- Dec 5, 2025
- 4 min read
The Hoolie Hoolets programme, which runs special events for the younger members of the Mallaig community in the days leading up to the festival weekend, is an integral part of every A Write Highland Hoolie.
Each year, the Hoolie’s organising committee secures funding to bring children’s authors, illustrators and performers to work with the children from Mallaig primary school and the other primaries in the local cluster. These include the schools on the islands of Rum and Muck and in the small Knoydart community of Inverie, as well as the other local primaries, Arisaig and Lady Lovat in Morar.
We also organise special events for senior pupils at Mallaig High School, which have included workshops, poetry and Gaelic sessions, and author visits and talks. The aim of all these events is to foster a love of the arts in the younger members of the community.
In 2025, children’s authors Barbara Henderson and Michelle Sloan each had two sessions in the primary school, where all the local children from the school cluster gathered. Each session was specially tailored for different age groups, and in addition Barbara ran a wonderfully entertaining workshop in the high school for first-year pupils.
Artist and illustrator Clare Mackie also visited the high school, where she led a workshop for senior art students hoping to pursue a career in art. Two of the students who were present for the art workshop said that Clare was inspirational and had promised to keep in touch with them as they embarked on their journey towards following careers in the subject. They said this had given them more confidence, which was wonderful to hear.
Alongside the Hoolie Hoolets programme of events, we run art and writing competitions for all the pupils to enter. The winners are announced at the celebration prize-giving tea party in the West Highland Hotel which forms the grand finale of every A Write Highland Hoolie. The prizes are chosen in collaboration with the independent Highland Bookshop of Fort William, thus ensuring that they are age-appropriate for all the winners.
On the afternoon of Sunday November 9, 2025, the festival welcomed pupils and parents from local schools to this fabulous free event, which featured wonderful Gaelic singing from the Mallaig Primary School choir, and an all-singing, all-dancing performance from children’s author Alan Windram, before the talented youngsters were rewarded with prizes for their winning stories and artwork.
Authors, artists and speakers who have visited the schools in the years since the Hoolie’s launch in 2016 include Alan Windram, Alastair Chisholm, Debi Gliori, Mairi Hedderwick, Donald S. Murray, Chris Brookmyre, Jackie Kay, Keggie Carew, Romain Pizzi, Barbara Henderson, Michelle Sloan, Barry Hutchison, Chae Strathie, Mick Kitson, Jenny Brown, Lee Randall, Hugh MacMillan, Breege Smyth, Clare Mackie, Kate Leiper and Molly Arbuthnott.
As Mallaig has a very strong reputation for producing fine traditional musicians, we also on occasion run the Hoolie School of Music Sessions, where revered traditional musicians such as Duncan Chisholm, Hamish Napier, Ross Ainslie and Tim Edey lead special workshops for senior music students at Mallaig High School.
The activities and events organised for the pupils are greatly valued by the children, parents and teachers.
Kate MacLennan, Head of English at Mallaig High School, said after the recent visit from Barbara Henderson: “The pupils really enjoyed the visit – particularly the use of drama activities to engage them. As a teacher, I liked the use of celebrity photos with their books to promote love of reading. This would be a great activity for World Book Day, too. Thank you again for coming – we are a tiny school in the middle of nowhere so author visits mean a lot to us.”
Valerie Campbell, Head of Art at Mallaig High School, was equally complimentary about Clare Mackie’s visit: “As we are such a small and remote school, it is difficult for us to engage with any outreach or extracurricular projects outside of Lochaber. Opportunities to work closely with artists and designers to inspire and educate our young people do not arise often. Remote schools are often overlooked by organisations doing any sort of outreach and as such it is difficult to provide pupils with the same creative learning opportunities as their inner-city peers. A Write Highland Hoolie book festival in Mallaig provides opportunities for pupils to engage with people working in the creative industries. This year we had Clare Mackie, an illustrator, come and speak to our senior pupils. She told them of her journey from school to professional illustrator and provided them with insightful knowledge about her lengthy and productive career. Furthermore, we seldom have people come in to advise our young artists and designers with their work. This is very meaningful for the pupils as people with artistic backgrounds have a wealth of knowledge and experience that can be passed on to them. Clare was extremely encouraging which has no doubt spurred them on with their folios to be submitted to the exam board. It is an invaluable experience having this opportunity brought to our doorstep and we are very grateful to the book festival for organising this for our young people.”
As we look ahead to the tenth anniversary of a Write Highland Hoolie in 2026, the festival organisers are fully committed to continuing to inspire, educate and celebrate the talented young people of Mallaig and the surrounding area. We’ve already started planning our next Hoolets programme, so keep an eye out for announcements in the months to come!
- Nov 17, 2025
- 3 min read
A Write Highland Hoolie, the Mallaig Book Festival, made a triumphant return to the West Highland Hotel over the weekend of November 7-9.
Late on Friday afternoon, the award-winning author and singer-songwriter Malachy Tallack took to the stage in front of a near-capacity crowd. Malachy’s latest novel, That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz, is set in Shetland and, uniquely, is accompanied by its own soundtrack album of country-influenced music. The audience was treated to a hauntingly beautiful performance of some of Malachy’s songs during the event, which made a memorable and very special start to a weekend full of books, blethers and brilliant banter.
The musical theme continued that evening when Donald Livingstone and Iain Cameron of the Cast Ewe Ceilidh Band kept the party going late into the night with toe-tapping tunes and good craic.
Saturday began with author Michelle Sloan, whose gripping new novel Mrs Burke and Mrs Hare focuses on the dark tale of the wives of the infamous Edinburgh serial killers. She was followed by Scotland’s leading rural poet, Jim Carruth, whose readings of his humorous, moving and perceptive poems about farming life enthralled the audience. His love poem to silage was such an uproarious hit that he was persuaded to perform it all over again at Saturday night’s ceilidh in the hotel bar.
After lunch, Saltire Prize shortlisted Karen Campbell spoke with kindness and empathy about the characters in her latest novel, This Bright Life, which tells the heartbreaking yet hopeful story of messy lives, second chances and the many hands it takes to build a boy. Then another potential award-winner, Andrew Fleming, talked about his book, The Gravity of Feathers, which has been shortlisted for the prestigious Wolfson History Prize. This was a truly fascinating session which saw Andrew reveal how he used previously untapped sources and fresh insights to overturn the traditional view of the evacuation of St Kilda.
There was a full house for popular author, broadcaster and cook Coinneach MacLeod, better known as the Hebridean Baker, who entertained the audience with his hilarious stories and anecdotes from the islands and beyond. It was standing room only, too, for the final event of the afternoon, when Alexander McCall Smith, one of the world’s most prolific and best-loved authors, had the audience in gales of laughter as he told stories with his trademark wit and humour. It was a truly wonderful, life-affirming event that will never be forgotten by those who were lucky enough to attend.
Saturday’s entertainment came to a rousing conclusion when popular duo Ingrid Henderson and Iain MacFarlane played to a packed audience in the bar. Many guests took part, too, with songs and recitations, and the highlight was a brilliant rendition of the hilarious SS Politician from Charlie MacFarlane, who has been a stalwart of every Hoolie since the festival’s inception.
The first event on Sunday, with artist, filmmaker and author Jane Smith, was accompanied by her glorious illustrations, which were more than bright enough to banish the Mallaig rain clouds. After a moving commemoration of Remembrance Day, complete with piping from Pipe Major Allan MacKenzie, it was time for novelist D.V. Bishop to transport us to Renaissance Italy, the setting for his Cesare Aldo series of historical thrillers.
BBC Alba’s Peter MacQueen found himself upstaged by his three canine companions while chatting about his new book, Tails of Scotland: The Story of Scottish Dogs. Westie Flòraidh and 13-week-old Scottish deerhound puppy Sula were cute enough, but Dandie Dinmont Peigi stole the show by snoring loudly and contentedly in Peter’s arms throughout the event.
The grand finale tea party featured wonderful Gaelic singing from the Mallaig Primary School choir, and an all-singing, all-dancing performance from children’s author Alan Windram, before the talented youngsters were rewarded with prizes for their winning stories and artwork.
It was the perfect end to another successful Hoolie, and with 2026 being the festival’s 10th anniversary, ambitious plans for next year are already underway. First, though, Team Hoolie will be taking a well-deserved rest! Follow A Write Highland Hoolie on Facebook to be the first to hear about 2026’s festival.
- Sep 23, 2025
- 4 min read
As this year’s A Write Highland Hoolie approaches, author and co-founder Polly Pullar reveals the West Highlands inspiration behind Mallaig’s book festival . . .
I had been on the island of Rum with BBC Scotland’s Mark Stephen and we’d gone to see the Manx shearwaters at night. I stayed an extra night in the West Highland Hotel afterwards because Freddy, my son, was scallop-diving at the time and the small boat he was working on was in at the harbour, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to see him.
The next morning at breakfast, Sine Davis, the hotel owner, came over and we got chatting. She knew I was a writer and she told me she was trying to think of ways to extend the season in the hotel. “Have you got any ideas?” she asked.
I wasn’t long back from Wigtown Book Festival and was filled with enthusiasm, so I just casually said, “Why not organise a little book festival?”
Sine just about bit my hand off! She said, “What a wonderful idea. I’d love to do a book festival.” We chatted for a bit and swapped email addresses, and then I went home and never really thought I’d hear any more about it. But it wasn’t long before Sine was back in touch. We met and discussed what we could do, and she said, “Would you organise it?” And although I didn’t know anything about organising book festivals, reluctantly, I said I would give it a go.
For that very first book festival, I had the idea that I wanted to recreate something very similar to the wonderful, almost impromptu events that used to take place in the Kilchoan Hotel on dark winter nights when the wind was howling and people would blow in on the gale. My parents owned the hotel for a few years, and I spent part of my childhood there.
There were wonderful characters in Kilchoan at that time, many of them musical. Not far away there was also the great Fergie MacDonald, and sometimes he would come down the peninsula and when he did, a real skite would develop, either in the hotel or the village hall. What I loved about these events was that people of all ages were involved. There were the farm men in their tackety boots who would sit with their arms folded on the edge and not get up and dance until they had been loosened up by a few drams, and the grannies who used to dance with the children, and the people who’d get up on the stage and perform and sing.
It was just wonderful, and it was very much about the oral tradition, with people chatting to each other and the stories flowing like burns in full spate. I loved it all, particularly the Gaelic singing. So that was the atmosphere I wanted to try to recreate, and Sine agreed totally, as she’d had very similar experiences growing up in Mallaig. And we wanted to somehow incorporate all of that with books and storytelling and people making friends.
That first year, I played it safe, inviting authors that I knew – people such as the wonderful Jess Smith, who I knew would get up and sing, and John Love, who had worked on the Isle of Rum and who was a great fiddle player and a real character as well. It was going to be a one-off, but that didn’t last, obviously!
There were the four of us to begin with – Sine, the wonderful Ann Martin, and the late Deirdre Roberts. We made lots of mistakes that first year, not least trying to do the book sales ourselves. I think we all ended up paying a fortune to osteopaths after humping big boxes of books around! We soon got on board with the wonderful independent Highland Bookshop of Fort William instead, which helped enormously.
One of the things that has made the Hoolie so good right from the start has been the support of Tearlach – Charlie – MacFarlane and his lovely wife Isobel, who knew my parents in Kilchoan. Charlie is probably one of the best storytellers I know, and he is also an exceptional musician. Every year at the Hoolie, he has given us a rendition of the SS Politician. And I think it’s people like Charlie and Isobel, and their son Iain MacFarlane and daughter-in-law Ingrid Henderson, who regularly play for us, who have made the Hoolie what it is. We owe them so much.
We thought about expanding, but if the Hoolie was bigger then I don’t think it would have that same atmosphere. It’s almost like a house party, and it’s amazing how many guests get up after a few drams and have a go at a song or a poem. Often, great talent emerges. It’s the people who make each Hoolie special, and our authors join in, too. It really is a uniquely West Highland take on a book festival.
A Write Highland Hoolie 2025 takes place from November 7-9 at the West Highland Hotel, Mallaig. Full details are available at www.a-write-highland-hoolie.com, where you can also buy event tickets.
