Until the early 20th century fear of evil was common in the Highlands of Scotland. The devil was real and his dark forces were out to get you. To ward off such entities people carved marks on large lintel stones above doorways and fireplaces in their homes - letters and symbols calling upon the likes of Mother Mary as a divine saviour. But another kind of site was also marked. The evidence is inside a cave at Strath-Steven Cove - scratches made by nomads of the north stretching back over a millennium. The film tracks Brora based researcher, Jacqui Aitken, on foot from Sputie Burn as she reveals the meanings behind the carved marks inside the cave. As Jacquie says: “The Coves have intrigued me since I was a child. I was afraid to look into its gaping dark entrance that seemed to watch me and know what I was thinking. When you’re inside the cave you really get a sense of all the people who have been there before and you wonder what compelled them to scratch their marks all over it. Many people have made the age old pilgrimage to the Coves to seek respite, comfort and security in an often troubled world.”

An insight in to the Highland life of Katherine MacPherson by Last Footsteps of Home film researcher Jacqui Aitken - Last Footsteps of Home is a haunting new short film inspired by the true story of Kate McPherson, a courageous young Scots woman, who is forced to leave her family home during the turbulent Highland Clearances in 1813 and board an emigrant ship bound for the New World. Watch 'Last Footsteps of Home' in full at: https://youtu.be/-ReqBYpEkjM Watch 'Last Footsteps of Home Commentary Version' by writer/director Robert Aitken: https://youtu.be/jqMHFZRAuzA The music featured is from the soundtrack KILDONAN and is available to order on CD & Digital at: robertaitken.bandcamp.com/album/kildonan facebook.com/footsteps1813 #footsteps1813

Last Footsteps of Home is a haunting short film inspired by the true story of Kate McPherson, a courageous young Scots woman, who is forced to leave her family home during the turbulent Highland Clearances in 1813 and board an emigrant ship bound for the New World. It is a story close to the heart of the film’s creator, Robert Aitken, who was born and brought up in Sutherland, a north Scots Highland county ravaged by the Clearances which saw farming tenants brutally evicted from their homes. As Robert explains, “we follow our highland heroine through her own emotional turmoil at the precise point when she is leaving her home, her way of life and her country as we quite literally follow in her Last Footsteps of Home.” This is a commentary Version' by writer/director Robert Aitken.

Last Footsteps of Home is a haunting short film inspired by the true story of Kate McPherson, a courageous young Scots woman, who is forced to leave her family home during the turbulent Highland Clearances in 1813 and board an emigrant ship bound for the New World. It is a story close to the heart of the film’s creator, Robert Aitken, who was born and brought up in Sutherland, a north Scots Highland county ravaged by the Clearances which saw farming tenants brutally evicted from their homes. As Robert explains, “we follow our highland heroine through her own emotional turmoil at the precise point when she is leaving her home, her way of life and her country as we quite literally follow in her Last Footsteps of Home.” COMMENT “This new short film is a tribute to all the many other people who, as a result of the Highland Clearances, were forced to leave their homeland and to make new lives overseas.” JAMES HUNTER – Writer of A Dance Called America’ & ‘Scottish Exodus “It's everything I imagined and more. The music sounds like the North Sea itself!" HEATHER MACLEOD - Scottish Interior Life "Last Footsteps of Home is a universal story of leaving, loss and bravery that will touch your heart and soul. We can all learn something from Katherine's intrepid journey into the unknown. The film poses many affecting questions about human nature and humanity - an experience not to be missed!" JACQUIE AITKEN - Film Researcher “Kate McPherson is a forgotten public heroine here in Canada. This new film shines a light on this intrepid soul. She was among the best and brightest of the Selkirk Settlers and her descendants live here to this day." ALEXANDRA PAUL - Reporter with Winnipeg Free Press "It is a privilege to be involved in this project. It symbolises the determination of we as Scots in the quest for a better life." MOLLY O'BRIEN - Outlander Actress on BBC News MUSIC: The music used in Last Footsteps of home is from the soundtrack KILDONAN. Watch the KILDONAN soundtrack promo below. It has already been chosen to back Oxfam’s Enough Food for Everyone IF international campaign and features in a major new US documentary on the Scottish diaspora entitled, Voices Over the Water. Order KILDONAN on CD & Digital at: https://robertaitken.bandcamp.com/album/kildonan https://www.facebook.com/footsteps1813 #footsteps1813

One of the world’s foremost tapestry artists, Joan Baxter, caught on camera from her home in the far North Highlands of Scotland. Threads from the Deep is an intimate portrait of Baxter covering her early life in Edinburgh, the themes that influence her own distinct style and her thoughts on the self-reflecting aspects of art. As Baxter says: “This film gives me the opportunity to talk about the inspiration that drives the making of my tapestries, about the sense of place so important in the creation of what I call ‘mythscapes’." The film also sets out to highlight that tapestry art, which has existed for many centuries, is one of the purest art forms that records and chronicles life as lore. "I hope this film will give viewers a new understanding of what tapestry is and can be....not a homely textile craft but a rich and flexible mode of creative expression,” Baxter adds.

Utilising NASA footage with additional footage filmed in Highlands of Scotland. Inspired by Rob Aitken’s poem 'I am the Light' - a thought provoking cine-poem that spreads the message that the human species is a single entity. Explains Aitken: “Light Caller doesn't so much ask questions about who and what we are and our place in the universe, but rather sees that we are all made of star-stuff. Man's quest to the heavens is a yearning that has been passed down an ancestral line of cosmic creation since he could gaze up at the night sky. His destiny is out there somewhere - in the womb of his planetary soul.” Written, Directed & Produced by Robert Aitken Narration: Calum Bridges Footage: NASA Film Archive Additional Scenes: Filmed in the Highlands of Scotland

KILDONAN features music influenced by events that took place in the Highlands of Scotland in the early 19th Century, where local people were cleared of their land to make way for Sheep. These events became known as the Highland Clearances. KILDONAN looks at the fierce struggle many Highlanders, whose descendants are now scattered across the globe, suffered in order to eke out a simple existence for themselves and their children. "KILDONAN features all new compositions and arrangements by myself in a very personal collection that has been over two years in the making. There will always be a strong link to the legacy of man throughout the ages in my work - how we have adapted to the highs and lows in this technological age, and, how we treat each other and the land we all share. Above all, KILDONAN aims to connect the past with the present in what I do not see as time immemorial, but the ever moving cycle of life as time orbital. Thanks for listening" Robert Aitken KILDONAN has already featured in: • Music to the official 'Scotland’s Clearances Trail' • Score to the acclaimed new short-film 'Last Footsteps of Home' • Soundtrack to the major upcoming US docudrama 'Voices Over The Water' • Instrumental to Oxfam's global campaign 'Enough Food' Purchase KILDONAN on CD & digital at bandcamp: robertaitken.bandcamp.com/releases

Based on the tone poem of the same name this mico-film is a cautionary tale of the development of digital technology and it's effects on human beings.