Press Kit

A hilarious and multi-dimensional glimpse of Scottish Herbal Magic and Community Traditions with artist and herbal storyteller Amanda Edmiston.

Ever wondered if real plants live up to the chronicled claims in stories?

Fascinated by potions?

Here’s your chance to discover the place where magical memories, community traditions, enchanting tales and helpful herbs meet.

Artist, storyteller and herbalist Amanda Edmiston shares this unique experiential interactive folklore-fed session!

Drawing on stories collected during a series of intergenerational projects exploring recollections of plant use from older generations, blended with traditional Scottish tales from ancient archives and brought to life with delicious and intriguing potions.

This interactive family workshop, aimed at grown-ups and those over 7 (but open to everyone), promises Scottish plant-lore, enchantment, legends and the chance to try some traditional potions!

Workshop Warning: there will be neeps!

Looking into the dark recesses hidden beyond The Time Traveller's Herbal!

Many stories and fragments of folklore offer clues to the origins of cures we have since rationalised with science and clinical empirical research.

We have transformed and cleared the myths from many benevolent remedies, but what other stories lurk at the back of the Apothecary's cabinet?

Join herbal storyteller Amanda Edmiston (Botanica Fabula) as we travel back in time to dust off the dark green bottles, in this piece, inspired by the work done towards the end of the Scottish witch trials by pioneering Scotswoman, the first woman to publish a herbal: Elizabeth Blackwell.

Prepare to be led through a tangled world of fairy tales, folklore, magic, social history and herbal remedies using storytelling techniques, scents and tastes, to look at traditional remedies and hidden science... do you dare join us?

An interactive storytelling performance piece with optional, additional workshop, which takes the life and work of one extraordinary Scotswoman: Elizabeth Blackwell, as it's starting point and inspiration.

In 1737 Blackwell became the first woman to publish a herbal, in order to support herself and her children when her husband was jailed for debts.

She did this at an incredible time, not only were the notorious witch trials just drawing to an end, but middle-class women rarely worked and medical practices were becoming more regulated. Knowledge was being taken from the many and held closely by the privileged few. As new plants were coming into the British materia medica from wealthy botanists’ travels, new information was rarely disseminated. Blackwell did something extraordinary, she drew the plants from life and shared the information in easily affordable weekly instalments.

Herbal storyteller Amanda Edmiston (Botanica Fabula) embellishes Blackwell's story, in this deep dive beyond the remit of the C18th chapter of her book 'The Time Traveller's Herbal', with myths and legends which have for thousands of years shared secrets of healing plants within accessible oral traditions and augments the event with tastes, scents and sounds to create a multisensory experience.

Herbal storyteller Amanda Edmiston (Botanica Fabula) weaves threads connecting ancient myths and legends, to scientific findings.

Creating stories accentuated by multisensory botanical elements to reveal the hidden science often shared in fantastical tales.

Prepare to hear about intrepid ill-fated inventors, incredible ground-breaking women, fabulous age-defying Phoenix, and extraordinary alchemists in this family session, suitable for all ages.

Warning! There may be pungent potions and unusual tastes to explore along the way.