Well, sincere apologies for my neglect of this blog! Two and a half years is a long gap between posts. However it has been a very busy time. My PhD thesis titled Shetland Vernacular Boats 1500-2000 went through the viva voce process in August 2017, with minimal corrections, and I graduated from Aberdeen University in November 2017, hoorah! I am currently in the process of producing an edited version of my thesis which will be published as a book by Shetland Amenity Trust hopefully in the summer of 2020.
During this past year I have been wanting to pursue more research around Shetland’s vernacular maritime history, and I have been struggling to work out how best to achieve this goal. Happily, I am one of a select group of recent Shetland based PhD graduates who are of a similar mindset, and who have complimentary skills and expertise. As a consequence we have begun our own Shetland maritime heritage Community Interest Company (CIC) called Moder Dy. We are a not-for-profit organisation. This does not mean we do not wish, or need to make a profit, of course we do, it just means that any profit we make goes back into Moder Dy and the local community: We will just take a salary from the business. Moder Dy is a limited company by guarantee, which means that there will be no fat cat share dividends or bonuses for us!
So, the combination of not posting a word on this blog for two and a half years, plus, the creation of Moder Dy CIC now makes this blog kinda redundant! This however, I hope, does not mean goodbye. Instead I would like to encourage you to visit us at Moder Dy; have a look around our website, subscribe to our quarterly Newsletter, read our frequent blog posts, and maybe if you are local, or perhaps visiting Shetland, take part in some of our events!
I am very much looking forward to welcoming you to Moder Dy.
With very best wishes,
Marc
The Shetland Boat: History; Folklore & Construction. 