Spirit of Beyond : The Shiant Isles - softcover book

Alison Dunlop has created a “poem to the Shiant Isles” (to quote Adam Nicolson, with his kind permission), with a masterwork of drawings, watercolours and photographs.  

Two years in the making, her moving paean to these enchanted isles of the Outer Hebrides is collected together in the exhibition  The Spirit of Beyond : The Shiant Isles, in Scotland’s own UK Museum of the Year 2020, Gairloch Museum.

The book, with a foreword by Adam Nicolson, has been produced to accompany the exhibition and comprises the entire collection of work inspired by the Isles - the drawings, watercolours and photographs, only a selection of which can feature in the exhibition. 

Alison has also worked with writers, poets, naturalists and Gaelic speakers to bring their perspectives to bear in this celebration of this special place. The book features Gaelic folklore and song inspired by the islands, as well as poems by Brian Hill and an essay by author and geoscientist Annie O’Garra Worsley. 

A special, hand-numbered and signed collectors’ edition** is being produced in a linen-bound hardcover, which will also be available to order from 3rd July 2021. Linen bound in Ratchford’s ‘Plate’ grey, each of these special edition books is finished with Ebony Black end-papers, thread sewn 150gsm Silk text papers, foil-blocked silver lettering on the spine and cover, and each has a debossed area into which is set a detail print of the drawing “Rock Face, Bidean a’ Roimh” on the cover. The first 20 sold, supplied in a specially designed linen presentation sleeve hand-crafted by Rowena Dugdale, of Red Ruby Rose. Update - these bespoke presentation sleeves for the first 20 hardcover copies have now all been claimed.

Formats: Soft Cover + Special Limited Edition Linen Hardcover *

ISBN: 978-1-5272-9403-5

Pages: 136pp

Dimensions: 276mm x 220mm

RRP: Soft Cover £25.00

Collector’s Limited Edition Linen-bound Hardcover (signed and numbered) £90.00

Publication Date: 03/07/2021

*Both books available to order here and the softcover is also available to buy in the shop at Gairloch Museum, The Bookmark in Grantown on Spey, An Lanntair in Stornoway, The Ullapool Bookshop in Ullapool, The Highland Bookhop in Fort William.

**Please note - orders to Europe will incur some import fees. Import tax, at your local VAT rate, is now payable when the books are imported from the UK into the EU. Books attract a reduced rate of sales tax in the EU and the rate charged varies by country. These charges must be paid by the customer, to your postal service provider. Apologies for the inconvenience.