performers allocated a slot. Submissions window 4 – 24 May Programme (to be confirmed) We’

We are sae chuffed tae hae been gien an award fae Haunds up for Trad. We are ettlin tae hae a braw event at the Festival this year, bringin thegither poets an performers in a showcase tae kick aff the programme. Mair details tae come...

4TH & 5TH SEPTEMBER 2026 Save the date! After a break to recover from the phenomenal festival of 2024, we'll be gaitherin again in Stonehaven in September. Details of the programme and submissions windows will follow when they are finalised. Keep an eye on the website and social media for all the information.

The interviews that took place with Penny Francis and Judith Taylor at Stonehaven library earlier this year are now available on YouTube@. Put the kettle on and enjoy! Part 1: Penny Francis Meet the Authors - Part One - YouTube Part 2: Judith Taylor Meet the Authors - Part Two

The Wee Gaitherin Heritage Exhibition, which formed part of the 2024 Gaitherin, has been on tour for the past year, taking poetry,...

Five acclaimed poets hailing from the North and Northeast of Scotland will gather to share poems and songs at ‘A Wee Gaitherin’ in...