Calling all young storytellers, authors, and creators of legends! Join us as we celebrate VisitScotland’s themed year, Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022, which looks to highlight stories created in – or inspired by – Scotland.
Got a story to tell?
Have you ever wondered what the ancient walls of Historic Scotland sites have witnessed over the centuries and what tales they'd tell if they could? We wanted to hear what young creatives thought.
As part of our storytelling prize draw, we invited young people – between 8 and 12 years of age – to power up their imaginations and submit stories that featured a Historic Scotland castle, cathedral, abbey, palace or other historic site in Scotland. Their tale could be filled with mystery and intrigue or great adventures and epic fairy tales.
Their stories could be selected to form part of a permanent online exhibition we will launch at the end of July. Within this online exhibition, we will display showreels of selected written and spoken stories from children. All submissions, that adhered to the set brief, were entered into a prizedraw.
This prize draw closed at 5pm on Friday 1 July 2022.
If These Walls Could Talk is brought to you by Historic Environment Scotland in partnership with the Scottish Book Trust and Scottish Storytelling Forum.
The prizes
All children - who submitted stories that fit our brief - were in with a chance of winning one of the many fantastic prizes below:
- a Historic Scotland family membership for a year
- a 7-day Historic Scotland family explorer pass
- a signed set of Cressida Cowell’s 'How To Train Your Dragon' books and a writing kit
- two book bundles plus top trumps cards
- two book bundles and a writing kit
- a one-hour storytelling session for a school or library close to the storyteller’s home
- tickets to the October Storytelling Festival for a school class based in the central belt
Our partners
The Scottish Storytelling Forum was founded in 1992 to encourage and support the telling and sharing of stories amongst all age groups and all sectors of society, particularly those who, for reasons of poverty or disability, are sometimes excluded from artistic experiences.
The Scottish Book Trust are a national charity that believes books, reading and writing have the power to change lives. A love of reading inspires creativity, improves employment opportunities, mental health and wellbeing and is one of the most effective ways to help break the poverty cycle.
Get inspiration for your own stories
To get some inspiration and create your own stories, explore our ‘Inspire by the Past’ resources and activities. Listen to tales from storytellers Mara Menzies and Gauri Raje, and let the words of Maisie Chan draw you into the world of Mary Queen of Scots.
Try out new ways of creating stories with family and friends, sharing stories through art, and writing your very own tall tales.