Lilt, Twang, Tremor Hanna Tuulikki: Women of the Hill

Hanna Tuulikki’s Women of the Hill is a song-cycle for three female performers responding to the archaeology and topography of High Pasture Cave, an iron-age sacred site dedicated to a matriarchal culture on the Isle of Skye.

Commissioned by ATLAS Arts for the 31st October 2015, the site-specific performance originally took place at the hidden entrance to the cave, making use of the natural echo phenomena of the hill. It has now been re-imagined for a theatre setting and will be re-staged for the first time at CCA, featuring the original performers – Nerea Bello, Lucy Duncombe and Hanna Tuulikki – with costume elements made from plant materials by Caroline Dear.

The female trio will guide the audience across a threshold, on a song-journey through three worlds: Past, Present and Otherworld. Making visible what has lain hidden and audible what has been forgotten, this contemporary rite will summon the mysterious young woman interred at High Pasture Cave; the women who ground grain, spun yarn and watched over the hearth; and the female deities – Bride and Cailleach – who, according to myth, do battle each year at the meeting of the seasons.