Eilidh McGuigan

YEAR 5 - AWARD WINNER

UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE

“The Modern Ancestor challenges Scotland’s feudal land ownership system. It proposes a shift towards reciprocal relationships with land that benefit local communities, restore local landscape and reinvigorate cultural identity.

Set in Dinnet, community-driven Bogingore Pottery, Old Kinord Woollen Mill and Dinnet Courtyard redefine our relationship with the land, tested through natural resources, care and reciprocity. The pottery captures forgotten and future folklore in tactile objects for ancestors, where remnants are returned to the landscape, improving soil fertility and diversifying land use. Residual wool from crop rotation systems is processed to create regional ganseys, celebrating traditional skills and natural pigments of the Cairngorms.

By viewing land through clay and wool, this thesis invites us to be ‘good ancestors’— valuing the land as shared commodity. It empowers small rural settlements within the Cairngorms and enriches local sense of identity.”