Book Sarah Hobbs
Sarah Hobbs specialises in outdoor storytelling and storywalks, placing stories back where they belong in the landscape to very literally re-story the land and skyscape. The main focus of her storytelling is to uncover and highlight quiet, hidden or silenced voices within the landscape.
She has a particular interest in local folklore from Badenoch and Strathspey, and the wider Highlands and Islands, Gaelic customs and beliefs linked to the landscape as well as the rich Gaelic tales of the stars and skies, nature-based and wildlife stories, social history of communities, and how empire and colonialism play out in rural landscapes. More recently she has drawn on the folklore of other places such as Palestine and Canada to highlight links and connections to us here in Scotland.
She enjoys working with people of all ages, from 2-80+, and has worked with various groups including people with dementia and their carers, teachers and home-schoolers, outdoor leaders, children, and activists. Her preference is to tell stories outdoors with small groups, to really connect with each person, and to enhance their experience using nature-based items and foraged seasonal refreshments.
Stories help to ‘unlock’ a landscape and change our relationship with it. As we’re living in a time when a deeper understanding of how we live on earth is a necessity, stories can be powerful things too!
Sarah came to storytelling accidentally in the early days of the Covid pandemic as a way to share rich local heritage, but as a curious reader with a lifelong interest in nature, medicinal plants, social history and walking, it turned out to be a natural if unexpected path. A Gaelic learner, she also studied Norwegian and Arabic and has a background in social justice, particularly tackling systemic inequalities. She works for NHS Highland in public health.
She regularly tells stories at the monthly Storylands Sessions in Badenoch, and has led storywalks at the Highland Folk Museum for several years including at the Forest Festivals. She works with Cairngorms Connect – a consortium for landscape-scale regeneration – leading storywalks at their annual ‘Hill to Grill’ event; with the Cairngorms National Park for school workshops and with Alzheimer Scotland as part of their flagship Outdoor Dementia Resource Centre programme. She has also performed at the RZSS Highland Wildlife Park.
Sarah is happy to work anywhere in the Highlands and Islands and further afield may be possible so please do get in touch.
- Facebook: @strathspeystorywalks
- Instagram: @strathspeystorywalks