02/06/2026
The work of one of the great unsung heroines of Scottish Gaelic song – Frances Tolmie – is celebrated in a new, expanded edition of her seminal collection of songs which has influenced generations of singers from the early 20th century right up to the present day. Championed by one of the contemporary Gaelic world’s leading tradition bearers, singer Kenna Campbell and one of her former students, Ainsley Hamill, Gun Sireadh, Gun Iarraidh (Without Seeking, Without Asking) promises to open Tolmie’s songs and life’s work up to new audiences in this edition, which re-unites songs, lyrics and background, and which returns Frances Tolmie to rightful prominence.
Tolmie was born in the Isle of Skye, to a family associated with the MacLeod chiefs of Dunvegan. She was brought up as part of her uncle’s family following the death of her father, and through them encountered a wide range of literary and cultural figures from across the UK, becoming one of the first women to attend Newnham College at Cambridge University.
Her collection of Gaelic songs was gathered over a lifetime in Gaelic-speaking communities where songs were the life-breath of daily work and play. A core selection was published in London by the English Folk-song Society (now the EFDSS, based at Cecil Sharp House) with the help of English folksong collector Lucy Broadwood, but the songs appeared mostly in translated form, making the collection a tantalising but frustrating introduction to a whole world of Gaelic song, from dance music and children’s playthings to the great classical repertoire of the professional poets and medieval Celtic and Arthurian legend.
Gun Sireadh, Gun Iarraidh is a labour of love over many years for Kenna and Ainsley, who met at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where Kenna – as principal lecturer in Gaelic Song – used the original collection as a source for all her singing students, including Ainsley.
