Grannie Island's Ceilidh - Stone Soup Katie Morag

# Katie Morag

# Far away across the ocean

# Katie Morag

# Over the sea to Struay

# Katie Morag

# Far away across the ocean

# Katie Morag

# Over the sea to Struay

# Katie Morag. #

LAUGHTER

I love parties,

and I reckon Grannie Island's are the best in the whole wide world.

They go on way past our bedtime, but as long as we've

brushed our teeth and put on our jammies, we're allowed to stay up.

Grannie Island doesn't call them parties, she calls them ceilidhs.

Right then, boys and girls, ladies and gentleman, let's gather round.

Who's ready tonight for some REAL entertainment?

Most people think ceilidhs are all about dressing up in kilts

and whirling each other around the room,

but at Grannie Island's ceilidhs we don't just dance,

we sing songs, play music, and tell stories as well.

Oh, when I get my breath back.

It's time to pin the tale on the island!

Now, whose turn is it?

Me, me, me, me, me!

I think, Agnes, you'll find it's Hector!

Come on, Hector. There you go.

There you go, boy. That's it.

Oh, you're a big lad.

-Hector... Right, can you see?

-No.

I'm going to spin you round.

Round and round and round and now you're on your own...

We always play pin the tale at Grannie Island's ceilidhs.

The children take turns sticking a wee pin in the map of Struay.

Then one of the grown-ups tells us a tale about that part of the island.

Oh! It's the village.

Now, who knows a story about the village?

There must be hundreds of good stories about the village!

-Oh! I know a great one!

-Bel it is then!

-OK.

Oh!

SHE CLEARS HER THROAT

This story is one of the oldest you'll ever have heard

and every single word of it is true.

HE CLEARS HIS THROAT

Well...some of it is anyway!

Now most folk in the olden days were very poor,

but they worked hard and got by.

But one year disaster struck and the reason was...tatties.

Potatoes.

Now, the tatties got sick, so people couldn't eat them.

So no tatties, no food, and everyone became very, very hungry indeed.

One of those hungry souls was a young lad from Ullapool named

Calum MacAulay.

Calum had no family around him, or a home to call his own,

so he wandered the country looking for food and shelter.

One day, just across the sea here, at Ardnamurchan,

he spotted an old wooden rowboat abandoned on the beach.

Calum was starving, so he decided to row across to the big

island of Mull and try his luck there.

Now, Calum was a kind boy, and handsome too, with bright

green eyes, and lovely red hair, rather like you, Hector McColl!

And though he'd hardly been to school,

he was as clever a lad as you could ever meet.

But Calum was not a good sailor, in fact, he was a rotten sailor!

And instead of rowing south to Mull, he headed west...

After a while, Calum began to panic,

thinking he'd have to row all the way to America!

Finally, he caught sight of a pretty wee island with five tall mountains

along the top of it.

And that island was Struay!

At last Calum reached the shore and he set off along the path,

until he came to the village.

He went up to the very first door and knocked on it.

Now, people in the old days were normally kind to travellers,

but in these hard times, folk were wary of strangers.

Eventually, a young woman came to the door,

a pretty girl by the name of Fiona.

Calum said he was sorry to trouble her,

but did she have a crust of bread, or a handful of oats he could have?

Fiona felt sorry for Calum, but explained that they were

a poor family and didn't have anything to spare.

He thanked her anyway and went on to the next house,

where he heard the exact same story - times were hard, nothing to spare.

And the same at the next, and so on, and so on.

Calum was about to give up, when he spotted an old iron pot

lying near the village well and that's when he had an idea.

He washed the pot out, filled it with water

and built a little fire and put the water on to boil.

And then he started looking for a rock.

His search went on for quite a while, some stones were too big,

some too small, some too round, others not quite round enough.

And then, finally, he found the perfect one,

and he rinsed it in the well and plopped it in the pot.

STONE PLOPS

There was no TVs and computers then,

so if folk wanted entertainment, they looked out their windows!

And that's exactly what everyone was doing!

Staring at this mysterious stranger,

boiling up a pot of water with nothing in it except a rock.

Fiona was the first to come out,

she was desperate to know what on earth he was up to.

So she walked right up to him, and asked.

"Well, surely it's obvious," Calum replied.

"I'm making a lovely big pot of stone soup."

"Stone soup?! I've never heard of such a thing."

"Well, you don't know what you're missing," Calum said.

"I've eaten roast beef in Orkney and pies in Dundee,

"pork chops in Glasgow and cheese in Tiree."

LAUGHTER

"But there's not a dish in the whole of Scotland

"as delicious as stone soup."

Fiona looked at him in amazement.

Calum looked at the pot and sighed.

"Of course, to make it absolutely perfect, I should really add

"a little something, a carrot maybe.

"Still...it'll be fine the way it is."

Fiona thought for a moment and then she spoke up.

"Well, um, I might have a couple of carrots."

"Well," Calum said, "That would be a treat, right enough,

"and when the soup's made, I'll share it with you."

So, Fiona fetched carrots, and Calum added them to the soup.

As he and Fiona sat watching the pot simmer,

more people came out of their houses.

Calum smiled at them and tasted a spoonful of the broth.

"Mmm," he said, "As good a stone soup as I've ever tasted!

"Of course, some sliced up onion would add a finishing touch,

"but I mustn't be greedy."

At that, an old woman announced that she had a small bag of onions.

If Calum were to share the soup with her and her family,

she'd gladly add them to the mix.

Calum was delighted!

The onions were added, and a short while later,

Calum declared it the finest broth in the whole of the Hebrides!

By this time, the entire village was gathered round the large pot,

and they had to admit that the stone soup was smelling very fine indeed.

But one of the neighbours said,

"Maybe a wee bit of ham wouldn't do any harm?"

"Oh, no indeed," said Calum.

"The people of the Borders were known for adding ham

"to their stone soup."

"Well," said the neighbour, "I might have a few slices,"

and in they went.

They all wanted to add something now.

Some brought beans, others had peas, barley,

all manner of wonderful things.

After two hours, Calum declared the stone soup was well and truly ready.

Everyone rushed into their houses

and emerged with bowls and spoons of all shapes and sizes.

They filled their plates and filled them again,

until there wasn't one single drop left.

Then, someone found a fiddle

and they danced and danced till the sun went down.

In the years that followed, if you ask folk on Struay to

name their favourite food, you would only get one answer.

"Why, stone soup, of course.

"All you need is a pot of water and a nice round stone...

"though you can add a bit of this and a bit of that

"if you're feeling fancy."

Now, Calum decided to stay on Struay.

He'd taken a liking to Fiona and she to him.

Soon they were married and every Sunday he would make

a great, big, delicious pot of stone soup

with that very same rock he used the first day they met.

It was always enough to feed them and their seven children!

The rock was passed down to their oldest daughter

and she passed it on to hers

until eventually it came to Grannie Island!

Because Calum was her great-great-great-grandfather.

And I have that very stone right here!

CHEERING

Well, that brought a tear to my eye. Thank you, Bel!

Alistair and Jane, how's about giving us another tune?!

Eh? Wow!

WHOOPING

We love the ceilidh stories and always want to hear more,

but Grannie Island says the same thing, "Time for another tune!"

And by the time the grown-ups have finished dancing,

we're usually fast asleep.

MUSIC CONTINUES

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd