KEENING - Song of the Stranding

Multidisciplinary Art Project Commemorating a Whale Stranding in the Outer Hebrides

Visual Artist: Sam Gare | Musicians: Nerea Bello, Alex South, Katherine Wren Choreographer: Aya Kobayashi | Audio: Aoife Glass & Francesca Turauskis

SATURDAY 12 JULY 2025

Traigh Mhòr Beach & North Tolsta Community Hall, Isle of Lewis

A collective day of remembrance on Traigh Mhòr beach, honouring the 55 long-finned pilot whales stranded in 2023. Join us as we create sand sculptures of the whales, accompanied by live music shaped by their voices. As the tide returns, the sculptures will be gently reclaimed by the sea.

JOIN IN OR WITNESS

A full day of events with many ways to take part—drop in to cast small sand whales, help sculpt the life-sized whales during the living memorial, send a message to the whales via our ‘Sea Ribbons’ or simply come along and watch as the sculptures take shape and the tide reclaims them.
Explore the project further at events in North Tolsta, including an exhibition, live music, and stories from artists and marine experts.

Keening Song of the Stranding Sam Gare Wooden Mould 3.jpg
Sam Gare Whale 3.jpg
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Keening Song of the Stranding Sam Gare Whale Casting.JPG
Keening Song of the Stranding Sam Gare Wooden Mould 1.JPG
Keening Song of the Stranding Sea Ribbons 2.JPG

Programme of Events

  • SAND SCULPTING WORKSHOP

    THURSDAY 10 JULY

    2:00 - 4:00pm

    Gress Beach, Isle of Lewis

    Join us at Gress Beach for a relaxed, hands-on session where you'll learn how to shape the life-sized sand whales. Meet the artists, explore the process, and try out some of the techniques as we shape one whale together.

    This session is perfect for anyone who wants to be more involved in the making process ahead of the main event. You don’t need to attend this session to take part on the day—there will still be plenty of ways to help, such as moving sand or supporting others. But if you're keen to play a creative role in shaping the whales, we’d love to see you there.

    SIGN UP

  • WHALE BY WHALE - Drop in to make sand whales

    SATURDAY 12 JULY

    11:00am - 1:30pm

    Traigh MhòrBeach, North Tolsta

    Join us to create 55 SMALL sand whale using wooden moulds, each representing a life lost.

    FREE, DROP IN, ALL WELCOME

  • KEENING - SONG OF THE STRANDING - Living Memorial

    SATURDAY 12 JULY

    1:30 - 3:00pm

    Traigh Mhòr Beach, North Tolsta

    Watch the creation of the living memorial as the community come together to create life-size young sand whales, and listen to live music shaped by the voices of whales and lamentation

    Want to do more than watch? why not sign up to take part in creating these whale by coming along to the Prep & Play Gathering on 10 July.

    FREE, DROP IN, ALL WELCOME

  • EXPLORE - Exhibition

    SATURDAY 12 JULY

    10:00am - 4:00pm

    North Tolsta Community Hall

    Discover more about the project and the artists, see the gathering of community and school whales, and learn more about the research work into strandings, marine mammals and those trying save them from SMASS, BDMLR and Aroha seal sanctuary.

    FREE, DROP IN, ALL WELCOME

  • REFLECT - Music and Voices

    SATURDAY 12 JULY

    4:00 - 5:00pm

    North Tolsta Community Hall

    For those who can't make it to the beach, join us for a live musical performance of the music composed for Keening - Song of the Stranding. Also listen audio testimonies from those at the 2023 stranding and reflections from artists.

    FREE, ALL WELCOME

    GET TICKETS

  • WITNESS - The Returning of the Tide

    SATURDAY 12 JULY

    6:00 - 9:00pm(this may vary due to tide)

    7:00pm Live music performance

    Traigh Mhòr Beach

    Come and witness the sand whales be reclaimed by the sea, with a live musical performance at 7:00PM

    FREE, DROP IN, ALL WELCOME

  • "Focusing on creativity and connection, the sand-casting process will reflect the collective physical and emotional effort made by the local community during the original rescue attempt. By casting in sand, we can symbolically breathe life back into these whales, honour their memory and that of the community, before we return them home to the sea”

    Sam Gare, Visual Artist

  • "This project will allow me to explore the musicality of the long-finned pilot whale, whose plangent, ornamented, and repetitive calls are used to negotiate their complex social relationships. I'm really excited to be creating a unique site-specific piece of performance art that we hope will nurture the deep concern held by many for the plight of marine mammals at a time of warming oceans and other anthropogenic threats.”

     

    Alex South, Musician


  • In July 2023, SMASS responded to the stranding of 55 long-finned pilot whales on North Tolsta beach on the Isle of Lewis, which at that time was the largest mass stranding event we had ever responded to. While this is of course a tragic loss of life, these events also provide a very unique opportunity to examine not only why these animals stranded, but also how they lived before the stranding. When Sam and her team reached out about the project we were excited to get involved and contribute the scientific information that underpins the stories of these individual animals that died in the stranding. We are very happy we can share the findings of our research to tell the story of these individuals through Keening: The Song of the Stranding.”

    Mariel T.I. ten Doeschate, Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS)

  • “In 1913, the Natural History Museum (NHM), London, became the birthplace for the recording and study of strandings around the British Isles. For more than a century, the NHM Cetacea research collection has been a repository for material collected as part of those studies, holding skeletons and casts of animals whose lives ended on our shores. Sam Gare’s work reminds us of the human/animal interactions and emotions generated by the loss of these lives. It’s fitting that Sam is working directly with material from the NHM.”

    Richard Sabin, Principal Curator, Mammals, Vertebrates Division, Natural History Museum (NHM), London