The Listening Place


(The Listening Place Road End Sculpture)

The Listening Place is located on the site of an old school, beside the stream which marks the boundary between the settlements of South Lochboisdale and North Glendale in the southeast of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides. The work of artist Valerie Pragnell in 2001, the sculpture is part of the Road End Sculpture project, promoted by Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre in North Uist. The sculpture celebrates the history, the agricultural heritage and the poets of the area, taking the form of a curved stone wall that shelters five seats facing out across the bay, providing a place to sit and listen, reflect on the poetry and absorb the landscape. The seats are modelled on those of a tractor owned by a local crofter. The curved wall that incorporates various unusual elements including parts of agricultural machinery, a sample of soil which came as ballast on Russian ships which landed at nearby in the 17th C. and works by two local Gaelic poets; namely Gleann na Ceòlraidh by Donald MacDonald from South Lochboisdale and Taigh a' Bhàird by Donald J. MacDonald from Peninerine, both works chosen by the community. Translations into English are provided.


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