Book Eileen Budd
Eileen Budd is an author and storyteller, specialising in Scottish Folklore and Folk Traditions. Although now based in Angus, she grew up in Perthshire, in a family with a strong oral storytelling tradition and belief in maintaining this tradition. Eileen continues the tradition travelling and sharing Scottish folklore, folk traditions, folk objects, origin stories and ancient Scottish legends.
Many of the stories Eileen tells are nature stories highlighting the history and beliefs within Scottish traditional culture. She often leads sessions in Scots language and can include Gaelic waulking songs as well.
Before becoming a full time storyteller, she spent 20 years working in national museums, including National Museums Scotland and V&A London, where she facilitated object handling, research, and interpretation events. It was through these events Eileen saw the potential for storytelling with objects and for a wide range of audiences.
Passionate about sharing the folk heritage of Scotland, she applies knowledge gained from working in museums, by including handmade, historic objects from Scottish folk tradition in her storytelling. This collection of handling objects adds a level of interest and interaction with audiences during storytelling sessions and can provoke a lot of discussion, particularly in the classroom. Sessions can be designed around the needs of the client, e.g. specific projects or themes.
Examples of past events include; telling Ossianic legends for the Being Human Festival, in partnership with the University of Highlands and Islands, storytelling sessions for Scots Week and Book Week at schools in Midlothian, clan gathering events across Scotland and a lecture on Fisherman’s ganseys and folklore at Bute Museum.
In 2024, Eileen was commissioned to write, narrate and illustrate a story in Scot’s for the BBC Stories in Scots, and to deliver a storytelling session at Boath House, Forres which was featured in Vogue.